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Morganne Mallon
CAS 137H
Paradigm Shift Paper
Ratings Creep in Movies Since 1985
What was once synonymous with oppression, censorship and a violation of the First
Amendment is now an average part of life in the United States, in reference to the average movie
going experience, whether citizens truly pay attention to it or not (Vaughn, 2006, p. 13). The act
of purchasing a ticket to sit in a dark, quiet room in a reclining chair and immerse ones self in
the lives of fictional characters has been a favored American pastime since the dawn of the
twentieth century and had truly became a way of life, ingrained into the countrys culture, by
World War I (Vaughn, 2006, p. 4). Because of this popularity, the majority of the American
public now considers G, PG, PG-13, R and NC-17 as much more than a random
semblance of letters and numbers. The letting may have changed overtime, but the familiar white
block lettering that appears prior to every movie has been widely recognized since the modern
ratings system was conceived by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) in 1968
(History of Ratings). However, the goals of the system in terms of standards for each rating has
changed dramatically since it was first conceived, specifically within the past thirty years,
creating the paradigm shift of a ratings creep. A ratings creep is the the term used to describe
the escalation of adult content over time in movies with the same rating (Leone, 2006, p. 53-
61). As a result of the ratings creep, movies that would have once received a harsh rating for
certain behavior or language in previous decades are now presently receiving a more lenient
rating (Hansen, 2003). The ratings creep is a result of desensitization of the public and change in
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values as well as the desire for the MPAA, as with any business, to make as much profit as
possible. The importance of this ratings creep rests on the fact that the purpose of the MPAAs
ratings is to allow parents to make informed decisions on what to allow their children to watch. It
is necessary to remain aware of this paradigm shift because with ratings becoming skewed over
the years, parents are in actuality becoming misinformed and unable to properly monitor what
their child views, defeating the purpose of the MPAA and creating a culture of children
absorbing content that is much more mature than what generations prior were watching (Singh,
2011).
Following complaints from public officials about risqu and inappropriate scenes in the
rapidly growing movie industry, a group of producers sought to create the National Board of
Censorship in 1909 in order to recommend to filmmakers which of their movies scenes should
be removed to avoid controversy and complaint from politicians and citizen groups. However,
government officials continued to complain about movies that they perceived to be damaging to
the minds of children, and the Supreme Court eventually ruled that movies were not protected by
the First Amendment in 1915. In order to prove that the movie industry did not need the
regulation of lawmakers, the Motion Pictures Producers and Distributers of America was formed
in 1922. By 1945 the association would become the modern day MPAA and by 1968 the
classification system known today was trademarked. The current purpose of the MPAA is to
enable parents to make informed decisions about their kids movie choices while protecting
filmmakers First Amendment artistic freedom (Hansen, 2003).
The lettering system evolved throughout the next two decades until the current ratings
used today were settled in 1990 (Hansen, 2003). These ratings include G for general audiences,
PG for parental guidance suggested, PG-13 meaning parents strongly cautioned for those under
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the age of 13, R referring to restricted for those under the age of 17 unaccompanied by an adult
and NC-17 referring to restricted to anyone aged 17 and under (What Each Rating Means).
Despite the lettering changes through the years since conception, the ratings have always fallen
into two categories, unlimited access and limited access. The current unlimited access ratings are
G, PG and PG-13, meaning that despite recommendations, it is not necessary that an adult be
present when a ticket is purchased and any child of any age can see a movie without parental
guidance. R and NC-17 ratings are considered limited access because a legal adult must purchase
them (Leone, 2006, p. 53-61). Although the MPAA created these ratings, it is not the
organization that appoints them. Instead, a branch of the MPAA known as the Classification and
Ratings Administration (CARA) works with both MPAA members as well as eight to 15 other
undisclosed employees to watch and rate each film. The ratings process has been kept a secret
from the public aside from the fact that a majority vote by these members is needed for a movie
to be given a specific rating (Singh, 2011). All that is known of these members, who were once
required to be mental health professionals and educators but currently need no specific
qualifications that are known of, is that they hold some sort of parenting experience (Leone,
2006, p. 53-61).
