Dream Tropes Wiki/Content Warnings

Template:TropeSometimes, producers or distributors feel the need to warn the viewers of what they are about to see. This serves to help viewers who might not like what they're about to see stop looking at it before things get unpleasant; for others, it's an invitation to watch.

Content warnings are often given in conjunction with a ratings system as an explanation of why a given work has the rating it does. In most cases, these are selected from a list of stock warnings (e.g. "strong language", "violence", "imitable behavior", or the very general "viewer discretion advised") — these don't really provide much of an explanation. A warning specific to the work shows that the work itself is fairly controversial or otherwise unusual.

Like most other content rating systems, this only serves as an aid to the viewer's decision of whether or not to keep watching; what viewers actually decide is up to them. This hasn't stopped Moral Guardians from insisting on content warnings as a sort of deterrent from imitating harmful things, not realizing that most viewers tend to ignore such warnings or even consider them an indicator of the really good stuff. Works which try to capitalize on the latter phenomenon are often Rated M for Money.

See also Media Classifications and Trigger, as well as Our Lawyers Advised This Trope, Don't Try This at Home, Do Not Attempt, This Is a Work of Fiction, and NSFW. Compare R-Rated Opening.

## Examples

### Other

* One you might see in El Kadsre: "This programme contains a depiction of the end of times, which may offend or distress some Shintoist viewers." Kadsreius Shintoists consider it taboo to discuss or predict the end of the world, so this warning is especially common for series or films that they might watch.
* For Nicktoons' AniWay block, some of the anime start with a content warning featuring footage from the anime aired that represents what the warning is about.
	+ For Latin America, the "Violence" warning has footage from the first episode of *Pita-Ten* where Misha gets a door slammed in her face, the "Blood" warning has footage from *Saint Seiya*, and the "Inappropriate Content" warning has the clip from *Sailor Moon* where Sailor Mercury falls down and Sailor Jupiter blushes at her as a result.
* ETVKK has a set of these content warnings now:
	+ "The following program is rated PG and it is intended for an older youth audience. Viewer discretion is advised." (used on *A Series of Unfortunate Events*, *Nowhere Boys*, *Silverwing*, *Himouto! Umaru-chan*, *Kulipari: An Army of Frogs*, *Kulipari: Dream Walker*, *Charlotte*, *RWBY*,*Detentionaire*, *Fred's Head, Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid*, *Samurai Pizza Cats*, *Braceface*, *Ranma ½*, *Guardians of Ga'Hoole: The Animated Series*, *Warrior Cats*, *The Tofus*, *Stranger Things*, *Pita-Ten*, *Degrassi: Next Class*, *Home and Away, Soy Luna*, *The Office*, *Pelswick*, *Little Witch Academia*, most episodes of *Oddity Archive*, nighttime airings of the Funimation dub of *One Piece* and the uncut Viz Media dub of *Sailor Moon*, and certain episodes of *The Animals of Farthing Wood*, *The Lion Guard* and *Toad Patrol*)
	+ "The following program is rated PG and it contains mature situations/themes and is intended for an older youth audience. Viewer discretion is advised." (Used for *The Red Green Show*, *Karin*, *Modern Family*, *Malcolm in The Middle*, *Mystery Science Theater 3000*, *No Game No Life*, *Blend S*, *Dragon Ball Super*, *Gintama*, *The Cinema Snob*, *Azumanga Daioh*, *Corner Gas*, *Doctor Who*, *Monty Python's Flying Circus,* *Riverdale*, *Urusei Yatsura*, *King of the Hill*, the *Symphogear* series, *Street Hawk*, *Jack Whitehall: Travels with My Father*, *Queer as Folk*, nighttime airings of the uncut dub of *InuYasha*, and certain episodes of *Oddity Archive* and *Magic Knight Rayearth*; in general, the warning means the content is mature in both the sense of being potentially objectionable and that of likely being unrelatable to younger viewers.)
	+ "The following program is rated M and it contains coarse language and is intended for an older youth audience. Viewer discretion is advised." (A rather rare disclaimer, one of the few times it has been used was on the "Red Green Does New Years" episode of *The Red Green Show*; mainly because of a scene where Red assembles a light-up sign using heating elements from toasters - wherein the sign reads "TOAST YOURSELF AT NEW YEARS EVE" at first, but then most of the letters burn out, making it "YOU FAT A\*\*\*".; this disclaimer has also showed up on some episodes of *Oddity Archive* and nighttime airings of certain episodes of the uncut dub of *InuYasha*)
	+ "The following program is rated M and it contains mature content, coarse language and is intended for an older youth audience. Viewer discretion is advised." (Used before *Code Monkeys*, *Filthy Rich & Catflap*, *Father Ted*, *Axis Powers Hetalia*, *The Slayers*, *Tripping the Rift*, *Bottom*, *Aqua Teen Hunger Force*, *Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt*, *Lupin III*, the *Top Gear* series, *13 Reasons Why, Ghost Stories*, *My Hero Academia, Osomatsu-san*, *The Grand Tour*, *Code Geass*, *Code Geass R2*, *Svengoolie*, and some episodes of *Oddity Archive*)
	+ "The following program is rated M and it contains scenes of violence and is intended for an older youth audience. Viewer discretion is advised." (Used before *B't X*, *Sword Art Online: Alicization*, *JoJo's Bizarre Adventure*, the nighttime airings of the uncut Gotaku dub of *Saint Seiya*, and the nighttime airings of the Funimation dub of *The Vision of Escaflowne*)
	+ "The following program is rated M and it contains scenes of violence, coarse language and is intended for an older youth audience. Viewer discretion is advised." (Used before *Wolf Howl*, *The Angry Video Game Nerd*, *Soul Eater*, *Saga of Tanya the Evil*, *Death Note*, *Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Kill la Kill, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Hellsing*, *Hellsing Ultimate, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex*, *Attack on Titan*, *The Simpsons*, *Corner Gas Animated*, certain episodes of *The Cinema Snob*, and nighttime airings of certain episodes of the Funimation dub of *One Piece*)

