History Main / SameContentDifferentRating

* Presumably due to it containing [[ValuesDissonance heavy Asian sterotyping throughout]], WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones episode "The Prowler" is given a TV-14 rating on Max - episodes of the show usually carry a TV-G rating, typical of most classic TV shows.

* In some Asian countries, ''Animation/BreadBarbershop'' has a 7+ rating, but in the United States it's rated TV-Y, which implies it's appropriate for preschoolers. Didn't stop certain not-appropriate-for-preschoolers jokes and scenes from slipping through (such as an attempted ''exorcism'').

** The British Board of Film Classification gives most of the home video releases a 12 or 15 certificate, although they were all AA or X (equivalent to a modern 18) back in the day. Some of them were an 18 in TheEighties (during the whole "video nasty" panic) but have dropped since. Outside Dracula, Hammer's ''Film/XTheUnknown'' and ''Film/TheQuatermassXperiment'' are PG, although the titles were originally intended to sell "These films have X-certificates!" The only Hammer horrors that seem to currently be 18 are some of the LesbianVampire ones, and that's probably not because of the horror content.

* ''Film/TheQuatermassXperiment'' was an X certificate film when it was released in 1955, due to the horror of a human transforming into a StarfishAlien as the precursor to an invasion. By the time of the video release in 2003, it got a PG rating in the UK.

** The British Board of Film Classification gives most of the home video releases a 12 or 15 certificate, although they were all AA or X (equivalent to a modern 18) back in the day. Some of them were an 18 in TheEighties (during the whole "video nasty" panic) but have dropped since.

** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword Skyward Sword]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Breath of the Wild]]'' are rated M in Australia (M being the equivalent of ESRB's Teen), despite having lower ratings like ESRB E10+ and CERO A everywhere else.

** ''[[VideoGame/SonicRushSeries Sonic Rush Adventure]]'' was rated E in the US and Canada, but its European release was initially rated 12+, due to Marine the Raccoon [[DidNotDoTheBloodyResearch using the word "bugger"]] in one cutscene. The rating was lowered to 3+ after her dialogue was edited to remove the offending word.

* ''WesternAnimation/JonahAVeggieTalesMovie'' was rated G in its' inital theatrical release. Amazon's print of the film rates it for ages 7 and up, likely due to the plot point of Jonah wanting God to kill the Ninevites, as well as [[spoiler: The Slap of No Return]].

* When the ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' anime first began airing in North America, it was rated TV-Y on Kids WB and in syndication. When the series moved to Cartoon Network from season 9 onward, the rating was bumped up to TV-Y7-FV and the rating was modified accordingly for reruns and DVD releases of earlier seasons.

** ''VideoGame/KirbysReturnToDreamLand'', also known as ''Kirby's Adventure Wii'', is the first game in the ''Kirby'' series to have an E10+ rating, but it's hardly more violent than any other game in the series. The Japanese version averted this by having it rated A, which is the E rating for Japan. This would mean that either the Japanese or the Americans are missing something with this game. The same thing applies to ''VideoGame/KirbyStarAllies'' and ''VideoGame/KirbyAndTheForgottenLand''.

* ''Every'' single game on the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch Online app is slapped with a blanket Teen (13+) rating, including games which really don't deserve it like ''VideoGame/MarioGolf'', due to the inclusion of games like ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'', ''VideoGame/SinAndPunishment'', and ''VideoGame/GoldenEye1997'' and the ESRB not rating games on the service individually.

** An interesting case, as the content is all the same. It's just that the improved graphics from game-to-game, making the sexy figures of the main cast more obvious. As such, the series has gone from the Game Boy Color original being rated E, then ''VideoGame/ShantaeRiskysRevenge'' and ''VideoGame/ShantaeAndThePiratesCurse'' getting an E10+, before ''VideoGame/ShantaeHalfGenieHero'' and onwards settled into a comfortable T rating for "Suggestive Themes". ''VideoGame/ShantaeAndTheSevenSirens'' temporarily dropped again to an E10+ rating before someone at the ESRB doubled-checked and gave it a T rating before its final release.

** When ''[[VideoGame/SuperMario64 Super Mario 64 DS]]'' and the original ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros1'' first came out in Europe they both got 3+ ratings, but when Nintendo of Europe re-released them on the Wii U Virtual Console in 2015 they both got 12+ Ratings because of the casino minigames.

** The first episode of ''VideoGame/StrongBadsCoolGameForAttractivePeople'', ''Homestar Ruiner'', was given a T rating in North America by the ESRB, and the remaining four episodes were rated E10+. This discrepancy is not present in the European releases, which are all rated 12 by PEGI and 0 in Germany by USK (the latter is ironically lower than ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'', which was released around the same time and rated 6 by USK)

* The changing over of the PEGI system from the BBFC in the United Kingdom has led to several ratings jumps. For example, ''VideoGame/MassEffect'', originally rated 12 by the BBFC, is now legally rated 18 in the UK by PEGI.

* ''VideoGame/RuneFactory4'', when originally released for the Nintendo 3DS, was rated E10+ by the ESRB for "Fantasy Violence, Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol". Upon being ported to the Nintendo Switch in the "Special" edition, it was rerated T for "Fantasy Violence, ''Mild'' Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol". As many were surprised by the E10+ rating for the original version due to its frequent mild swearing and sexual innuendo, it appears the ESRB decided their original decision was a bit too lenient.

