Scotsman Archive

A ban on children under seven going to the cinema if not accompanied by an adult is one of a number of proposals made by the Departmental Committee on Children and the Cinema in their report published yesterday. Five should be the minimum age for child cinema-goers, whether accompanied or not, the committee states, and no unaccompanied child under 12 should remain in the cinema after 8pm. The committee, which was appointed in 1947, found broadly that the cinema has no primary share or responsibility for delinquency and moral laxity which are due "to deeper and subtler influences". But they feel that there is a likelihood that the cinema is a factor. The committee recommends statutory provisions to safeguard the welfare of children at all cinemas. Classification of films should be entrusted to a central committee on children and the cinema, and this should be given legal effect.

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