Going to the movies has been a pastime for Americans for many years now and have changed a lot over the years. With the changing times comes more movies pushing the envelope of what is or is not socially acceptable and with this we need our ratings system more than ever.
Our movie ratings system helps out parents more than anyone else because it gives them a warning of what to expect that the 30 second commercial on television cannot. Most parents feel comfortable with their children watching “G” rated movies anywhere because they expect these movies to portray good morals and values that other movies don’t have. The “G” Rating is strictly for childrens movies. “PG” rated movies are childrens movies that aren’t as wholesome as the “G” rated movies, but still send positive messages to children and do not allow any swear words or sexual scenes at all.
The next set of ratings is somewhat disturbing because the people who rate the movies are in a way deciding what a 13 year old child can see without a parent, and sometimes the content is not fit for young teens to be viewing. “PG-13″ rated movies are available for children 13 and older to buy a ticket without an adult. This is somewhat disturbing because the only real difference between is the amount of gore, nudity, and violence. The ”PG-13″ movies still have strong sexual scenes without nudity which is nothing that a thirteen year old needs to see. The “R” rating means restricted, which means that nobody under the age of 17 can buy a ticket to these movies. These movies can be pretty much as gory, foul-languaged and sexually explicit as they want without crossing a line that would make it not in good taste.
These rating systems for the most part do their job, but still need some re-working to make the distance between “PG-13″ and “R” rated movies a little larger.