As people have been watching a lot more variety of shows and movies lately, a lot more content has started to come out. It can be anything from children’s movies to adult and brutal action movies. Everyone can find the right format for themselves. But what if children get into a film they can’t understand or that is too violent for them? An age rating system was created for this purpose.
Before any film or series can be released, it must be certified by a special committee, which will assign a suitable age rating to a certain film. What rating a film gets depends on many parameters, such as the amount of violence in the film, the presence of erotic scenes, and other wide-ranging things that may be too violent for an impressionable young viewer.
Companies try to make their age rating as low as possible so that they can capture as large an audience as possible and their film can be shown to all ages and for all family members. But there are also films that are intended for an older audience, and they are usually rated TV-MA.
What is TV-MA
Content that is rated TV-MA in the United States according to TV Parental Guidelines signifies content for mature audiences. This means that programs with this rating are generally not suitable for under 17 or 18-year-olds. Such films may contain strong coarse language, explicit, strong sexual content, nudity, or graphic violence. Such ratings are rarely seen in free-to-air television. This is due to FCC rules regarding obscene programming.
This rating was originally called TV-M and it ran from January to July 1997. It was later changed because of suspected problems with the Entertainment Software Rating Board trademark because of a similar “M for Mature” rating for video games.
What shows get a TV-MA rating
Most shows on channels like Showtime or HBO get this rating. The most famous are South Park (Comedy Central), Nip/Tuck (FX), The Sopranos (HBO), The Walking Dead (AMC), Dexter (Showtime), The Boondocks (Adult Swim), and Game of Thrones (HBO).
This rating is one of the most diverse on American television. In the case of the TV-PG and TV-14 ratings, the content there is properly all similar in content. In the case of TV-MA, the intensity of the content and its content can be very different.
Technically rated for 17-year-olds, shows with these ratings become more graphic and violent than R-rated movies usually can afford.
