What Does TV PG Mean? (Which Ages Can Watch in 2024)

Did you notice a TV-PG icon appear before your show starts? Are you wondering what age group is suitable for watching shows with a TV PG rating?

TV ratings were introduced to make things easier and find how age-appropriate a show is. These are a few letter symbols that will let us know people of what age group can watch a particular show or movie and who cannot.

TV PG is one of the few TV ratings in the USA. So let’s see what precisely the TV-PG TV rating means.

TV PG Meaning

TV PG means Parental Guidance Suggested for children under the age of 7 years. The program may not be unsuitable for younger children as it may have coarse language, moderate violence, or some sexual content. Shows or movies rated TV-PG are generally not recommended for children under seven years old.

Friends is a famous example of a TV show rated TV-PG.

Examples Of TV PG Rated Shows

Below is a list of some popular TV shows that are rated TV-PG.

Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi
Friends
The Santa Clauses
Ricky and Morty
The Simpsons
Modern Family
The Big Bang Theory
Criminal Minds
Top Gun
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

How To Know If A Program Is TV-PG Rated?

Now that you know what TV-PG is and what it implies, you might wonder how to know a show’s TV rating.

Below is the simple way to find the TV ratings of any series, program, or movie.

Visit imbd.com
Click the search bar and search for any TV show, series, or movie.
From the list that appears, click the correct one.
Scroll down and click the Parents Guide option under Storyline.
It will now show the TV rating or certification for that particular show in different countries. To the bottom, you may find the US TV rating.

IMDb is more like a Wikipedia for every TV show and movie on the planet. Chances are, you can find details about pretty much any show on IMDb.

Repeat the same process to find the TV rating of pretty much any movie or series on the planet.

How To Find TV-PG Content?

There may be situations where you need to find TV shows, movies, or programs that are particularly rated TV-PG.

Follow the steps below to find TV-PG content using IMDb.

Visit IMDb’s TV-PG rated content list webpage
All the TV shows mentioned on this page are PG TV rated.
You may use the sort options like user rating, popularity, year, rating, etc to find your favorite show.

At the time of writing this article, the TV-PG-rated shows section of IMDb has more than 200,000 titles.

Parental Guideline TV Ratings

Back in the days when TV ratings were not introduced, people found it extremely hard to know which show was suitable for people of a particular age group and which was not.

Parents raised their concerns as more and more TV shows, and movies started to incorporate more violence, sexual content, coarse language, etc.

TV ratings were introduced to simplify things and easily find how well a show is suitable for people in a particular age group.

With the help of TV ratings, one could easily say who can watch a movie or show simply by looking at the TV rating.

List Of TV Ratings

Apart from TV PG, there are a bunch of other TV ratings which show how suitable a movie or show is to a particular age group.

With this, you can easily decide which show or movie your children should watch or avoid.

Below are the most important TV ratings or TV parental guidelines.

TV-Y

TV-Y is the TV rating for movies and shows that can be watched by everyone, irrespective of age. Children from ages 2 to 6 can comfortably watch this kind of shows.

TV-Y7

From TV-Y7 is where restriction starts to kick in. Programs rated TV-Y7 is suitable to be watched by children of age 7 and above.

TV-Y7 FV

TV-Y7 FV is a step up to the TV-Y7. The ‘FV’ content descriptor means the show may contain more fantasy violence, which can be more intense than other shows or programs rated TV-Y7.

TV-G

Similar to TV-Y, TV-G is a TV rating that says the content can be watched by people of all ages. In most cases, there will be little to no violence, strong language, or sexual dialogues or scenarios.

TV-PG

TV PG means parental guidance is recommended. The show may not be appropriate for children less than the age of seven. Adult supervision is recommended for younger children. Shows with a TV-PG rating may contain sexual content, coarse language, or a bit of violence.

TV-14

Shows or movies rated TV-14 are generally not recommended to be watched by children below the age of 14. Most parents find it unsuitable for children below 14. Programs with this rating may have a bit more violence, strong language, or sexual scenes.

TV-MA

Programs rated TV-MA are not to be watched by children under the age of 17. Most TV-MA programs are adult-only content to be watched by people at least 18 or above. One may expect explicit sexual content, nudity, violence, or strong language in shows rated TV-MA.

Parental Guidelines Sub Ratings (Content Descriptors )

A program is given a TV rating based on the kind of content included, like vigorous sexual activity, strong language, nudity, or violence.

Some shows may contain violence but not nudity, or others may contain strong language but not violence or sexual content.

Some parents may be OK with letting their children watch violent content, but not nudity. It may become difficult for the parents to identify individual shows just by looking at the parental guidelines alone.

This is the reason why content descriptors or sub-ratings are introduced.

Below are all the sub-ratings or content descriptors.

D – Suggestive dialogue
L – Coarse language
S – Sexual content
V – Violence
FV – Fantasy violence

By looking at the content descriptor, one may easily say which show has coarse language content but not sexual content.

How To Block PG TV Shows On Your TV

Since TV-PG shows are not recommended for children under the age of 7, you may want to block certain content from appearing on your TV.

Almost all leading TV manufacturers have an option called parental controls, which will let the parents block or restrict access to shows rated with specific ratings.

For example, if you have children below seven in your home, you may enable TV-PG parental control and block them.

Once parental control is enabled, shows with that particular rating won’t appear on the TV again unless turned off.

You may refer to the user manual or visit the official website of TV manufacturers to find more details on how to enable parental controls on your TV.

Apart from the TV, some apps like Netflix, etc., also provide us the option to enable parental controls and set age restrictions.

You are advised to enable parental controls on the app level as well.

For example, you may set age restrictions for a particular profile on Netflix. If you set restrictions for TV-PG content, no more TV-PG content will appear on that specific profile on Netflix.

Enable Parental Control on Netflix

Follow the steps below to set parental controls on a profile on Netflix.

Login to your Netflix account from a web browser
Head to the Account page
Click Profile & Parental Control settings
Click the Change button next to Viewing Restrictions
Enter your Netflix account password to authorize
Select the rating and click the save button

You have successfully enabled parental control on a Netflix profile. Now onwards, only shows that are suitable to the age category will appear on Netflix.

Wrapping Up

TV-PG is a certified TV rating that says parental guidance is suggested. Generally TV shows, movies, or series rated TV-PG are not suitable for children below the age of 7.

Apart from TV-PG, there are a bunch of other TV ratings which say how appropriate is a show for people in a particular age group.

If you have children below the age of 7, it is recommended that you turn on parental controls on your TV or streaming app so that only content recommended for that particular rage group shows up on the TV.