def parse_certificates(soup):
    """
    Parses the certificates specific to the United States.
    :param soup: Beautiful soup object for the certificates section
    :return: List of the ratings that were found
    """
    # removes the first item because it does not needed
    rating_tags = soup.find_all('a')[1:]
    rating_codes = [code.string for code in rating_tags]
    mpaa = []

    if rating_codes:
        for rating in rating_codes:
            # sorry international folks, only interested in the US ratings
            if rating.startswith('United States'):
                mpaa.append(rating)
    return mpaa