Study finds PG-13 film violence on the rise

A recent study conducted by the Adolescent Communication Institute at Penn's Annenberg Public Policy Center found that over the decades, top-selling films within the PG-13 category have been growing steadily more violent.

The results indicated that while both explicit sexual content and explicit violence in films have increased over the years, the former increase consistently remains confined to R-rated films.

By contrast, recent PG-13 films exhibited higher levels of violent content than earlier R-rated films.

Fifteen of the 30 highest-grossing films released each year between 1950 and 2006 were viewed — and subsequently coded — by Penn undergraduates, who watched them in five-minute segments.

After viewing each segment, viewers completed an electronic coding sheet which asked 30 questions about portrayals of violence and sexual content, in addition to risky behaviors like smoking, drinking and drug use within the segment.

The frequency, intensity and duration of violent scenes in each segment corresponded with number scores which, when summed, determined the film’s overall score in terms of violence or sexual content.

According to ACI Director Dan Romer, the PG-13 category was established in 1984 to inform parents about content in PG films they may wish to reconsider allowing young children to see.

However, in a phenomenon known as “ratings creep,” films containing levels of violence which would once have earned an R rating are now often rated PG-13.

“When PG-13 was first created, they assigned a film with moderate violence to R, but now they’re assigning a movie with the same amount of violence to PG-13,” Romer said. “Apparently they think it doesn’t matter whether kids see blood and gore as long as they don’t see anyone having sex.”

He speculated that the Motion Picture Association ratings board may be reluctant to assign R ratings to films for fear of losing revenue.

While violence in films tends to “sell,” he said, audiences are still sensitive to sexual content.

“Adolescents are learning about the world — they’re impressionable and influenced by what they see,” Romer said. “We’re trying to see what those trends are and to see if they have played a role in real-world trends.”

According to Romer, the study found that while both violent crime rates and movie violence rose significantly in the 1990s, the incidence of violent crime has since diminished in spite of violence in films continuing to rise.

According to Communication Professor Paul Messaris, there exists a “large body” of research affirming the correlation between exposure to violent media and violent behavior.

“The evidence for a causal connection between violent viewing and violent behavior is consistent and compelling,” he said.

Messaris added that while he opposes government censorship of media, the “media industry needs to be more ethical about the consequences of its products.”

The Center is currently coding episodes of popular television shows since 1950 to pinpoint trends concerning depictions of violence and high-risk behaviors and plans to code music and music videos as well.

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