Have you had this problem where your kids are hooked on to a show and suddenly in season 2 there are new characters or storyline that doesn't align with your values and it is fight and argument to get the kids off of the show?

I have two kids and they want to listen to music, read books or watch TV shows that some of their friends watch. We, as parents, would like to first Google to see what is the age appropriateness of the thing being discussed. Often times, Google would tell you an age rating. Not to blame Google, as they are probably just passing on what the producers of the TV put it or some governing body put in.

But wait a second, there has to be some regulatory body that uses some standards to ensure that all TV has the same standards applied, right?!

Here is what 'Claude-research' revealed.

Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Hulu, etc. still display TV-Y, TV-G, TV-PG, TV-14, TV-MA (and MPAA-style G/PG/PG-13/R for licensed films). But instead of a single network's Standards & Practices team rating everything under one house style, each platform:

• Rates its own original content internally, using guidelines it develops loosely based on the TV Parental Guidelines criteria

• Inherits ratings from studios/distributors for licensed content (a show made for NBC keeps roughly the rating it had there)

• For international content (Netflix licenses a lot of Korean, Spanish, Indian shows, etc.), often has to newly assign a US-equivalent rating since the original country's system won't map directly

Netflix specifically

Netflix has its own internal content classification team and publishes its own guidelines for what qualifies as TV-MA vs TV-14, etc. — they're broadly consistent with the industry standard but Netflix applies them without the same external Monitoring Board oversight that broadcast networks nominally have. Some criticism has focused on Netflix rating things more leniently than a broadcast network might, since there's less loss-of-advertiser risk driving caution.

Ok, forget Netflix, what about Network TV shows?

Here's how the US system works in more detail.

Who sets it

The TV Parental Guidelines system was created in 1996 by the broadcast/cable industry, under pressure from Congress and the FCC (tied to the V-chip mandate in the Telecommunications Act of 1996). It's industry self-regulated — not a government body — overseen by the TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board, which includes representatives from networks, cable operators, and public advocacy groups.

Who actually assigns the rating

Each network or studio rates its own content. There's no single central review board watching every episode — Standards & Practices teams at each network apply the guidelines themselves. The Monitoring Board's job is to field public complaints and periodically review whether ratings are being applied consistently, not to pre-screen everything.

I was very surprised to see this. I was under the impression that there was some governing body, with some standards (based on scientific research) being enforced. Kids are being exposed to content that is given a rating by the business peddling these.

I believe the best judge of this should be the parents. I created my own Claude Skill to review content based on the values that my wife and I believe in. This is very helpful to quickly assess a book before purchasing it or a TV show before kids get hooked on to it in episode 1, only to realize episode 2 doesn't align with our values.

If you are interested to know more about the skill let me know.