By: Brian Milligan

When it comes to movie content, there seems to follow a lot of controversy, especially in the comfortable town of Kaysville where unwritten social standards seem to rule what people watch. MPAA ratings are the ratings given to films to give you a brief description of their content, such as PG-13 which means parental guidance suggested for children 13 years and younger.

The ratings are meant to give the public an easy way to understand the content in a film so that each person can make an individual decision on what they can personally handle. The ratings let you know if there is any violence, sexual content, drug use, and/or profanity.

Each person has their own opinion on what may be appropriate to watch. “I don’t watch rated R, and you have to be careful with some PG-13’s too.” Said Shayli Quass, while Jake McMasters feels a little differently, “There are some [rated] R’s that I would feel totally okay with seeing, and there are some PG-13 that I wouldn’t feel good seeing.”

 At times there may be a difference between an R rated comedy movie and a R rated drama film. The comedy might have more sexual references while the drama may be rated so due to serious context of situations, yet both are shifted into the same category.

Many feel that there is some information in films that can be very beneficial and hold great life lessons. McMasters said, “I look at the content and I look at the message. There are some movies, like Schindler’s List, that I think everybody should see because it really kind of opens our eyes to what the world is really like, but I think a lot of people shy away from those because of the ratings.”

What may be important here is that each individual makes a confident decision in what may be right for them when watching a movie, and a recommendation to visit the website kidsinmind.com which gives a depth description of thousands of movies to help the public have a better understanding of a film’s content that one may be interested in seeing.