WASHINGTON—President Clinton intensified his domestic offensive against Hollywood with a new initiative and a message for theater-owners: Get serious about ID checks.

But media watchdogs and under-17 moviegoers are skeptical of the president's plan to reform theaters. They say it's not likely to keep kids out.

“The movie rating system, adopted by the Motion Picture Association of America in 1968, can be a useful tool for parents, but only if its main restrictive rating, R, is effectively enforced,” the president said June 8.

Robert Regier, a senior policy analyst at the Family Research Council, said that Clinton's moral crusade against the film industry is suspect, given his close relationship with Hollywood's elite.

Regier said the new enforcement of ratings is “a step in the right direction,” but argued that because it doesn't stop kids at theater doors, it falls short. “After buying tickets at the counter, kids can go wherever they want,” Regier said. “Clinton should ask owners to take tickets at theater doors.”

On a recent Saturday evening at the Union Station mall in Washington, D.C., the Register asked young people just how difficult it would be for them to get into an R-rated film.

Fabian Braneli, a 17-year-old exchange student from Germany, has spent the past year living in Texas with a host family.

“In El Paso, I am almost always carded,” Braneli said. But he added, “If [the president] really wants to keep kids out of R-rated movies, he should make sure they are carded at the entrance to theaters, not at ticket counters.” Braneli said that when he and some friends took younger dates to an R-rated movie, they simply bought all four tickets.

One of Fabian's friends, Robert Bettermann, also from Germany, is 16. He says he has picture ID, but is never asked to show it when going to an R-rated movie. After consulting with one-another, his friends agreed that Bettermann looks younger than 17.

Laura, a 14-year-old from Idaho, recounted the time that she and five of her friends went to see an R-rated movie and were turned away. Not a big disappointment, however, since she had already seen the film with her parents at home. Her folks, she said, aren't all that concerned about the movies she sees.

The President's Plan

Movies have been under increased scrutiny since the Columbine High School massacre in Littleton, Colo., April 20. A recent Gallup poll said that 73% of the Americans surveyed think that movies and television are at least partly to blame for the rampages of teen-agers with guns.

Clinton's plan for stricter enforcement of ID checks is the latest of several recent presidential engagements in the culture wars (see chart). It was explained at the White House when Clinton gathered with executives from the National Association of Theater Owners to announce that the association's members — who control 65% of American screens — have agreed to cooperate, on a voluntary basis, with the president's plan to enforce ratings.

The threefold initiative involves:

• a new national policy under which theater owners will require photo identification for young people seeking admission to R-rated movies;

• an educational program for parents about the ratings system;

• theater owner support for a national study on the causes of violence.

In remarks prepared for the occasion, the president said, “Under the policy announced today, the theater owners association states that from now on, all of its members should require photo identification at the box office of young patrons not accompanied by a parent or guardian seeking admission to R-rated films.”

Brent Bozell, chairman of the Media Research Council in Washington, said of the plan, “It's a good step, but it's symbolic. We have to find a way to confront the real problem, the garbage that's being produced. Even some PG-13- and PG-rated movies contain terrible messages for young people.”

Steve Schwalm, director of operations for the Parents Television Council in Washington, expects little to come from the president's initiative. He pointed to a discrepancy between the way the federal government dealt with tobacco restrictions, where vendors are prosecuted for selling to minors, and initiatives aimed at regulating the film industry. “What they did with cigarettes is quite a bit different, by enforcing it with the power of law,” Schwalm said.

Meanwhile …

Rashid, a freshman at a public school in Maryland, had come to Union Station to see the newest Austin Powers movie. Is he ever asked to show ID?

“Sometimes,” he said, “but usually when I go to see an R-rated movie, they just size me up and let me in. It depends on the place, and what kind of person you are.”

He said, “You won't have a problem if you can come up with excuses like, ‘Oh, I forgot my ID at home,’” and mentioned that when he has been turned down a couple of times, a friend or a stranger in the theater has then bought the ticket for him. He said his parents don't mind what he sees, “as long as they've taught you the difference between reality and fiction.”

What do theater owners and movie distributors think of those who criticize the plans?

National Association of Theater Owners spokeswoman Mary Ann Grasso and other officials at the organization refused to speak to the Register. But one distribution chief, quoted in the June 15 edition of The New York Times, said, “The dirty little secret of the distribution business is that with 16, 18, 24 plexes, kids show up and buy tickets for a PG-13 movie and see the one that's R-rated. The staff is at the concession stand and the ticket office, not the theater door. Kids will see whatever they want to see.”

“This is a Band-Aid solution,” said Schwalm. “The real issue is content.” Schwalm called the plan to enforce age restrictions on filmgoers “a little too little, a little too late.”

“These restrictions have been here since 1968 and only now they are enforcing them,” he said.

Brian McGuire writes from Washington, D.C.

John Prizer contributed to this article