You may give the OK for your child to see a PG-13 movie, thinking the content is age-appropriate. However, according to a new study, when it comes to some risky behaviors on-screen there’s little difference between PG-13 and R-rated flicks.
Amy Bleakley, a research scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, authored the study. She said she found that a PG-13 rating by the Motion Picture Association of America doesn’t always stop the kind of material parents may think it does.
“We found that there was really no difference between PG-13 and R-rated movies with regards to which the extent of this content is featured,” she said, “except with tobacco and explicit sex, which is more common in R-rated movies.”
The study looked at 400 of the top-grossing movies released from 1985 to 2010. In nine out of 10, on average, the movies showed a main character involved in violence, and in nearly eight of 10 movies, the main character was in scenes showing other risky behavior.
Bleakley said the big question, even after releasing this study, revolves around how children process what they see at the movies – and whether they are more likely to act out on a broad range of risky behaviors.
“We know that when kids see just tobacco on-screen, they’re more likely to initiate smoking,” she said, “and when they see alcohol on-screen they’re more likely to drink, and so on – but we don’t know the effect of these clustered behaviors. So, that’s our next step – we want to try and find that out.”
Parents can review the Motion Picture Association of America’s definitions of what it intends each rating category to mean here .
