Classifications offer no guidance
As [The Karate Kid] demonstrates, movie classifications are highly porous. One man’s playful slap can be another man’s vicious assault.
The Sydney Morning Herald on film classification controversies.
Are these discussions placing all responsibility on the Classification Board instead of the parents?
The article reads:
Our classification system is fast turning into a joke much like the MPAA in America. Seriously what is the difference between violence, action violence, sci-fi violence, martial-arts violence; why is Crude humour something that needs its own advice tag? The old Low-level, medium-level violence/ sex/ language tags were far more informative.
But I think the biggest indicated that something has gone wrong is that parents will take kids to see PG movies without even batting an eyelid. The rating has effectively become what G was a long, long time ago. Remember back in the 90’s when a PG movie could be something like Goldeneye or Jurassic Park, films that really did require parental guidance. The OFLC don’t. Perhaps someone should remind them.
Kev is pretty much spot on…
even with games its getting ridiculously overzealous
The PG rating is ridiculous. Parents with small children will see the PG rating and take the whole family only to discover it has some very off-colour concepts and jokes. Grown Ups is the best most recent example. There are definitely adult PG films and family friendly PG films. A PG rated film can contain moderate low level profanity and implied sexual conduct — sorry not something I want to have to explain to my 5 year old. Either there needs to be another rating between PG and M – like maybe PG 13 or better delineation from adult and family friendly concepts.