Television Content Rating Systems - United States

United States

The Parental Guidelines system for the United States was first proposed on December 19, 1996 by the United States Congress, the television industry and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and went into effect by January 1, 1997 on most major U.S. broadcast and cable networks in response to public concerns of increasingly explicit sexual content, graphic violence and strong profanity in television programs. It was established as a voluntary-participation system, with ratings to be determined by the individually participating broadcast and cable networks.

The guidelines are as follows. Often sub-guidelines will be used to specify the type of content in the program.

  • TV-Y: Suitable for all children (particularly those of preschool or kindergarten age, as this rating is commonly seen in early childhood shows)
  • TV-Y7: Suitable for children over seven years old. May contain cartoonish slapstick violence, humor considered too ribald or morbid for younger viewers, mild innuendo, and/or themes and stories that would be considered too controversial, scary or incomprehensible for younger audiences.
  • TV-G: Suitable for all audiences; contains little to no adult themes, sexual innuendo, graphic violence, or foul language. Some children's programs that have content that teens or adults will enjoy, such as adult humor, will be used as a G rating instead of a Y rating. Also used for shows with inoffensive content (such as cooking shows, religious programming, nature documentaries/pets and animals and reruns of classic television shows, particularly some sitcoms and game shows)
  • TV-PG: Parental guidance suggested; may contain infrequent and/or mild language and/or sexual references, mild to moderate violence, and/or suggestive themes and dialogue
  • TV-14: Parents strongly cautioned; may be inappropriate for children younger than 14 years of age. Contains moderate to realistic violence (including some blood-letting), moderate sexual references (including censored and/or partial nudity and heavily implied scenes of sexual intercourse), moderate language (including bleeped-out obscenities), and moderate sexual innuendo.
  • TV-MA: Mature audiences; not suitable for children. Contains strong language (which may or may not be censored for advertising reasons), explicit (though, in some cases, not pornographic) sexual content, graphic nudity, and/or graphic violence.

The sub-ratings commonly seen with the main ratings are as follows:

  • FV: Fantasy violence (only used with the TV-Y7 rating for action-oriented children's shows)
  • D: Used with the TV-PG, TV-14 and TV-MA rating to denote the use of dialogue that hints at something sexual, violent, disturbing, or drug-related.
  • L: Used with the TV-PG, TV-14, and TV-MA rating to denote instances of crude, offensive language (profanity, vulgar slang, racial and ethnic slurs, etc.)
  • S: Used with the TV-PG, TV-14, and TV-MA rating to denote instances of sexual content (including innuendo, intercourse, nudity, references to alternate sexualities, and references to sexual acts and fetishes)
  • V: Used with the TV-PG, TV-14, and TV-MA rating to denote instances of violence, gore, threat, and scenes depicting peril and/or distress.

Read more about this topic:  Television Content Rating Systems

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