Answer:

By e-mailing letters@pluggedinonline.com

By calling (800) A-FAMILY (232-6459)

By writing Plugged In, Focus on the Family, Colorado Springs, CO 80995

When you e-mail or write a letter, please include your full name and where you live. E-mails and letters will be answered by Focus on the Family's correspondence team before being forwarded to the Plugged In editors. By writing to Plugged In, you are granting us permission to reprint your comments (wholly or in part).

Answer: Primarily, we base our picks on popularity. The more people a film, TV show, game or song touches in the culture, the more interested we are in reviewing it. We also pay quite a bit of attention to niche products that generate a lot of cultural "buzz." (These releases tend to create a great deal of influence on the direction our culture is headed.) And we closely track what kinds of reviews our readers are most interested in—based on traffic patterns and searches made on the site. So if, for instance, our review of a Disney Channel show is read by a lot of people, we give more attention to other Disney series. Additionally, we strongly factor in the e-mails and letters you send to us.

Answer: According to a poll of Plugged In Online readers, 70% watch R-rated movies. Additionally, since many R films target teens (especially raunchy comedies and horror flicks), our reviews help families navigate this prominent area of the culture. By reading our reviews, parents gain a clearer understanding of what Hollywood is aiming at their kids, and what their children's peers are consuming. Also, by having a content breakdown of R movies, parents can articulate why a particular film fails to meet the family standard. Beyond observing a "label," this reinforces moral boundaries for adolescents.

A California mom alluded to this benefit when she told us, "Last weekend my son, age 16, saw a very disgusting film at a friend's home. Only after that did I find your website. This created a very meaningful two-hour discussion with him on values and media choices. However, the next weekend he asked to go see another R-rated film. We said 'no.' My son then asked, 'How about if I check it out on that website Mom likes?' My husband, smiling, said, 'Sure!' A few minutes later my son emerged from the office and said, 'You guys wouldn't want me to see it.'"

Answer: No. Because most unrated video versions of films add negative content, we feel that our review of the rated version continues to do the job it was intended to do—help families make discerning choices about the entertainment they consume. There is rarely a good reason for families to intentionally watch a film with more negative content in it than the original release contains.

Answer: Not all theatrical releases are made available to us before they hit the cineplex. But even when we do get to screen a movie early, a professional code of ethics called an "embargo" requires that we wait until either the day of or the day before its release to post our review. We realize that not all reviewers abide by this, but it's important to us that Plugged In Online operate with integrity, both in the way we write our reviews and the way we publish them.

Answer: Our reviews are provided as a service to families to assist them as they set standards for acceptable entertainment in their homes. They aren't provided to create black-and-white lists of which films are OK and which aren't. Assigning star ratings or letter grades would essentially do that.

Also, things get complicated really fast when someone decides to rate a movie. If, for instance, we were to give a film a "B," to whom does that B apply? Adults? Teens? Tween? Young children? And even if we created a different rating for all of those categories, parents are well aware that not all 12-year-olds, for instance, are alike, and shouldn't be lumped together. Another variable is the degree to which parents plan to engage a child and discuss the material together—a very different experience than leaving a child to sort through messages and images alone.

We want to make our reviews convenient (which is why we usually divide sexual content, foul language, violence, etc. into separate sections), but we don't want to short-circuit the discernment process by assigning labels that don't tell the whole story. We've concluded that the best way to serve families is with detailed, qualitative reviews that let you set the standards for acceptable entertainment in your own home.

Answer: We almost always choose to review the unedited version. The so-called purifying process used on "clean" CDs and downloads is usually nothing more than the bleeping (or overdubbing) of some of the most egregious obscenities. In the case of gangsta rap, the censor might also excise words such as "murder," "drive-by" and "bullets," along with extreme references to drug use. But savvy listeners can easily fill in the blanks. A teen named Alicia wrote us, "Some of my friends have gotten the edited version of Eminem and they think it's OK. But it's not like you don't know what's being cut out."

Answer: Focus on the Family's "Family Safety" page is a good place to start.

Answer: Focus on the Family provides a limited number of Book Reviews for Parents in the parenting section of focusonthefamily.com. New reviews are added regularly, and you can send your book review requests to reviewrequests@family.org.

Answer: Yes. Just visit the Family Room section of this website. Click on the bar labeled "Media Discernment" to see our featured articles, as well as an archive of others that may be helpful.