Hays Code from the movie industry was eased in 1956.

No picture shall be produced that will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin.

—General Principle #1 of MPPDA’s Production Code

In an effort to avoid government censorship and to satisfy public demand for morally acceptable movies, the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America was created, and in 1930 adopted a form of self-censorship called the Production Code. The heads of the organization hired former U.S. Postmaster General William H. Hays to head up the efforts to develop the new guidelines. He became so closely associated with the project that the code became most commonly known as the “Hays Code.” The Code prohibited the portrayal of illegal drug trafficking, profanity and what it termed "sex perversion." It also prohibited the portrayal of clergy members as villains and the portrayal of interracial relationships. From 1930 until the mid-1950s, the code was observed, influencing the content of the films Hollywood produced. During this period, these films more closely matched the public values of the time, but as society began to undergo change in the 50s, the Code began to liberalize. Within a decade after the first easing of the Code in 1956, the first film to use profanity was released. Shortly thereafter, the Code was dropped in favor of the movie ratings system. This system, still in use today, underwent changes in 1970, 1984 and 1990, leading to the current ratings of G (general audience), PG (parental guidance suggested), PG-13 (some material may be inappropriate for children under 13), R (no one under 17 admitted without a parent or guardian) and NC-17 (formerly X).

ReadWriteThink
In Censorship in the Classroom: Understanding Controversial Issues (9–12), students examine propaganda and media bias and explore a variety of banned and challenged books, researching the reasons these books have been censored. Following this research, students choose a side of the censorship issue and support their position through the development of an advertising campaign.

In Writing a Movie: Summarizing and Rereading a Film Script (3–5), students view a videotape or DVD of a film segment that has a great deal of action and little or no dialogue. After viewing the segment, students write and read aloud a descriptive summary of the scene. As a final project, students give a performance in which they read their written summary while showing the film in the background.

Literature Circle Roles Reframed: Reading as a Film Crew (6–8) transfers students' enthusiasm for film to reading and literature by substituting film production roles for the traditional literature circle roles.

Illuminations
For an interesting look at the power of film or movies to influence people's perceptions or understanding, use the lesson Multiplying Integers Using Videotape (6–8) to see how students were able to learn the concept of multiplying positive and negative numbers by creating a film experiment that helped them envision positive and negative yields in multiplication.