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** If [[https://simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/Episodes_Rated_TV-14 this page]] is to be believed, the early episode "Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish"[[note]]the season two episode where Mr. Burns runs for governor in a bid to save the nuclear plant after Bart and Lisa find a three-eyed fish while fishing in a nearby river[[/note]] is rated TV-14, despite its content being no different from other Season 2 episodes (all of which were rated TV-PG). Also, on FXX, this episode (along with every other episode that preceded the TV Ratings System) has a TV-PG for suggestive dialogue (D), and this airing is also no different.

* For a brief period in 2021, ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' was bumped-up in South Korea from a 12+ rating (which is what it's generally rated as internationally) to '''18+''. Since 2011, Korea had in place the "Youth Protection Revision Act" which prohibited minors from playing video games between midnight to 6 AM -- previously, [[LoopholeAbuse this was easily circumvented]] as the game could be accessed through a Creator/{{Mojang}} account that has no age verification requirement, but in the mass migration towards Xbox Live accounts between 2020 to 2021 (which do require users to be 19 and above), ''Minecraft'' was reclassified. This ended up reigniting backlash towards the heavily-criticized "Cinderella law", and with the assistance of Microsoft and petitioners (one petition on the Korean government's official website accruing over 88 thousand signatures), the law was officially repealed in August 2021, and the game has since returned to being 12+.

* This trope may very well be at the heart of the "Han shot first" controversy surrounding the ''Franchise/StarWars'' Special Edition. The scene in ''Film/ANewHope'' when Han shoots Greedo after being threatened flew under the censors' radar back in 1977, but could've bumped the rating up two decades later after the PG-13 rating was created. Thus, some people speculate that this is why the scene was [[AdaptationalSelfDefense edited so that Greedo shot first]]. This is especially hilarious because the film was almost rated "G" -- yes, ''G'' -- back in 1977. This despite the fact that it features charred corpses, a bloody severed arm, multiple violent deaths, ''genocide'', and a "heroic" character who starts out as a {{Jerkass}} smuggler. The BBFC classified the UK release of all three original trilogy films ''U''.

* ''VideoGame/WarioWare Gold'' was rated E10+ despite no significant differences in content between any of the series’ previous E-rated installments - including the exact same descriptors as ''Twisted'' and ''Touched'' (Cartoon Violence, Crude Humor) and an ESRB rating summary that cites some of the ''exact'' same microgames as previous entries. ''Smooth Moves'' was rated E10+, but that had some slightly edgier microgames that bumped up the rating.

** The [[VideoGame/SuperSmashBros64 original game]] for Nintendo 64 was rated E. Its sequels, ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosMelee'' and ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'', are both rated T, despite having the same level of violence as the original (no blood, no gore, just characters getting smacked around and sent flying). However, some of the sound effects in the first game were replaced with more cartoony ones when the game was released outside of Japan. The higher rating was because the graphics of ''Melee'' and ''Brawl'' were more realistic than the original. For ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU'' and ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'', the rating drops to E10+, despite having ''even more'' detailed graphics, and [[NightmareFuel horrifying]] FamilyUnfriendlyViolence in ''Ultimate'''s case. Some people hypothesize that ''Melee'' would have gotten E10+ as well, had that rating existed at the time, but this doesn't explain ''Brawl''.

* ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'':
** The pilot episode "Rabbot" originally aired with a TV-PG rating before being re-rated TV-MA in late 2015. This was likely due to [[spoiler:a listing for "Rabbot" being used as a cover for the ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force Forever'' finale "The Greatest Story Ever Told", which actually ''did'' carry the latter rating.]]
** Zig-zagged with Creator/HBOMax. While most of the episodes carried over their original ratings, a few episodes produced between 2008 and 2011 such as "Multiple Meat" and "Hands on a Hamburger" were re-rated TV-MA due to uncensored audio being used.

* ''WesternAnimation/KipoAndTheAgeOfWonderbeasts'': Despite being rated TV-Y7-FV in America and similarly elsewhere around the world, the Singaporean version of Netflix gave the show a baffling ''M18'' rating[[note]]Equivalent to the R or TV-MA rating in America[[/note]]. This is most likely due to [[spoiler: Benson saying that he was gay in episode 6]] and countries like Singapore not being as accepting or tolerant of homosexuality, especially if it's in a children's cartoon. This is downplayed in the Philippines, where portrayals of homosexuality has become more accepted over the years, yet homophobia is still rampant especially with more conservative people, and the show is given a 13+ rating.

** Around summer 2017, Comedy Central re-rated the episodes from seasons 1 to 20 from TV-MA to TV-14-DLSV (for moderate-to-strong suggestive dialogue, offensive language, sexual content, and violence), with the exception of particularly controversial episodes such as "[[Recap/SouthParkS9E12TrappedInTheCloset Trapped In The Closet]]" (due to gun violence from Music/RKelly, the innuendo about Creator/TomCruise being gay, and the general mocking of Scientology) and "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson" (due to racist content and discriminatory language). Unlike the syndicated editions, which are also rated TV-14, these episodes are not edited for content, merely rated TV-14 because the TV-MA rating is only allowed on programs that air after 10pm. The reasoning for this change is obvious: [[ValuesDissonance what made most of those original seasons so shocking and offensive at first is now par for the course for adult animation]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheRaccoons'' has been rated C (the Canadian equivalent of TV-Y) in the past, but on Boomerang Canada, it's now rated PG, presumably for tobacco use.

* ''Every'' single game on the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch Online app is slapped with a blanket Teen (13+) rating, including games which really don't deserve it like ''VideoGame/MarioGolf'', due to the inclusion of games like ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'' or ''VideoGame/SinAndPunishment'' and the ESRB not rating games on the service individually.