PG-13 becomes the New Rated R

by Michelle Tejada, staff reporter

PG-13 movies have become the new rated R. PG-13 stands for parental guidance and that suggests that the film may be inappropriate for children under 13. While for rated R movies it is required to be 17 and up. This is because of the presence of adult scenes, foul language and other profanities.  

“Movies should be rated better because you watch a pg-13 movie now-a-days and you hear bad language and see nudity,” freshman Maryann Dominguez said.

Rated R movies are similar in many ways to PG-13 movies. They contain a lot of dirty words, violence, nudity and even sexual content. This has kids thinking that it’s okay. They believe that they are allowed to watch it because the rating says thirteen and up.

The Advertising Administration of the MPAA rate films with parents on their side. These parents rate the film based on what they believe their children can watch, without being disturbed. Although they think about the children, these people evolve with society, so the way they view a movie and rate them can changes over time.

“No, I don’t think that movies changed as long as society’s view changes as well as movies then it matches up. As long as that happens it’s okay,” senior Adriana Añez said.

World War Z was a pg-13 thriller about zombies taking over the world. As it can be imagined it was very violent. Thirteen year olds were able to watch this at the movies. Fast and Furious 7 another rated pg-13 has a lot of action and violence.

“Any movie with any extreme violence, bad words and adult scenes should be rated properly because thirteen year olds should not be watching that stuff,” senior Marcela Abanto said.
Not only does the MPAA rate movies with the help of parents. Parents rate movies on a site called Kids-in-mind. They have a bunch of movies and determine the rating based on the level of sex/nudity, violence/gore, and profanity. Anybody could help out and give their opinion on what they think the movie should be rated.