Within the past decade, various research universities, with the most well-known
including Harvard University, University of California-Los Angeles, University of Pennsylvania,
Ohio State University and Oklahoma State University, have conducted studies in order to
determine the validity of the ratings creep, with research from all studies pointing to that movies
as a whole have increased in adult and inappropriate behavior within the past few decades while
their ratings have not become more strict in correlation and instead are becoming more lenient
and not accurately representing the content of the movie for the public knowledge (The
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Washington Times, 2004, Persall, 2005, Rozansky, 2013, Morrison, 2013, Singh, 2011). The
Harvard University study, released in 2004, suggested that the [MPAA] has become
increasingly lenient with its age-based system due to the significant increase in violence, sex
and profanity since 1992 in G-rated movies (The Washington Times, 2004). In 2005, UCLA
released its study which began to be conducted during the mid-90s which revealed that movies
rated PG, PG-13 and R contain an increasing amount of violence in movie releases from 1994 to
2005 despite the fact that Over 11 years, the MPAA hasnt changed any of its process, in terms
of ratings. The study further suggested new ratings such as PG-16 or PG-18 to make ratings
clearer for parents, a suggestion which clearly was not utilized by the MPAA (Percall, 2005).
Researchers at Oklahoma State University released a study in 2009 that also began in the mid-
90s, running from 1993 to 2005. The study showed a shift towards increasingly adult content at
all rating levels with PG-rated films seeing more violence and harsh language throughout the
years and PG-13 movies seeing more drug use and sexual content (Singh, 2011).
In 2013, researchers from Ohio State University and the University of Pennsylvania
released a study that focused on focused on violence in PG-13 and R-rated movies, finding that
despite the more lenient rating, PG-13 rated films contained a considerable more amount of
violence than R-rated films. The study believed this was because the MPAA focused on harsher
ratings for sexual content instead of violence. The Los Angeles Times cited the historical drama
The Kings Speech as an example, saying that this belief would explain why the movie received
an R rating in 2010 for a single scene in which a character used the F-word therapeutically,
not sexually, but still too often to qualify for a PG-13 rating whereas the Western True Grit
which was released in the same year was rated PG-13 although it included excessive amounts of
violence (Morrison, 2013). In addition, an analysis by the University of Pennsylvanias
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Annenburg Public Policy Center, released a month later, of the highest grossing films during the
time period studied of 1985 to 2010 showed that the violence seen in PG-13 films had not only
escalated to the same amount seen in R-rated films, but also that the violence is almost always
linked with sex and drinking (Shute, 2013). About 89.7 percent of the 390 movies screened in
the study featured violence and 81.5 percent featured sex. Characters who were already partaking
in violence also used tobacco in 34.1 percent of the films, drank alcohol in 62.1 percent and
engaged in sexual activity in 62.8 percent. In 47.2 percent of the films, a character engaged in
violence within a five minute timeline of having sex, drinking or smoking. When studying these
categories by film rating only, the statistical difference between PG-13 and R-rated films was
low (Bond, 2013). This is a stark difference from when the study began in 1985, at which point
PG-13 films often had the same amount of violence as PG and G rated films (Shute, 2013).
The reasoning behind this abrupt shift in more mature content despite the lack of a shift
in the rating system can be tied to the fact that The MPAA works for the studios making the
movies, looking out for its best interests in Washington, D.C., to the local megaplex (Persall,
2005). Although the MPAAs goal is to assist parents in making knowledgeable and safe
decisions on what to allow their children to watch, it is still a part of the movie industry and thus
its purpose is to assist Hollywood in turning a profit (Singh, 2011). That being said, the lower
the rating a movie has the greater opportunity it has to make profit, specifically a movie with an
unlimited access rating. This is because a lower rating reaches a greater potential audience due to
the less amount of age restrictions. Lower rated movies also reach a greater audience in general
due to a large amount of a theaters audience being composed of young people (Hansen, 2003).
