Already, many concert venue owners are employing their own ratings systems, often adapting the scheme used for movies. And at least two states are considering legislation that would mandate concert ratings.
Concerts are merely the latest medium to fall into the ratings frenzy.
In the last year, content indicators were added to the television ratings, Congress stepped up pressure on the recording industry to provide precise content information on record labels, and the Clinton administration has pushed for all Internet sites to be rated for content, especially kid-friendliness. But free speech advocates warn that ratings systems are not innocuous. It is this type of institutionalization of morality that the First Amendment was intended to prevent. Nevertheless, many private concert venue owners see voluntarily rating concerts as the only way to avoid a labeling scheme being forced on them. And managers of large venues such as the Delta Center in Salt Lake City and the Alltel Arena in Little Rock assert that parents want such systems.