Hey girls!

When going to catch a flick with your besties, or renting an old favourite with your family, do you ever notice the little sticker on the poster or case that says the rating? Have you ever thought a rating of a movie wasn't fair, or should be lower or higher? Do you even pay attention to the ratings in the first place? Why do we even have them? Here's a little bit about movie ratings . . .

The CARA, or Classifications & Rating Administration was born on November 1st, 1968 when a group set out to make parents and other people aware of what was in the films that they or their kids wanted to see. This, of course, was before the internet and other movie rating and review websites sprung up! Basically, they wanted a voulntary, non-governmental system which would be based on a group of parents viewing the movie and deciding what most other parents would think about the movie, and what THEY would rate it. Movie producers submitted their movies, and the board rated them. They also partnered with the NATO, or the National Association of Theatre Owners to make sure they would inforce the rules of admitting no unaccompanied children to an R rated movie, or no kids under 17 at ALL with the NC-17 rating. The NATO includes the largest cinema chains as well as hundreds of independent theatre owners, which represent over 29,000 movie screens, not even counting Canada!

So what exactly is a "rating"? It's the age the parental review board thinks a person should be before watching this movie. G means it contains nothing parents would find "offending" for their kids, PG means parents should express caution because the movie might contain something they don't want their kids to see, and PG13 basically means the same thing except that some stuff might not be approprite for tweens. R means that kids under 17 aren't allowed without their parent or adult guardian with them, and NC-17 means that NO kids under 17 are allowed whatsoever. This rating usually goes with R rated movies. For every rating besides G, they include snippets on why they rated the movie the way they did, including themes and content such as sex, nudity, violence, language, and drug use. They also have a thematic elements section, which includes stuff that doesn't fit in the previous categories like death, verbal abuse, coming-of-age issues, and other things that everyone might not agree on/ want their kids to see such as abortion.

So are movie ratings fair? Personally, for some movies, I don't think they are, because even though they cover mature stuff, I think a wider audience should be allowed to watch them, and for some movies, I think the rating should've been higher, because I see younger kids at the movie being really disturbed by it, especially cartoon violence that might scare REALLY little kids (Perfect example: When I was little, I was scared of Monsters Inc, even though it's rated G, which means it's good for everyone.) As a huge movie fan, I think movie ratings are good, but now with websites that offer a quick overview on the plot, and tell you in specifics the things you should be worried about, and what's "good" about the movie, like Common Sense Media, movie ratings seem kind of dumb, because they offer so little about the movie. Do your parents judge if you can go to a movie or not just on a rating, or do they check out a review website first? Do they even care about ratings unless they're NC-17? What do YOU think?

Love from a movie lover,

Ali

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