PG-13 Movies

Have you been to the movies lately? You have probably noticed that each movie has a rating. The ratings are meant to be guidelines for viewers, to explain levels of violence, language, and other characteristics of movies. The rating system was set up to prevent children from being exposed to inappropriate or intensive scenes or story lines. It seems that these days the rating is used to entice movie fans to go to a movie, as opposed to avoiding a movie.

Adding the PG-13 rating has allowed movie producers to avoid the strict standards of the ratings system. It seems that if a movie wanted to add more violence or bad language but not get the R rating, movie producers would go for the PG-13 rating. Exactly what is the difference between the R rating and the PG-13 rating? As far as I can see, there isn’t one.

At one time, the R rating meant that it was not appropriate for children under a certain age. In fact, they were not allowed into the theater without an adult. Now, not only can children go to the movie without an adult, but also movie producers change the rating to PG-13 so that more kids can attend. By using the PG-13 rating, just about anything goes. When will movie executives and producers be held to a high standard again? Kids are seeing worse things on the big screen than they’ve ever seen before. What’s next: a PG-8 rating?