### Film

* Whenever *C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America* is aired by El TV Kadsre 4, they put up a disclaimer saying "This program contains material that is representative of the views and attitudes of an alternate history timeline. Viewer discretion is recommended *but* not advised."
* El TV Kadsre uses a disclaimer saying "The opinions expressed in the following program, [insert name of show here], do not reflect the values and views of El TV Kadsre, and of whom is not responsible for it's content" which is played before everything it considers "controversial" - it has been shown before films such as *Bowling for Columbine* and *Hillary's America* and TV shows such as *Last Week Tonight with John Oliver*. El TV Kadsre 3 uses variants that say "El TV Kadsre would like you to know we weren't involved in the production of the next program, [insert name of show here]. We haven't even seen it." and "Due to circumstances beyond our control, El TV Kadsre 3 is forced to show this next program, [insert name of show here], which is not ours. If you're not interested or are of a different political stance than the producers of the program, too bad."
* In TV airings of *The Aria Movie*, Surtiopouio puts up a disclaimer: "This may be based on a teen show, but this movie is *very* adult, including sexual imagery, swears, blood and whatnot else. And it also goes on for 2 hours. Since this is a restricted film and because laws, unless you're over 17, you have to have your parents accompany you while watching. So yes, viewer discretion is HEAVILY advised."

### Live-Action TV

* When Oyfish hit the El Kadsreian airwaves in 1989, it was preceded with a long warning saying "...this program contains [sexual] intercorse (sic), violence, and VERY strong language...adults are the main target audience, thus kids should NOT watch this...viewer discretion is HEAVILY advised."
* On the El Kadsre produced tapes of *Schweetzman*, there is a content warning similar to the El TV Kadsre 3 content warning disclaimer.

### Video Games

* On the Japanese blurbs of many danmaku games by Drillimation, usually a disclaimer reading "This game contains scenes of danmaku" is placed on the back of the box.