Is it wrong to let my kids 7 and 4 watch Harry Potter?

[Cuppacoffeeinthebigtime]

Watched the first film tonight. 7 year old insisted he was fine with it. 4 year old looked a bit horrified at some parts and had to sit on my lap but begged me not to turn it off. They are now asking to watch the other Potter films but I am thinking after the first 3 films, they would be unsuitable no?

I remember watching a superman film as a 7 year old child where I seem to remember people being turned into robots and it absolutely terrified me and played on my mind for years and that was probably much milder than the Harry Potter films.

[TwinkieTwinkle]

LivetheLife She would also do well to realise that the earlier movies are PGs and in no way graphic. Also that, again, she sounds so embarrassingly pretentious and snooty in some of her posts. I'm cringing.

[BertrandRussell]

"When DS was three/four I let him watch Jurassic Park. Is that also terrible?"


Since you ask- yes.

[TwinkieTwinkle]

bertrand fair enough. He's grown up to be an emotionally stable, well adjusted, intelligent eight year old. Glad to see I didn't destroy his childhood.

[VolumniaDedlock]

my older dd watched the first two Harry Potter films at 4-5, the next two at 6-7. But then she's always been very sanguine about stuff like that. SHe watched Jurassic Park when quite young as well, and loves Dr Who.

She's now 8, and hasn't watched all the HP films yet, but only because she wants to read the books first (she's nearly finished the order of the phoenix so won't be long).

4yo dd2 doesn't watch HP yet, and probably won't for a while - she lacks the concentration and understanding for the plot.

[OutnumberedSupergir]

@Cuppacoffeeinthebigtime curious as to how this worked out for you ☺️ I have a 5 and 8 yr old who haves watched as far as the 4th one but I’m unsure about the rest as I’ve heard they’re quite scary! 8 yr old is reading the books and after he finished each book we watched the movie. 5 yr old is so excited to watch the next film and insists he is not scared and says sure I know it’s not real. Not sure whether to let him watch it or not!!

[MyNameIsH]

I think it's a shame that the only benchmark lots of people are using for whether to let a child watch a film or not is whether they'll be scared. That's surely only a very small part of the point. The bigger question is surely whether they'll understand and appreciate it. There's so much in HP to enjoy - the humour, the language, the plot intricacies, the characters and relationships, the tragedies, etc etc. If a child watches it at 4, the danger is that they'll have moved on by the time they're actually old enough to really appreciate it, and all they'll get out of it is that it's got a flying car and cool spells. I agree with @BertrandRussell that people are in such a hurry for their kids to grow up and move on to older books, films etc. HP at 4, Hunger Games at 8, then what? There are so many magical, fantastic books and films that are aimed at very young children, why not enjoy those instead?

[ShortColdandGrey]

My now 5 year old has seen them all, the goonies, and loved them all. I think it depends on your child and what they find scary. She is also obsessed with Godzilla and King Kong and anything with big monsters in it.

[PolkadotsAndMoonbeams]

As well as some being really quite scary, I'm just not sure how well 5 year olds will understand some of it. I read a lot of Enid Blyton, and knew my cousins went to boarding school, so that aspect of it was something I understood. A five year old is barely at primary school! I think I read the first one when I was in year 3.

I would have seen the first film when I was 9 or 10, and I still found some bits a bit much (and I'd read the books so knew roughly what was going to happen). I do remember the case for the video of the second said gave a warning that it contained "giant fantasy spiders".

[ExConstance]

Mine read the first two books when they were 6, and very much enjoyed them. I'm not sure they would have understood the later books at such a young age as the issues become more complex.

[fdgdfgdfgdfg]

@Cuppacoffeeinthebigtime

Watched the first film tonight. 7 year old insisted he was fine with it. 4 year old looked a bit horrified at some parts and had to sit on my lap but begged me not to turn it off. They are now asking to watch the other Potter films but I am thinking after the first 3 films, they would be unsuitable no?

I remember watching a superman film as a 7 year old child where I seem to remember people being turned into robots and it absolutely terrified me and played on my mind for years and that was probably much milder than the Harry Potter films.

Superman 3 scared the everloving shit out of me as well. Had this image in my head for years of someone being dragged into a computer and being turned into a robot, but couldn't remember what the hell is was from.

Rewatched it a couple of years ago and realised what it was. It's laughably not scary!

On Harry Potter, no I probably wouldn't let a 4 year old watch even the first one, let alone the rest. Even 7 would be a bit iffy for some of the later ones. They're a 12 for good reason.

I've found common sense media a good resource for this sort of thing. www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/harry-potter-and-the-sorcerers-stone

If you read the comments some of them are a bit nuts, but the ratings generally get averaged out, and steer you in the right direction