Source: CVDaily Feed
$inline_image}
SALT LAKE CITY – Many parents in Utah would never think of allowing their young teen to see an R-rated movie, but a new study shows those films have much of the same type of content as those that are rated PG-13.
Amy Bleakley, a senior research scientist with the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, says the PG-13 rating, determined by the motion picture industry, doesn’t always stop the kind of material parents may think it does.
“We found that there is really no difference between PG-13 and R-rated movies with regards to the extent to which this content is featured, except with tobacco and explicit sex, which is more common in R-rated movies,” she explains.
Bleakley’s study on film ratings was recently featured in the journal Pediatrics.
The study found that in 400 of the top movies from the past 15 years, a main character was involved in violence and also a second risky behavior such as drinking, smoking or sexual activity 80 percent of the time – whether the film was rated PG-13 or R.
Bleakley says the big question in the wake of this study revolves around how children process what they see at the movies and whether they’re more likely to act out on a broad range of risky behaviors.
“We know that when kids see just tobacco on screen, they’re more likely to initiate smoking,” she explains. “And when, you know, they see alcohol on screen they’re more likely to drink, and so on.
“But we don’t know the effect of these clustered behaviors. So that’s our next step. We want to try and find that out.”