New Study Shows PG-13 Films to Be More Unsafe for Children Than Once Thought

According to Science Daily, in a new study by UCLA researchers, PG-13 films have been proven unsafe for children. The reasoning is the type of violence depicted in the films. PG-13 films depict "safe" violent acts, which generally do not show harm or consequences for harmful actions or death.

With homicide being the second leading cause of death among those aged 15 to 24 years, it is obvious that violence is commonplace among youth. Movies and media that depict violent acts are helping to teach these acts to children whether it is intentional or not. Exposure to these acts is causing children to have "increased aggression, fear for their own safety, and a desensitization to the pain and suffering of others."

In a study done by Theresa Webb and other researchers at the Southern California Injury Prevention Research Center at UCLA's School of Public Health, it was found that in a review of 77 movies, there were 2,251 violent acts combined. About half of those acts caused death. If averaged out, that's a total of 29 violent acts per movie and if averaging the deaths, that's about 14 and one half deaths per movie.

Only one movie in the study depicted a violent act that showed how painful and terrible violence and death can be. That movie was "Pay It Forward", a movie in which a child who establishes a way to help others is stabbed to death.

Webb says "Violence permeated nearly 90 percent of the films in this study. And while the explanations and causes of youth violence are very complex, the evidence is clear that media depictions of violence contribute to the teaching of violence. This is especially true in our society, where the average young person's engagement with visual media in all its forms can run to as many as eight hours a day."