You might wonder what TV-PG means when you have put on a movie or show to watch, and these little words appear on the top right of the screen. Well, for those who do not know, TV-PG is a type of rating that is assigned to shows or movies that should be watched with parental guidance.
Many parents are concerned about what their children are watching on the T.V. or desktop. Nowadays, in order to make something more interesting and entertaining, T.V. shows and movies include a lot of inappropriate content. Naturally, a parent would want to protect their child from such things. In order to help people understand what type of content is included in a movie or show, the MPAA assigns various ratings to them.
This can help people understand and determine if they want to watch a particular show or not. For parents, this can help to make a quick decision on whether or not their children should watch a particular movie. For example, parents would not let their children watch an R-rated movie since that can include a lot of inappropriate, violent, and sexual scenes.
To know more about what does TV PG mean and how to restrict your child from watching PG-rated movies, keep reading further.
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What does TV PG mean?
TV-PG is basically a type of rating that helps people understand for whom the content of a movie or show is intended. P.G. basically stands for Parental Guidance, which means that The content with a P.G. rating is recommended to be watched only under parental guidance for children aged 7 and below.
Shows with a P.G. rating might have some inappropriate content for young children, such as indecent language, suggestive dialogue or violence, adult and sexual content, etc. a popular example of a TV-PG rating is the show Modern Family.
As you might know, the content shown today may include a lot of things that could be appropriate for various parents. They would certainly not want their children to watch any such thing. Ratings such as the TV-PG rating come helpful for parents to decide whether or not they should allow their child to watch a particular movie/show.
The Motion Picture Association of America allocated the ratings to all movies and shows. As of now, they have five types of ratings for all the content – G – General Audience, P.G. – Parental Guidance, PG-13 – Some content could be inappropriate for children under 13, R – Restricted, NC-17 – Only for above 17.
We have given a detailed description of each of these ratings in the below section for your reference.
Did you know?
In the good old days, there were only 3 types of ratings given to movies and shows – G, PG, and R. Certainly, the rating system was more relaxed back in the day, and almost all movies made it to the theater. Similar to today, most of the movies had some or other inappropriate content imbibed in them.
However, as the cinematic world got complex and with movies like ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,’ there was a need for additional ratings that could discriminate the movies into more specific categories. This is how to further ratings like the PG-13 came into being.
Eventually, a considerable gap grew between G and P.G., and thus G became more of a rating that was assigned to kids’ content.
T.V. Parental Guideline TV PG Ratings – Types
By now, you might know that there are numerous types of TV-PG ratings. As a parent, it is a big concern to look after what your child is watching. With the wide variety of content available today, it becomes important to filter out for a parent what their children are consuming.
At such times, ratings help a lot in checking if a particular content is suitable to be watched by children. To help you all understand what each type of rating means, here we have compiled a list of all the ratings along with their meanings. So next time your child wants to see a movie/show, you can easily verify it.
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TV-G
Content with a TV-G rating is acceptable for all ages and does not offend parents for watching children. There is generally no inappropriate scene in these movies/shows, and they can be watched by everyone.
Examples: Godspell, Popi, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Andromeda Strain, etc.
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TV-PG
The content might not be completely suitable for children. Parents must see it with a child or verify it.
Examples: Modern Family, The Big Bang Theory, Gilmore Girls, Doctor Who, Young Sheldon, etc.
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PG-13
Parents and kids above the age of 13 can watch. Parents need to be cautious since it could be inappropriate.
Examples: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, etc.
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TV-Y
Content acceptable for Children of all ages. Intended for young viewers. Generally, parents do not have to worry about these types of movies or shows since they are made keeping the children in mind.
Examples: SpongeBob SquarePants, Batman, Pokemon, Bewitched, The Polar Express, etc.
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TV-R
R stands for Restricted. This includes adult content, and those under 17 are required to be accompanied by adult guardians or parents. Before the parents decide to take their children to the movie, they should learn more about the movie/show. There could be some adult content in that movie.
Examples: Bridesmaids, Carrie, The Heat, The King’s Speech, Pulp Fiction,
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NC-17
Those aged 17 and under are not allowed to watch this content. Prior to being NC-17, this rating was known as X. For this content type, no children are admitted. Earlier, this rating was restricted to pornographic content. However, later on, mature adult content was included in this too. An example of this type of rating would be Midnight Cowboy.
Examples: Blonde, Showgirls, Deep Throat, Casino, Kids, The Dreamers, The Evil Dead, A Serbian Film, etc.
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TV-Y7 FV
F.V. Stands for ‘Fantasy Violence.’ Content intended for children of age 7 and above. Shows with these ratings are generally more intense than shows with simple TV-Y7-rated shows.
Examples: Rick and Morty, Hocus Pocus, Star Wars: Rebels, Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Owl House, etc.
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TV-14
Parents might think of this content to be inappropriate for kids below the age of 14. You will find strong language, intense violence, and vivid sexual scenes in this type of content.
Read More About TV 14: What Does TV 14 Mean? (TV-14 vs. PG-13 | Key Difference)
Examples: Stranger Things, Hannibal, the Cowboy Bebop anime series, The Following, etc.
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TV-MA
TV-MA stands for “Mature Audience Only.” Not appropriate for children under 17. This type of content may include explicit sexual activity, harsh language, and graphic violence. In most cases, MA-rated shows are much worse than R-rated content. They are suitable to be watched by adults only.
Examples: Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, The White Lotus, The Crown, etc.
T.V. Parental Guideline Content Descriptors – DLSV
So now you know how T.V. ratings are defined and what factors are considered by giving certain ratings to various movies and T.V. shows. The most crucial aspects certainly are – Violence, Indecent Language, and Nudity.
