# Programming Ratings... I just dont get them. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 4, 2003, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/programming-ratings-i-just-dont-get-them/159065 "2003-03-04T19:36:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![superkentclark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@superkentclark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/superkentclark)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2003, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/programming-ratings-i-just-dont-get-them/159065/1 "2003-03-04T19:36:47Z")
Watching television is a common habitual way to squander time in the American culture. Attached to these movies and shows that fill in the screen on these modern colorful boxes are ratings that inform, in a sense, parents of the nature and content that the program depicts and audits. I oppose the notion that parents should not allow their children to watch programming that is of a nature that television critics advise is unsuitable for children of certain ages. My question to those parents is that if the program is not suitable for children because it has too much sexual innuendo, vulgarity, profanity, or violence for the children, then what makes it suitable for any adult, let alone any human, to view? ---
**Author:** ![superkentclark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@superkentclark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/superkentclark)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2003, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/programming-ratings-i-just-dont-get-them/159065/2 "2003-03-07T01:07:10Z")
Damn, i must have asked a crappy question! ---
**Author:** ![catsix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@catsix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/catsix)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2003, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/programming-ratings-i-just-dont-get-them/159065/3 "2003-03-07T01:59:37Z")
Do you limit yourself to only G rated movies or do you like to take in the R rated flicks too? Is it _Aladdin_ only for you, or do you watch things like _Blackhawk Down_ or _Requiem for a Dream_ as well? Adults and kids are different in their maturity and ability to handle different subjec matter as well as their tastes. I’d be bored stiff if my only choices of movies and TV shows were on the line of _Pipi Longstocking_ and _Marry Poppins_ because I like television shows and movies that are more true to the kind of life that grown-ups lead. Adults are violent, they have sex, the curse, they get naked, they drink too much or they do drugs. Why shouldn’t those elements of life be depicted in movies? ---
**Author:** ![superkentclark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@superkentclark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/superkentclark)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2003, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/programming-ratings-i-just-dont-get-them/159065/4 "2003-03-10T17:02:49Z")
Catsix, i wasnt saying that adults shouldnt watch such shows, but that the children should be allowed to watch them as well. You seem to agree with me that the world is or is seemingly similar to those R rated movies. Well, here’s an analogy i think can express my ideas on this matter: Let’s say a person cannot swim. If that person is thrown directly in a pool of water and has to swim, tread, float, or whatever to make it to safety, it is more likely that that person will learn how to swim faster this way. So as to the watching all sorts of graphic tv shows, the children should watch them because it will accelerate their ability to cope and understand the world. Does this sound like a logical statment or am i babbling off into my own little world (it has happened before)? ---
**Author:** ![Papermache\_Prince](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f05b48/32.png) [@Papermache\_Prince](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Papermache_Prince)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2003, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/programming-ratings-i-just-dont-get-them/159065/5 "2003-03-10T18:21:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by superkentclark \* > Catsix, i wasnt saying that adults shouldnt watch such shows, but that the children should be allowed to watch them as well. You seem to agree with me that the world is or is seemingly similar to those R rated movies. Well, here’s an analogy i think can express my ideas on this matter: Let’s say a person cannot swim. If that person is thrown directly in a pool of water and has to swim, tread, float, or whatever to make it to safety, it is more likely that that person will learn how to swim faster this way. So as to the watching all sorts of graphic tv shows, the children should watch them because it will accelerate their ability to cope and understand the world. Does this sound like a logical statment or am i babbling off into my own little world (it has happened before)? Logical? Well, if one has no knowledge of children, whether through experience or education, then I suppose it could sound logical. I think if you throw someone into water over their head, they are more likely to drown than to learn how to swim. As Catsix points out, > [@](#): > > adults and kids are different in their maturity and ability to hand different subject matter. There may be exceptions, but a five year old is not as mature as a ten year old, nor is a ten year old as mature as a fifteen year old. A ten year old who has watched violent movies is not necessarily better prepared for adult reality than a ten year old who has not. A parent unable to recognize different maturity levels is not, in my opinion, a responsible parent.