To Heads of Families

Pay attention to the effect of motion pictures on your children,

and listen to the doctor, for he says:

1 — Children must not be deprived of their outing or their sleep in order to attend the cinema.

2 — Most films, even the best of them, repeatedly portray degrading, frightful scenes liable to have a bad effect on immature minds and intellects.

3 — It is established that the child accustomed to attending the cinema shows signs of nervousness and becomes anxious and hard to manage.

Listen to the teacher, for he warns and says:

1 — The natural fault of children during their lessons is inattention. This fault increases perceptibly in children accustomed to attending films: you see them attending to their lessons only in a hurried and superficial fashion.

2 — The screen drama that ought to be shown only to adults exposes children to dangers of various kinds, among them that their minds turn toward the path of corruption.

3 — Most films present the child with false knowledge.

Listen to the judge, for he says:

Many films corrupt the child's morals and drag him into committing scandals and crimes.

In consequence, we advise you:

First: not to allow your children who have not passed the age of seven or eight to enter the cinema houses.

Second: to choose, for those past that age, films that are not harmful. You must inquire beforehand into the nature of the films by means of the critical, moral press.

And O heads of families:

You protest to the shopkeeper if he sells you foodstuffs harmful to health. Why, then, do you not protest to the owners of the cinema houses for corrupting your children's morals by showing their films that are harmful to the soul?