As the mother of three kids of various ages, I am often in the position of making the decision about whether or not to allow my kids to watch a certain movie. I also have to monitor what my kids watch when they have friends over, and to ensure that all movies they watch are OK-ed by their friends’ parents, too.
Of course, the first question that comes up, as you can imagine is, “What is that rated?” Movie ratings seem to be a great catch-all factor for parents to use in deciding if a movie is appropriate for their kids to watch. Yet many people have criticized the movie industry over the years because the ratings don’t seem to be applied uniformly at all. Some movies you may watch and wonder why it got a certain rating because it’s not “bad” at all. With other movies, you may have chosen them for the rating and then found them to be entirely inappropriate in some way despite the rating.
The Fallacy of Relying on Movie Ratings
I know some parents who absolutely forbid their kids from watching PG movies without being present themselves, as these are rated with the suggestion of “Parental Guidance.” Likewise, they won’t allow their children to watch PG-13 movies until the child’s thirteenth birthday, and so forth. This may be what the movie ratings are intended to be used for, but the fact is that movie ratings are certainly not doled out in some systematic fashion. They are granted to movies based on personal opinion by a small number of people. If this group is particularly liberal, a movie may get a different rating than a similar movie rated by a conservative group.
Making Your Decision
Of course, parents often don’t have time to pre-screen every movie their children watch beforehand, and so movie ratings generally seem like a good foundation to base your decision on. Another option, however, is to read through a few reviews on the movie first to explore subject matter and to get more detailed opinions about the movie. While a movie rating is often just a few letters and possibly numbers, a review may explore if an individual thought that the topics were too risque, the images too crude, and so forth, and they will often give you specific examples so that you can make a more informed decision. These reviews also give you the ability to explore the frame of mind and liberal or conservative leanings of the reviewer, too.
Personal Thoughts
As a child, I grew up watching a wide variety of shows, and in hindsight I can see that some of the things I was permitted to watch were inappropriate. Yet I didn’t grow up to be a mass murderer or any of those other fears one might have if their child spends an hour or two watching a specific movie. With my own kids, I personally don’t let them watch horror movies because I don’t want them to have nightmares, and I don’t let them watch movies with inappropriate romantic scenes because that would just make them and me uncomfortable given their ages right now. Beyond that, though, they hear crude words out and about, and even in their own school. They are exposed to all types of topics and issues in the real world, and they do not live in a bubble. Most of the movies they are actually interested in seeing are not inappropriate in subject matter anyway, and so while I do look into the movies they ask to watch, largely they are allowed to watch the movies that cater to them as kids. They know that what they see is put on the screen for entertainment purposes, and that most of it is just not realistic in the real world.
Here are a few other articles written by this author:
How Positive is Your Parenting?
Helping Your Kids Through Fights with Friends
Kids and Friend Drama: When to Step In
