If you’re a cinephile who watches shows every day, you might have heard of “TV 14” either from your friends or somewhere else in the form of ads, pop-ups, etc. So, what does TV mean? Keep on reading to know the answer.
Most TV shows, movies, cartoons, web series, and other programs that are aired on television and streaming services are age-restricted. Not all but the majority of cable television networks and program producers provide TV ratings addressing how age-appropriate their content is. To alert parents on which shows they should allow their kids to watch.
It is for the safety of the children. Because the material is inappropriate for pre-teenagers. However, ratings look similar since the majority of PG-13 movies also get shown on basic cable channels with a “TV-14” rating but are worse.
TV 14 means programs that contain material that most parents find unsuitable for children younger than 14 years of age because programs with this rating contain violence, sexual references (including censored and/or partial nudity, medium to high-level implied scenes of sexual intercourse, and sexual innuendo), and strong language.
Let’s know it in detail.
Contents
TV Parental Guideline ratings
Today, almost every show/movie airing on television and streaming platforms involves violence/sexualization, or both. And it’s no secret that Americans have also streaming material that has gotten increasingly sexual and violent since the last decade.
These days, it is slowly becoming a trend. I don’t know why. Because back in the day, i.e., in 1996, the US Congress proposed to address age restrictions on content to give parents some sense of the type of content their children were watching.
And in 1997, the voluntary TV Parental Guideline ratings went into effect. No one objected, and everything went well.
Everyone obeyed the rules and started presenting a rating to the viewer before the show’s beginning to give parents some sense of the type of content their children were watching, showing that some part of this show/movie may contain the following.
TV-Y
No restrictions on age. This program is designed to be appropriate for children of all ages.
TV-Y7 FV
Restrictions will apply to children of age 7 and above.
The FCC states that it may be more appropriate for children who have acquired the developmental skills needed to distinguish between make-believe and reality.
Here the FV label means that shows with this rating contain mild fantasy and comedic violence.
And some programs where fantasy violence may be more intense or more combative.
TV-G
Hey kids, your parents will find this program useful because these programs may not necessarily contain content interesting to children.
The FCC states that “this rating does not signify a program designed specifically for children since the thematic elements portrayed in programs with this rating contain little or no violence, mild language, and little or no sexual dialogue or situations.
TV-PG
This program contains material that parents may find unsuitable for younger children since these programs include infrequent coarse language, some sexual content, some suggestive dialogue, or moderate violence.
TV-14
Not for all since most of the parents find these programs unsuitable for children younger than 14 years of age. Because programs with this rating contain violence, sexual references (including censored and/or partial nudity, medium to high-level implied scenes of sexual intercourse, and sexual innuendo), and strong language.
TV-MA
Specified for adults. It means it is not suitable for children under the age of 17.
Programs with this rating may include crude indecent language, explicit sexual activity, and graphic violence.
TV Parental Guideline content descriptors
From the above lines, you get an idea of each of the TV ratings that are assigned to the shows of different titles. The content which is inappropriate for kids mostly includes sexual, language, and violence.
And how much content from these 3 categories is involved in a show determines the final rating of the show.
Therefore, based on the above ratings, a show could have some sexual dialogue/situations, sometimes no violence, and still, get a TV 14 rating, or there could be some violence without any sexual content.
However, content descriptors were established with 4 sub-ratings, designated with an alphabetic letter that can present alongside an assigned rating.
Here are the content descriptors used depending on the kind of suggestive content featured in a program.
- D – Sexual or suggestive dialogue (not used with the TV-MA rating)
- L – Coarse or crude language
- S – Sexual situations
- V – Violence
- FV – Fantasy violence (exclusive to the TV-Y7 rating)
Parents know what to provide kids since most parents have their own unique style, and depending on their nature, they have an idea of what to allow their kids to watch.
The above 5 descriptors help parents take the choice and move forward a step suggesting their kids follow their way of nature.
Some also make tough choices to let their kids know about everything.
Not all, but some parents say ok to shows that contain sexuality (not situations), a bit of violence, and suggestive dialogue.
For those who stand in this category, the ‘D’ descriptor is the right one, but they won’t prefer the ‘S’ anyways.
Examples of popular TV 14 shows
To address that the show you’re watching has content that is not suitable for your age, the TV 14 rating is the one that alerts parents to take care of their children.
