Teens Should Be Allowed Into Rated R Movies

Teens Should be Allowed into Rated R Movies

This past weekend I went to the movie theatres with IMG. Everyone who went was of course, a teen. Pretty much everyone was there had no idea what they were going to see, but the only movies that looked at least somewhat entertaining were rated R. I waited in one of the two lines to buy tickets, one had a lady working the ticket desk, and the other had a man working the desk. As the younger kids probably ages 14-15 asked for tickets to see Ouija, a horror movie, the ticket lady told them flat out no. The kids were pissed and had to settle to see a lame movie. Luckily when it was my turn to ask for tickets to see Gone Girl, which was also a rated R movie, the guy didn’t even ask my age he just told me the price and I bought my tickets for my friend and I.

Because teens are going to watch rated R movies anyways the reasoning in banning teens from watching the movie in theatres is illogical. I asked twenty teens around the IMG campus ages 13 to 17 if they have ever seen a rated R movie and they all answered yes. I then went on to ask if they have ever snuck into a rated R movie without a parent or someone over 17 and 80% of the teens also answered yes. The evidence from the poll shows that teens will watch a rated R movie despite the set parameters on age because of their sheer willpower to watch what they want to watch.

The majority of teens are mature enough to handle it. Maturity is defined in psychology as the ability to respond to the environment in an appropriate manner. Age boundaries are drawn mainly for political reasons, not for scientific ones. Studies have shown that there is no single age at which the adolescent brain becomes an adult brain. Surely the maturity required to drive cars unaccompanied, or the maturity needed to risk your life by choosing to face combat exceeds the maturity needed to see a rated R movie or drinking.

If children are already watching PG-13 movies with the same...