Television Ratings Explained
Brought to FEN by National PTA®
TV Ratings Can Help You Choose What's Best for Your Kids
Watching television is ranked as the most popular after-school activity among 6-17-year-olds. But some of what children see on television -- such as violence and sex -- worries parents. When the familiar movie industry ratings were first applied to TV shows in early 1997, many parents were disappointed that the TV-G, TV-PG, TV-14, and TV-MA ratings didn't offer much detail as to the program content or why it received a certain rating. Now, as a result of efforts of the National PTA and other child advocacy groups, more detailed rating information is included in the upper left-hand corner of TV screens to help parents determine which shows are most suitable for their children.
Content-based codes
The general age-rating is now joined by a set of content-based codes that specify whether TV programs contain sexual situations (S), violence (V), coarse language (L), or suggestive dialogue (D). If a show has a rating TV-14 with the letters VL under it, the show contains violence and coarse language, material many parents would find unsuitable for children under 14 years of age.
Two other categories that are used for children's shows are TV-Y, for children of all ages, and TV-Y7 which identifies programs designed for children older than 7, who are better able to distinguish between make-believe and reality. In addition, a special "FV" rating will be used to identify "fantasy violence" in programs for children age 7 and older.
Virtually every network and cable station, with the exceptions of NBC and Black Entertainment Television (BET), have added the content indicators to the age-based rating system. Only news programs and sports shows remain unrated.
Why TV ratings?
These ratings guidelines have one objective: To offer parents additional information so they can better supervise their children's TV viewing. They are designed to be simple to use and easy to understand. The rating icon appears for 15 seconds at the start of a TV program and reappears after commercial breaks. In addition, TV Guide, daily newspapers, and other periodicals related to television are publishing the ratings along with other programming information.
Who rates the shows?
The networks and producers of each show determine the ratings for that show. A monitoring board, made up of experts from the TV industry and the child advocacy community, examines programs that may have been assigned inappropriate ratings guidelines, and reviews those programs that are criticized publicly in order to ensure the accuracy of the rating system.
