Kids-in-Mind

Okay, I thought I'd tell you all about the website called Kids in Mind. Have you ever been watching a movie, either by yourself or with your family, and found the content objectionable? The MPAA ratings are so unreliable that you can't judge a film's content based on the "age appropriateness" ratings. Filmmakers know how to push the envelope, putting in enough content to give a film an "R" rating, or holding back just enough to keep it a PG-13. Some films have initially been rated "R," only to have the rating adjusted back to a PG-13 simply because the filmmakers appealed the rating (Anger Management is one example). Kids-in-Mind helps remedy that problem. It is designed to help you learn about the content of any film, and it is updated every Friday to include the newest releases. Here is the way the website works. Rather than rely on the MPAA ratings (G, PG, PG-13, and R), this site gives you three numbers that represent (in order) the amount of sex, violence/gore, and language in a film. Not only that, you can get a description of why a film received that rating. For instance, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull received 1.7.4, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix received 2.6.1. If you click on the movie titles, you will receive brief descriptions of the scenes of violence and the amount of language used in the film. This website has been pretty reliable in balancing out the amount of sex/violence/language with the graphic content of those categories. The best way to use this site is to compare it with a films that you've seen. Look at films that you found acceptable, and then also look at films that you felt were objectionable. This will give you an idea of how to use the ratings to judge films for you and your family. Read the "Help & FAQ" section of the Kids-in-Mind website to learn more about their mission statement. They have been around since 1992, and have the largest database of content reviews available.

Another website that is also useful is ScreenIt. This site is basically the same as Kids-in-Mind, but there are also categories that include Disturbing Images, Jump Scenes (scary sequences in a film), Drug Content, and a few others. However, I find the website very clunky to navigate, and it is bogged down with ads. You can't access the latest reviews unless you are a paid subscriber, and it can be difficult to find an older film.