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MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) Ratings System
G – General Audience
This is a film which contains nothing which
would, in the view of the MPAA Rating Board, be
offensive to parents whose younger children view the film.
PG – Parental Guidance Suggested
The theme of a PG-rated film may itself call for
parental guidance. There may be some profanity
in these films. There may be some violence or brief nudity. But these
elements are not deemed so intense as to require that parents be strongly
cautioned beyond the suggestion of parental guidance. There is no drug
use content in a PG-rated film.
PG-13 – Parents Strongly Cautioned
A PG-13 film is one which, in the view of
the MPAA Rating Board, leaps beyond the
boundaries of the PG rating in theme, violence, nudity, sensuality, language,
or other contents, but does not quite fit within the restricted R category.
Any drug use content will initially require at least a PG-13 rating.
R – Restricted
An R-rated film may include hard language, or
tough violence, or nudity within sensual scenes,
or drug abuse or other elements, or a combination of some of the above,
so that parents are counseled to take this advisory rating very seriously.
NC-17 – No Children 17 or Under
NC-17 does not necessarily mean “obscene
or pornographic” in the often accepted or legal
meaning of those words. The MPAA Review Board does not and cannot
mark films with those words. These are legal terms and for courts to
decide. The reasons for the application of an NC-17 rating can be violence
or sex or aberrational behavior or drug abuse or any other elements which,
when present, most parents would consider too strong and therefore off-
limits for viewing by their children.
Movie Ratings
