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In 1922, the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) was created to ensure that American films had a "clean moral tone". At the time, there were several censorship boards that “edited Hollywood films to limit the onscreen portrayal of violence and sexuality” (wiki). This had a negative impact on the film industry because the audiences become uninterested in films that were edited to the point of incomprehensibility. The MPPDA spoke out against this public censorship and, in 1930, created a Production Code that had moral guidelines that explained what should and should not be included in films. “The code prohibited inclusion of ‘scenes of passion’ unless they were essential to a film's plot, ‘pointed profanity’ in either word or action, ‘sex perversion’, justification or explicit coverage of adultery, sympathetic treatment of crime or criminals, dancing with ‘indecent’ moves, and white slavery (The Calgary).
In 1966, Jack Valenti, ex- aide to President Lyndon Johnson, became president of the newly named MPAA (Kirby Dick). Valenti replaced the Production Code with a system of voluntary film ratings, so that the censorship of Hollywood films would disappear and so that parents could understand how appropriate a certain film is for their children. In 1990, Valenti also removed the "X" rating, due to the fact that the public had begun associating it with pornography, and replaced it with "NC-17” (Kirby Dick).
Since 1968, the United States has used Valenti’s system of voluntary film ratings. What is strange about this system is that it is comprised of an anonymous group of parents that rate movies but they do not disclose who rates or how they rate movies. Joel Federman, author of Media Ratings explains, “I’ve look...

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...ntrol. Of course, the MPAA gives these conglomerates preference when their movies are being rated. Matt Stone, producer of South Park gives a personal statement of how studios are favored and independent filmmakers are targeted by the MPAA:
[The MPAA] deny it but they serve the studios. That is who pays them, that is who they are. When we did “Orgazmo” in 2000 as independent filmmakers, they gave us an NC-17. When we got on the phone and the MPAA guy said it was for the overall sexual content. We asked if there was anything we could cut to get an R and he said that they don’t give specific notes because that would make them a censorship organization. Five years later, when I did the movie South Park working for Paramount Pictures, we got a phone call saying that we had an NC-17. This time, however, they gave us an extremely specific list of what needed to be cut.”