Ratings Creep

This should be no surprise to anyone over the age of, say, six. The Harvard School of Public Health has released a new report asserting that MPAA ratings have become more lax over the last ten years:

The study of 1,906 feature films between 1992 and 2003 found more violence and sex in PG movies (“Parental guidance suggested”) and more of those elements and profanity in PG-13 movies (“Parents strongly cautioned”). It also found more sex and profanity in R-rated movies (“Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian”) than a decade ago.

“When you look at the average, today’s PG-13 movies are approaching what the R movies looked like in 1992,” said Kimberly Thompson, associate professor of risk analysis and decision science at Harvard’s School of Public Health, who was a co-author of the study. “Today’s PG is approaching what PG-13 looked like a decade ago.”

Now this is my kind of Masters thesis. “So, Darren, for the next 18 months we’d like you to watch about 2000 movies and assess the level of sex and violence in them.” Imagine my notes: “While Mr. Orange’s pool of blood is easily six feet in diameter by the end of the film, it doesn’t compare with the litres of blood that pour out of a de-limbed Sofie Fatale.”