Any parent would be concerned about the type of content their child is watching. Considering multiple such factors, particular ratings are assigned for a specific type of content.
Some shows or movies might include a lot of violence, which isn’t something a lot of people prefer watching. Not just for children, but these ratings also help people of any age group in selecting what they wish to watch.
To make this system specific and inclusive of multiple factors, content descriptors are used by rating institutions. Examples of content descriptors are as follows.
- D– Sexual or suggestive dialogue
- L – Coarse or crude language
- S – Sexual situations
- V – Violence
All these content descriptors help understand what type of inappropriate content is expressed in the movie/show. For some people, Coarse or crude language might not be a problem while getting their part of the entertainment. However, they may not be okay with Sexual or suggestive dialogue. In such cases, the content descriptors are a great help in determining what exactly lies ahead.
How to Use IMDb’s Parent Guide
Similar to the T.V. Parental Guideline ratings and the content descriptors, there is one more amazing source that you can use to understand what content is okay for your kids to watch and what is not. The IMDb’s Parent Guide is yet another option you have.
As you might already know, IMDb is one of the biggest online databases of information about T.V. shows, movies, documentaries, and so on. But did you know that all of these movies and shows have a detailed ‘Parent Guide’?
This Parental Guide on IMDb gives you a detailed rating for all of the vital categories such as – Profanity, Sex & Nudity, Frightening & Intense Scenes, Violence & Gore, Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking, etc.
- In order to use this guide, all you need to do is go to the official website of IMDb.
- Then search for the Movie or TV Show you wish to watch.
- Below the title of the show, you will find the detailed rating.
Some popular TV-PG shows
As mentioned before, the TV-PG rating informs you that the content is mostly not ideal for kids below the age of 7. However, the ratings can not always be reliable or accurate enough.
Shows with TV-PG Rating
Modern Family, The Big Bang Theory, Gilmore Girls, Doctor Who, Young Sheldon, Seinfeld
Doctor Who, Smallville, Fraiser, Downton Abbey, Malcolm in the Middle, Psych, The O.C., M*A*S*H, Monk, Cheers, Everyone Loves Raymond.
Note: All these shows have been assigned the TV-PG rating for the entire series, irrespective of the number of seasons that come with it. It is possible that the appropriateness of these shows might differ at times.
How to prevent children from watching TV-PG shows?
One of the best ways to prevent children from watching TV-PG shows, as well as other content that you don’t think your children should watch, is by using the V-Chip. Baby check basically allowed parents to block the programming on their T.V. that they thought should not be watched by their children.
The Motion Picture Association of America allots various ratings to different movies and shows. This helps the parents and people, in general, determine if a particular show is appropriate to watch or not. You can prevent your child from watching a certain type of content by using various methods. One such method is the use of V-Chips.
How to use V-Chip to prevent children from watching TV-PG shows?
For the last 2 decades, V-chips have been useful in restricting what your child watches on the T.V. These chips are made for all the newly manufactured T.V.s with a size of 13 inches or larger. It is mandatory that personal computers which come with a T.V. tuner and monitor of size 13 inches and more require to have a V-chip.
In order to set parental control using V-Chip on your T.V., set-top box, digital-to-analog converter box, etc., with the help of remote control, you will have to follow the below steps –
- On your remote, press the Menu Key and go to the ‘Main Menu’ or ‘Setup Menu.’
- Now look for the option of ‘Locks,’ ‘Parental Control,’ ‘Block,’ ‘V-Chip,’ etc.
- Once you find this option, you will get the prompt on the screen to create a password. This will help you lock certain T.V. Channels as you want and also the type of programming.
- Now from the Menu, select the ‘Number’ and ‘Arrow’ keys. Then choose the channels and the particular ratings which are assigned to the T.V. programs which you want to block.
- Now Save your settings.
That is how easy it is to set Parental Control on your T.V., Desktop, Set-top box, etc. Note that similar to the terminologies, the above steps might differ for various devices. In case you are facing any difficulty in programming the V-Chip on your T.V., then you can refer to the instruction manual that came along with it or look for help on the official website of your device.
Beware!
Your concern as parents is completely justifiable. Of course, a lot of parents would not want their children to watch content that is not good for them at a particular age. Children learn fast, and it is important that they are shown the right path. Entertainment can impact each child in multiple ways.
All the ratings provided by the Motion Picture Association of America are quite reliable and divided into various categories; there is a chance that a majority of movies or shows could include at least some scenes that would be inappropriate for children of a certain age group.
At times, many good movies are put into P.G. or P.G. 13 categories, whereas it also happens that some movies that should be given the R-rating are included in PG-rated movies. What we want to imply here is that no rating can ever be 100% reliable. You will have to eventually make sure that the content your child is watching is appropriate according to your suitability.
Final Words
That was all about what TV-PG rating means. We hope that the above article was useful to you in understanding what the different types of ratings mean and how you can control what your children are watching on TV.
The Motion Picture Association of America designates different ratings for all movies, and T.V. shows so that people can understand what type of content is included in that particular movie. Eventually, this becomes very helpful for many people to determine if they would like to watch a certain movie or not.
Many people don’t bother to watch certain types of content, such as indecent language. However, they might be very sensitive to Violence. The ratings, as well as the content descriptors, can help such people in choosing what to watch.
As a parent, we understand your concern about what you are child is watching on T.V., and so do various T.V. manufacturers. Hence, they have installed V-chips that can help you in setting Parental Control locks on your T.V. This will prevent your child from watching certain channels as well as certain types of programs. Isn’t that amazing now?
If you have any questions about TV-PG rating and related queries, then feel free to ask us in the below comment section. We will get right back to you.
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