Of the current top 50 highest grossing films at the box office in the United States, 34 were rated
PG-13 and all but one had a limited access rating of R (All-Time Box Office: USA, 2013).
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Because of the limited audience that can see a movie with a limited access, many theaters refuse
to even screen a movie with the highest rating of NC-17.
Despite the trend for lower-rated movies to be more successful, both filmmakers and
studios will push for a movie to have more adult content. Filmmakers do not want their artistic
freedom or First Amendment rights to be violated and are often against having content edited out
of their films for ratings purposes. Meanwhile studios, particularly with action movies, push for
violence in film because of the strong reaction to such movies internationally due to the fact that
there is less emphasis on language in a film filled with explosions and gunfights. The
international market usually counts for about half of a movies total profit. Economically, the
MPAA does not want to enforce stricter ratings at the same time that the average movie studio
does not want to produce a film with restricted content (Hansen, 2003).
Aside from the economic factor, the ratings creep could also be caused by desensitization
of both the American public as well as the specific CARA raters themselves. Those employed by
CARA to rate movies are a select few and as a result are responsible for viewing several movies
a day, and with two-thirds of all theatrical movies released contain[ing] enough adult content to
be rated R it seems unavoidable that any CARA rater can remain sensitive to all the material
viewed, resulting in the CARA employees becoming used to seeing mass amounts of adult
content in a short period of time (Singh, 2011). In a statement by the MPAA released in 2013
with the goal of shifting emphasis on the organizations role in choosing what content a child
views in a theatrical setting, the organizations spokesperson Kate Bedingfield claimed that
The purpose of the rating system is to reflect the standards of American parents, not set them
the ratings board tries to rate a film the way they believe the majority of American parents would
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rate it. Societal standards change over time and the ratings system is built to change (Lang,
2013).
It is important that the American public become aware of this paradigm shift because the
ratings system is growing increasingly deceiving for the movie going public, especially for the
parents who are attempting to make informed decisions on what to allow their children to watch.
It is important that the viewing preferences of youth remain monitored due to recent researchers,
including those who studied the ratings creep, finding that exposure to violence in media may
have a detrimental effect on young people. The Ohio State University released in its study of the
existence of a ratings creep that violent films can increase aggression and the presence of
weapons in films might amplify the effects of violent films on aggression (Bushman, 2013).
With parents receiving misconceptions from the ratings system, small children may be getting
lessons in aggression that their parents would much rather avoid due to the research pointing
towards the viewing of violence making people not only more aggressive and prone to violent
thoughts but also less compassionate and more desensitized to the emotion and suffering of
others (Shute, 2013). Amy Bleakley, who was the lead author in the ratings creep study at the
Annenburg Public Policy Center, stated that she believed that sensation-seeking teenagers who
are more drawn to novel and intense experience may be more vulnerable to exposure to risky
behaviors bundled with violence in movies (Shute, 2013). She cautioned against allowing
young people, specifically teenagers, from viewing behavior such as sex, drinking, smoking and
general violence because of evidence that teens imitate what they see on screen, which is
problematic given that these behaviors [sex, drinking and smoking] are linked with violence
(Lang, 2013).