I say that it plays an important role in addressing parents but most likely, not all see it before the show begins.
This type of content is not suitable for all, especially those who are younger than 14.
So, what type of content may include in these ‘restricted for under 14’ shows? Take a look at some of the titles below that are completely TV 14 shows.
- Stranger Things
- The Office
- Friends
- Virgin River
- The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
- The Umbrella Academy
- Grey’s Anatomy
- NCIS
- Law & Order
- Suits
- Lost
- The Black List
- The Mandalorian
- This is Us
- The Vampire Diaries
- The X-Files
- How I Met Your Mother
- The Walking Dead
- The Umbrella Academy
- Never Have I Ever
- The Office
- Criminal Minds
- 13 Reasons Why
- Homeland
- Gilmore Girls
TV-14 Vs PG-13
What I say is that TV-14 and PG-13 are almost very similar. And the real difference between both of these ratings is the year. Yes, except for a year’s value change, their content level is the same as the other one.
Let’s see what describes both of them.
- TV-14: Contains material that most parents find unsuitable for children younger than 14 years of age. Because programs with this rating contain violence, sexual references (including censored and/or partial nudity, medium to high-level implied scenes of sexual intercourse, and sexual innuendo), and strong language.
- PG-13: Parents are Strongly Cautioned that some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. This may include stronger language, symbolic violence or sexual situations, and drug use.
This is the actual difference between TV-14 and PG-13. But the real thing is that there are 2 more differences between TV-14 and PG-13 ratings.
Let’s take a look at them.
- First, PG-13 is part of a movie rating system, whereas “TV-14” is part of a separate TV/broadcasting rating system.
- The second most important thing about TV-14 and PG-13 ratings is that TV-14 isn’t “OK” for 13-year-old, whereas PG-13 is.
Why? Because TV-14 shows, content has stronger language, more intense sexual situations, and/or violence than a PG-13 movie.
This is the thing you’ve to notice. However, it’s all up to you what to allow your kids to watch. You can proceed according to your limits and key your kid to enjoy the shows.
How to prevent children from watching TV 14 shows?
To prevent your children from watching TV-14 shows, you can set up parental controls on all the devices your kids use, either in the App Store or every individual app.
Technology today has become far more advanced and futuristic. An example is a shift from black and white TV screens to colored displays. TVs will listen to us, catch our words and show what we say these days. And also automate content by restricting inappropriate content.
This is by applying settings accordingly by visiting parental controls. However, the settings for enabling parental controls are different for all brands. If you want to enable them, you can use these links to learn how to set up parental controls on your TV brand Samsung, LG, Vizio, TCL, and Sony.
These parental settings, which you will apply to prevent your children from watching explicit content contain three levels. They are:
- Cable/broadcasting
- Smart TV app store
- The app itself
Today, there is no limit to accessing content since the internet is fully loaded and loading with tens of thousands of shows/movies daily. And they can be accessed from anywhere, such as mobiles, laptops, TVs, and including devices like Roku and Firestick.
There are smart TVs everywhere that allow users to download required apps and stream online. And if the data is exhausted, it’s easy to shift to cable.
Here there is more content to stream and many more ways to experience TV 14 content. Thanks to the developers for implementing parental controls. When you enable these settings, the content allowed to your age will only be shown and provide your access.
This setting is already there in many smart TVs allowing you to set a passcode to the App Store to protect kids from accessing it for downloading streaming-based apps.
There are also options to restrict the ability to download new apps.
And finally, you can even restrict access within the app itself since, from YouTube to Amazon Prime, almost all streaming services have parental control options in their apps.
For example, Amazon Prime. If you want to block TV-14 content, you can set up his profile to block TV-14 content. So that all the content which is TV-14 rated will be blocked.
Final Words
Don’t be confused. TV 14 means programs containing material that most parents find unsuitable for children younger than 14 years of age.
These include violence, sexual references (including censored and/or partial nudity, medium to high-level implied scenes of sexual intercourse, and sexual innuendo), and strong language.
PG-13, on the other hand, parents strongly cautioned since some of its material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
This may include stronger language, symbolic violence or sexual situations, and drug use.
However, with this post, you got an idea of what does TV-14 means and the key difference between TV-14 and PG-13. So, be within limits and make the right decision.
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