PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)

How to read it

PG is the second of the five film ratings given by the MPA’s Classification and Rating Administration. The MPA’s rules say a PG film “should be investigated by parents before they let their younger children attend”, and that the rating indicates parents may consider some material unsuitable for their children, “and parents should make that decision.” A PG film may have some profanity, some depictions of violence or brief nudity, but nothing intense enough to call for a stronger caution, and it has no drug use. PG does not restrict admission: the MPA counts only R and NC-17 as restrictive ratings. Every PG film carries a descriptor saying what earned it the rating.

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From M to GP to PG

PG began in November 1968 as M, for Mature. The MPA’s then president, Jack Valenti, explained the first change: “the M category was regarded by most parents as a sterner rating than the R category”, so it was renamed GP. The MPA’s own 50th-anniversary history dates GP to 1970 and PG to 1972, with GP meaning “All Ages Admitted – Parental Guidance Suggested.” The Federal Trade Commission’s 2000 history of the ratings dates the change to GP a year earlier, 1969, and the change to PG a year after that. FilmRatings.com’s rating search still lists GP, M and M/PG as obsolete ratings.

What PG content looks like

FilmRatings.com’s guide describes PG violence as generally mild: pushing and shoving, fist fights, cartoonish or fantasy violence, unrealistic weapons, and usually no blood, visible wounds or characters dying on screen. Language may include infrequent offensive words and name calling. Nudity is brief or infrequent and generally not sexual. A PG film has no drug use, though it may include mild or brief drug references.

PG and TV-PG

On television the nearest rating is TV-PG, which the TV Parental Guidelines give to programs with material parents may find unsuitable for younger children. A TV-PG program can carry the letters D, L, S or V to say which kind of material it has; a PG film gets a descriptor in words instead.