Report of the Departmental Committee on Children and the Cinema
H.M. Stationery Office. 3s.
The Report of the Departmental Committee on Children and the Cinema presented to Parliament in May, 1950, is a masterpiece of lucidity. From an amount of material ” at first sight overwhelming “, there has emerged a clear, concise and extremely readable and interesting account of the present position of children and the cinema. From this two points stand out above the rest : the large number of children affected and the importance of the cinema in many of their lives. Statistical tables drawn up from information given by different bodies give interesting facts about the attendance of different age groups, and the account of Film Appreciation courses brings to light the information and interest that the children have. ” The teacher or groupleader who begins by discussing films is appealing immediately to a field of mental and emotional experience which is part of the normal everyday life of most of those in his class.”
One defect of the Report, an inevitable one at this date, is that it has had to base its recommendations almost entirely on opinions. These were informed and given disinterestedly, but their great variety and contradictory nature makes the whole of Section IV (Effects of Cinema Attendance on Children Under Sixteen), of doubtful value. On the question, for instance, of the influence of the cinema in promoting juvenile delinquency, the committee can only conclude, ” the link of cause and effect is unproved’in a majority of cases and we remain of the opinion that deeper, subtler and more various influences are at workEven this guarded conclusion was not found satisfactory to one member who felt bound to add a memorandum ?an illustration of the indefinite quality of this part of the Report and the inability of the Committee to give much guidance here.
The Committee was conscious of the lack of factual information, and in several paragraphs it urges the need for scientifically based investigation, and at the end of the Summary of Recommendations is one headed ” Research It may be that the terms of reference did not allow for the section called ‘’ Suggestions for Research ” to be included otherwise than as an Appendix, but the impression is frequently received that though due deference is paid to “research”, the opinions of experienced men serve this imperfect world very well as a good secondbest.
Where facts were available, the Committee has produced an excellent report alike in its wide survey of the problems and its comprehensiveness. But it was asked to report on the effects of attendance at the cinema on children and to make recommendations, and one may wonder whether it was not given an impossible task, when reliance could only be on opinion and that proved to be a most unsure guide. P.E.W.
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