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Since the creation of the current ratings system three decades ago, there has been a subtle
change in what content is allowed for each movie rating that has only grown rapidly within the
past several years, resulting in a skewed and deceiving ratings system that is entirely unlike the
one that current parents were used to growing up. As a result, many parents remain unaware of
what their children are actually watching on screen and are unable to make knowledgeable
decisions on what movies they allow their children to attend, instead relying on the judgment of
a group of completely unknown strangers working for Hollywood. A PG-13 rated movie three
decades ago is much more similar to a PG or G rated movie today in terms of amount of mature
content such as violence, sex or language. Likewise, a PG-13 rated movie today is much more
similar to not only an R-rated movie three decades ago, but even an R-rated movie today as the
amount of violence and other mature themes increases. It is important that the movie-watching
public, which is to say the majority of the American people, become aware of this paradigm
shift. Not only is the public being duped by the omnipresent MPAA but they are also facing the
detrimental effects of the organizations desire to make profit off of the movies they should be
restricting. Instead of protecting the audience, the MPAA for economic benefit and personal
reasons are protecting the movie studios that they are working for. While this may seem logical
that the Motion Picture Association of America would want to protect the motion pictures that
keep them in business, many members of the American public seem completely unaware that the
movies being released in theaters have experienced a drastic change in content while the ratings
of the movies have experienced a drastic change in terms of lacking restriction.


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Works Cited
All-Time Box Office: USA (2013). Internet Movie Database. Retrieved from
http://www.imdb.com/boxoffice/alltimegross
Bond, P. (2013, Dec. 8). Study: PG-13 Films Combine as Much Violence, Sex and Alcohol as R-
Rated Titles. The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved from
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/study-pg-13-films-combine-663899
Bushman, B.J., Jamieson, P.E., Weitz, I. & Romer, D. (2013, Nov. 11). Gun Violence Trends in
Movies. Pediatrics: Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
10.1542/peds.2013-1600.
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2013/11/06/peds.2013-
1600.full.pdf+html
Hansen, B. (2003, March 28). Movie Ratings: Is Hollywoods system to lenient? CQ Researcher.
Retrieved from
http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre2003032800&type=hitl
ist&num=0#.Uqjh4PRDuSr
History of Ratings. Motion Picture Association of America. Retrieved from
http://www.mpaa.org/ratings/ratings-history
Lang, B. (2013, Dec. 9). Film Violence in PG-13 Often Comes with Sex and Drinking, Study
Finds. The Wrap. Retrieved from http://www.thewrap.com/film-violence-pg-13-often-
comes-sex-drinking-study-finds/
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Leone, R. & Houle, N. (2006). 21
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Century Ratings Creep: PG-13 and R. Routledge Taylor &
Francis Group.
Morrison, P. (2013, Nov. 12). The PG-13 rating: Its a killer. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from
http://articles.latimes.com/2013/nov/12/news/la-ol-pg13-rating-violence-movies-
20131112
Persall, S. (2005, May 13). Hollywoods dark side: ratings creep. Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved
from http://www.sptimes.com/2005/05/13/Floridian/Hollywood_s_real_dark.shtml
Rozansky, M. (2013, Dec. 9). Violence is associated with sex and alcohol as often in PG-13
movies as in R-rated films. The Annenburg Public Policy Center of the University of
Pennsylvania. Retrieved from http://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/wp-
content/uploads/Violence-alcohol-sex-in-film-12-09-13.pdf
Shute, N. (2013, Nov. 11). Movies Rated PG-13 Feature the Most Gun Violence. NPR. Retrieved
from http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/11/11/244521897/movies-rated-pg-13-
feature-the-most-gun-violence
Shute, N. (2013, Dec. 9). Violence in PG-13 Movies Comes With Plenty of Sex and Booze.
NPR. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/12/09/249737503/violence-
in-pg-13-movies-comes-with-plenty-of-sex-and-booze
Singh, G. (2012, Jan. 12). How and why MPAA rating system has become more lenient.
Examiner. Retrieved from http://www.examiner.com/article/how-and-why-mpaa-rating-
system-has-become-more-lenient
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Vaughn, S. (2006). Freedom and Entertainment: Rating the Movies in an Age of New Media.
New York: Cambridge University Press.
The Washington Times (2004, July 15). Ratings creep seen as films get graphic. The
Washington Times. Retrieved from
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2004/jul/15/20040715-121133-1183r/
What Each Rating Means. Motion Picture Association of America. Retrieved from
http://www.mpaa.org/ratings/what-each-rating-means