Parenting: Why Are Parents Ignoring Movie Ratings?

Parents have succumbed to tremendous pressure by their tweens to let them see movies that are rated PG-13 before the kids are 13. Or 12. Or even 9. In spite of the huge number of animated and family films that are G rated in recent years, parents still allow their children to see movies that are meant for kids 13 years of age and older.

Why?

* Many parents have lost their sense of responsibility and take the easy way out. It’s much easier to say yes than it is to deal with an angry, crying, screaming, tantrum-ing child who wants to see a movie that is rated for children above 13.

* Peer pressure. Other parents go with the crowd, setting a peer pressure example for their own kids to succumb to peer pressure. Kids learn to manipulate their parents this way. They tell their parents that Johnny and Susie’s parents are letting them go to see a particular movie, and why can’t they see it, too?

* Adult content and sexualized or violent content is all over the media and you don’t have to pay to take your child inside a movie theatre to see inappropriate sex and violence. It’s on television, in the malls and in the music that kids are listening to on the radio. Children get de-sensitized earlier.

Another big problem is that many movie theaters play trailers for PG-13 and even R movies prior to a G movie where the audience is packed with toddlers, kids and parents. This isn’t supposed to happen, but often, it does.