Family Life

08.19.11 | Sarah Harnisch

The swear words are getting so bad in PG-13 films, meant for kids as young as 13 years old, that even the Associated Press is noticing. They're out with a story on the frequency of the f-word in PG13 films this summer. Besides "The Social Network" and "The Tourist," add "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" and "Iron Man 2" to recent films that have dropped more than one F-bomb and still secured PG-13 ratings, despite MPAA guidelines. Joan Graves, head of the Motion Picture Association of America's Classification and Rating Administration, says they use parents to pick the ratings, and they make them based on what they feel other parents will allow their kids to watch. They are letting the word slip by if it's in a different scene, if it's an hour and a half apart, or if it's hard to hear or innocuous-- like the character just mouths the word. But Nell Minnow, who reviews films for Belief-net, says Hollywood is being calculated. Minow says ""Allowing it once or twice just doesn't make sense to me. The word is something, I'd argue, that's still, in 2011, outside the safety zone for children."