The Movie Rating System
... “T” for teen, “MA” for mature. Because of this classifying the formation of several rating boards and offices, which legislatively discuss and enforce their decisions as to what rating will be given to a certain title, have been formed. One such group is the MPAA or The Motion Picture Association of America. The MPAA supervises a board of 8 to 13 members who work for the CARA, or the Classification and Rating Administration. The MPAA President (Jack Valenti) chooses the Chairman of the Rating Board. Board members are chosen from U.S. society and must meet the qualifications of having a "parenthood experience" and possessing an "intelligent maturity”. They meet in Los Angeles, California, and apply the following ratings to films: G General Audiences. All ages admitted. PG Parental Guidance Suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children. PG-13 Parents Strongly Cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. R Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian. NC-17 No one 17 and under admitted. One may wonder, however, what do these ratings specifically mean? What makes a G rated movie rated G, and what makes an R rated movie rated R? How do you classify one from the other? Well, the practical answer to the questions above would be: COMMON SENSE. But a more reasonable and thoughtful answer would be as follows… Rated G. General Audience. All ages admitted. This signifies that the film rated contains nothing most parents will consider offensive for even their youngest children to see or hear. Nudity, sex scenes, and scenes of drug use are absent; violence is minimal; snippets of dialogue may go beyond polite conversation but do not go beyond common everyday expressions. Rated PG. Parental Guidance Suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children. This signifies that the film rated may contain some material parents might not like to expose to their young children - material that will clearly need to be examined or inquired about before children are allowed to attend the film. Explicit sex scenes and scenes of drug use are absent; nudity, if present, is seen only briefly, horror and violence do not exceed moderate levels. Rated PG-13. Parents Strongly Cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. This signifies that the film rated may be inappropriate for pre-teens. Parents should be especially careful about letting their younger children attend. Rough or persistent violence is absent; sexually-oriented nudity is generally absent; some scenes of drug use may be seen; one use o...