Obviously the Venom movie is handling the character with a firmer hand compared to how he’d be depicted in a cartoon, but as Hardy sees it, PG-13 provides a nice balance between appealing to the adult fans and still giving the kids some things to enjoy.
Tom Hardy makes a valid point.
While it certainly would have been interesting to see Venom tackled through an R-rated, more adult oriented-lens, by taking the PG-13 route, this affords the movie the opportunity to draw in a wider viewing audience.
As Hardy noted in his interview with MTV, although Venom is one of the scarier-looking Marvel Comics characters, younger fans know all about him because of how prominent he is in the Spider-Man mythology.