Letter: Horror films not to blame for social and moral collapse

Sir: Bryan Appleyard is surely right to say that the need to make and the desire to consume violent or pornographic films are symptoms of a contemporary sickness, and equally right to say that, sadly, the only honest answer is censorship. It may not deter the most avid of the supporters of this sick habit from seeking the material they crave, but it may protect those not yet contaminated.

France has taken the matter a step further - it is trying to win a worldwide curb on TV violence, and its communications minister Alain Carignon told the Paris parliament that it is a clear duty to avoid what happens in the United States where, by the age of six, a boy has already watched 6,000 crimes and offences on TV. The French are to seek international regulations to avoid violent films that break French law being broadcast into France. It is an example we could emulate.

Yours sincerely,

JUDITH TOMS

Trecynon, Mid-Glamorgan

2 December