PG-13 = Not Safe for Kids

PG-13 means Hollywood says a film is fine for children 13 and over, although parents should decide whether or not the movie is OK for younger kids.

But flics rated PG-13 may not be suitable for youngsters of any age, suggests a new study.

"Violence permeated nearly 90 percent of the films in this study," says Theresa Webb, a researcher in the department of epidemiology and the Southern California Injury Prevention Research Center at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Health Sciences unit.

"And while the explanations and causes of youth violence are very complex, the evidence is clear that media depictions of violence contribute to the teaching of violence."

This is especially true where the average young person accesses different kinds of visual media for as long as eight hours a day, says Webb.

Borrowing from late communications theorist George Gerbner, happy violence is "cool, swift, and painless," but, "PG-13 films don’t consider the consequences of violent acts, such as injury, death, and the shattered lives of the people involved," says the study.

why does this matter ?

Simple, say Webb and her colleagues in their report, published in the June issue of the journal Pediatrics.

Youth violence, "is a commonplace occurrence in American society," estate.

"Homicide is the second leading cause of death among 15- to 24-year-olds overall. And media depictions of violence help teach such acts to children, leading to three effects-increased aggression, fear for their own safety, and a desensitization toward the pain and suffering of others."

In a sample of 77 PG-13 rated films, 2,251 violent actions were recorded with almost half resulting in death, says the study, going on :

"Although only a small subset of this content contained violence that was associated with negative effects such as pain and suffering, only one film - ’Pay it Forward’ - in which the young hero is stabbed to death, contained violence that would demonstrate to youthful viewers how horrific violence can be.

The researchers sampled all PG-13 rated films from the 100 top-grossing movies of 1999 and 2000 as established by the Hollywood Reporter.

The research follows up on a 2005 study they conducted that looked at movie violence in all the ratings categories established by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

"In that study, they found that parents using the ratings system to gauge movie content receive little meaningful guidance related to violent content," says the UCLA health sciences department.

This time around the researchers selected the PG-13 category, "because it has become a repository for action films," it adds.

"These films," says Webb, "are often the largest budgeted ones made by the Hollywood film industry and have also been found to be equally, if not more, violent than R-rated films."

And she faults Hollywood saying its only commitment is to transport and entertain viewers, but in no way to edify or transform them.

"That’s a cop-out," she declares. "The science is clear that viewers do, in fact, learn from entertainment media. Indeed, popular films can act as powerful teachers engaging children and youths emotionally, even physiologically, in ways that teachers in classrooms could only hope."

Worse, Webb says the MPAA rating system, which runs from "G" for general audiences to NC-17 (under 17 not admitted), has in recent years been subject to "ratings creep" a film that would have been rated R 10 years ago is now being rated PG-13.

But the report goes further than merely criticising Hollywood. It also gives examples of sites which offer more comprehensive reviews of violence (and sex) in the movies than the MPAA ratings.

These include Kids-in-Mind (http://www.kids-in-mind.com/), PSVratings (http://www.familymediaguide.com/ind...), and Screen It ! (http://www.screenit.com/subscribers...). She and her colleagues caution parents against allowing unsupervised viewing of films, calls on pediatricians and public health professionals to continue their advocacy role for a more child-friendly media environment, and most of all, for the film industry and its rating board to recognize their medium does indeed have an influence on young viewers. (The MPAA does not define its rating system as scientific or objective, but rather as a collective judgment from a group of parents.)