We Started This Because “Parental Guidance Suggested” Doesn’t Actually Guide Anyone
Screen Parent Guide exists because of a specific moment: a mother standing in a theater lobby, phone in hand, trying to figure out if “PG-13 for violence and some language” meant her eleven-year-old was about to watch a stylized action movie or something that was going to give him nightmares for a week. The rating didn’t tell her that. It never does. MPAA, TV Parental Guidelines, ESRB, age certificates from a dozen other countries they hand you a letter or a number and expect you to trust it, without ever explaining what’s actually on the screen.
That’s the gap we built this site to close. We don’t just tell you what a title is rated. We tell you why, scene by scene where it matters, so you can make the call yourself instead of hoping a two-letter code did your thinking for you.
We cover movies, TV series, anime, Korean dramas, video games, and books, because kids don’t consume media in one lane anymore, and neither should a ratings guide.
Our Mission
To give parents the specific content information they came looking for, the language, the violence, the themes, the context without the padding, the moralizing, or the guesswork. We’re not here to tell you what your family should watch. We’re here to make sure you have the real information before you decide.
What Makes Our Content Different
We watch things, we don’t skim summaries. Every title on this site has actually been sat through, start to finish, by someone here. If a guide references a specific scene, that scene was watched, not pulled from a synopsis or a forum thread.
We treat anime and K-dramas as their own category, not an afterthought. Japanese and Korean rating systems (CERO, KMRB, and the rest) don’t map cleanly onto American ones, and most U.S. parenting sites either ignore that entirely or flatten it into a single letter grade that misses the point. We don’t.
Context over hysteria. A single use of strong language in an otherwise thoughtful drama is not the same as the same word used casually forty times. We say so, instead of treating every red flag as equally disqualifying.
Meet the Team
Rebecca Hollis, Founder
Rebecca spent seven years as a submissions reader and content analyst for an independent film ratings consultancy that worked with distributors before films went to festival and theatrical release, the unglamorous work of watching rough cuts and flagging anything that would affect a certificate, long before critics or audiences ever saw the finished film. She has a degree in Film Studies from Emerson College, with a thesis focused on how content classification systems shifted through the 1990s and what got lost in translation when ratings boards tried to compress two hours of nuance into a single letter.
That job taught her something she didn’t expect: the people most confused by ratings weren’t casual moviegoers, they were parents who took the ratings seriously and still felt blindsided. She started keeping her own notes on films after her daughter was born, initially just for herself and two other moms in her building, then as a shared spreadsheet, and eventually as this site once she realized the spreadsheet had grown to over 600 entries and strangers on parenting forums kept asking to see it.
She still watches almost every major theatrical release within its opening week, in a theater, on purpose, because she’s found that how an audience reacts in the room tells her things a screener at home doesn’t.
Min-jun Park, Anime & K-Drama Lead
Min-jun Park is the Anime & K-Drama Lead at Screen Parent Guide, where he specializes in evaluating television series through the lens of content suitability for families and parents.
Before joining the editorial team, Min-jun spent six years working in subtitle localization for a major streaming platform. His work involved reviewing episodes repeatedly across multiple stages of translation, subtitle timing, quality assurance, and cultural adaptation. That experience gave him an unusually detailed understanding of how stories, dialogue, and visual content evolve from their original language to international audiences.
Raised between Seoul and Los Angeles, Min-jun has developed a deep familiarity with both Korean and Japanese entertainment. Over the years, he has completed hundreds of anime series and Korean dramas, approaching each title with an editor’s perspective rather than that of a casual viewer. He pays particular attention to tonal shifts, pacing, and the points where a series moves from mild themes into stronger violence, sexual content, frightening scenes, or mature subject matter.
His reviews focus on providing practical, scene-aware guidance instead of relying solely on official age ratings. Because many anime and K-dramas change dramatically as a season progresses, he believes parents deserve information that reflects the complete viewing experience rather than only the opening episodes.
At Screen Parent Guide, Min-jun oversees all anime and Korean drama content guides. He also compares Japanese, Korean, and U.S. content classification systems to provide readers with clear, consistent recommendations that help families make informed viewing decisions.
Matthew Creith, Games & Editorial Review
Matthew Creith, spent five years as a playtester and content reviewer for a mid-sized game studio, work that specifically included flagging content for ESRB submission, violence intensity, language frequency, and how in-game choices could shift a title’s rating between builds. He’s one of the few people writing about game ratings for parents who has actually sat in the room where an ESRB rating gets discussed before it’s assigned, not just read the box after the fact.
He holds a degree in Communications with a focus on media and child development, and before games, spent two years working part-time at a public library’s youth services desk, fielding the exact question this site is built to answer: “is this okay for my kid,” asked about everything from a T-rated shooter to a graphic novel with a cover that looked more intense than its actual content.
As editor, David reviews every guide before it publishes, checking that ratings citations are current and that descriptions of violence, language, or mature themes are specific rather than vague. He’s the one who insists a guide say “one use of a strong expletive in the final act” instead of “some language,” because he’s watched enough parents get burned by the vague version.
Our Editorial Standards
- Every title is watched or played in full by a member of our team before a guide is published. We do not write guides from trailers, summaries, or other sites.
- Ratings and certificate information are checked against official sources (MPAA, TV Parental Guidelines, ESRB, CERO, KMRB, and relevant international boards) at the time of publication, with a “last updated” date on each guide.
- No studio, publisher, distributor, or platform can pay for placement, a featured guide, or a more favorable content description.
- Affiliate links, where used, are disclosed within the article and in our Privacy Policy.
- We welcome corrections. If a detail in a guide is outdated or wrong, tell us through our Contact page and we’ll review it.
Get in Touch
Corrections, requests for a title we haven’t covered yet, or partnership questions, reach out through our Contact page. We read everything.