MPA Distances Itself From Instagram’s ‘PG-13’ Rating for Teens

The Motion Picture Association, the trade group that represents major Hollywood studios, apparently didn’t get a heads up that Meta‘s Instagram was going to borrow the MPA’s PG-13 ratings framework for its new teen settings in the app.

“The Motion Picture Association was not contacted by Meta prior to the announcement of its new content moderation tool for Instagram Teen Accounts,” MPA chairman and CEO Charles Rivkin said in a statement. “We welcome efforts to protect kids from content that may not be appropriate for them, but assertions that Instagram’s new tool will be ‘guided by PG-13 movie ratings’ or have any connection to the film industry’s rating system are inaccurate.”

A rep for Instagram did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Earlier Tuesday, Instagram announced that it was revamping its Teen Accounts to be “guided” by the MPA’s PG-13 movie rating. What that means, according to Instagram, is that users of teen accounts (supervised by a parent) will be restricted to seeing content that contains the level of nudity, sexual expression, profanity, drug use, violence and other adult-oriented themes that they they would expect to see in a PG-13 movie.

The MPA (formerly the Motion Picture Association of America) introduced its film-ratings system in November 1968 under then-chairman Jack Valenti. Since then, the Classification and Rating Administration (CARA) has operated the voluntary film-rating system with a Ratings Board comprised of parents who must have a child between the ages of 5 and 15 when they first join (and who can serve up to seven years or until their youngest child turns 21). The Ratings Board watches every movie in its entirety and assigns it a rating and descriptor that aligns with the views of the majority of American parents. Over 90% of parents say CARA’s film ratings help them make better viewing choices for their families, according to the MPA.

MPA member studios are Netflix, Paramount Pictures, Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, Sony Pictures, Universal Studios, Walt Disney Studios and Warner Bros. Discovery.