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The New Zealand government has created a new rating for the Netflix series \u201c13 Reasons Why\u201d that says a parent or guardian must be present when it is viewed\u00a0by teens\u00a0under 18.<\/p>\n
The show revolves around a high school student, Hannah, who\u00a0records 13 audiotapes before killing herself that name the people she believes are responsible for her death. While Netflix has content warnings before episodes with especially graphic or upsetting scenes, New Zealand\u2019s new classification means that it will also need to display a warning about the entire series.<\/p>\n
The country\u2019s Office of Film and Literature Classification already had\u00a0two ratings, RP13 and RP16, that restrict viewing for children\u00a0under 13 and 16. A statement on the classification office\u2019s blog<\/a> said it considered using the RP16 rating, but \u201cthese classifications would not address the harm caused to 16 and 17 year olds (who are statistically at greater risk of suicide.\u201d Instead, it created RP18 specifically for \u201c13 Reasons Why,\u201d but may use the rating again in the future<\/a>.<\/p>\n Based on a novel by Jay Asher and produced by Selena Gomez, \u201c13 Reasons Why\u201d has been well-received by critics and viewers, but also triggered controversy for how it depicts sexual assault and suicide. In the United States, for example, educational organizations, including the National Association of School Psychologists and several public school districts, have issued warnings to parents about the show<\/a>.<\/p>\n The classification office says it took action partly because New Zealand has one of the highest suicide rates among the 35 countries in the OECD. \u00a0While conceding that \u201c13 Reasons Why\u201d has \u201csignificant merit\u201d for addressing difficult but important topics like suicide, rape, bullying, and slut-shaming, the classification office also said \u201cthe show ignores the relationship between suicide and the mental illness that often accompanies it. People often commit suicide because they are unwell, not simply because people have been cruel to them. It is also extremely damaging to present rape as a \u2018good enough\u2019 reason for someone to commit suicide. This sends the wrong message to survivors of sexual violence about their futures and their worth.\u201d<\/p>\n The office added that \u201c\u201913 Reasons Why\u2019 does not follow international guidelines for responsible representations of suicide. The scene depicting Hannah\u2019s suicide is graphic, and explicitly about the method of suicide she uses, to the point where it could be considered instructional.\u201d<\/p>\n New Zealand is not the first country that has tried to legislate teens\u2019\u00a0behavior online. In 2015, Taiwan passed a law requiring parents to limit the amount of screen time kids under 18 get<\/a>, while South Korea has had a \u201cshutdown\u201d law that forbids teenagers from playing online games between midnight and 6AM. But such laws are challenging to enforce and last year, South Korea revised the law to give parents more leeway<\/a>.<\/p>\n Controlling what teenagers see online is, of course, extremely difficult, even with tools like Netflix\u2019s parental controls<\/a>. The difference between New Zealand\u2019s rating and other laws that try to control what parents or guardians let their kids do online, however, is that the rating may actually prompt helpful discussions between adults and teens, even if many of them will still be watching whatever they want on Netflix without supervision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"\"](\"https:\/\/tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com\/2017\/04\/13reasonswhy.jpg?w=680\")
The New Zealand government has created a new rating for the Netflix series “13 Reasons Why” that says a parent or guardian must be present when it is viewed by teens under 18. Read More<\/a><\/p>\n\n<\/img><\/a>
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