According to the Chicago Sun-Times (via Common Sense Media), be prepared to skip the movie trailers the next time you take your kids to the theater or pop in a DVD.
Since April 2009, movie previews are no longer “approved for all audiences.” Anyone familiar with the famous “green band” (green intro screen) knows that this phrase has appeared on nearly all trailers shown before most movies not R-rated. “All audiences” and the green color associated with G movies conveyed that regardless of the material in the movie being promoted, the trailer would contain material suitable for even the youngest of children.
However, the Motion Picture Association of America‘s Classification and Ratings Board changed its policy earlier this year so that these promotional clips no longer need to be suitable for “general” audiences. The green-band language now reads “approved for appropriate audiences” – without mention of what “appropriate” means. One would think that a G rated movie would include only G rated trailers, a PG movie would include PG and G rated trailers, etc. But according to many reports from parents, this simply isn’t the case.
Worse, the change was made without any attempt to communicate or engage the movie watching public (especially parents).
For logistical and financial reasons, we don’t often take the kids to the theater to watch a movie. With a HDTV and surround sound at home, Netflix is more than able to meet our media dietary needs. And with the remote in hand, we typically skip the previews. But I have noticed a couple times recently when we put in a PG-13 movie (after the kids are asleep) that some of the previews are decidedly “PG-14″ and above.
This is disappointing as we are very careful to choose what television shows and movies the kids watch. To think our efforts could be sabotaged by a careless change to the MPAA policy and inappropriately edited previews is frustrating.
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