Horror film dvds on display at child eye-level - not okay or AIBU?

[Magicpaintbrush]

This is something that has annoyed me for quite a while and I'm just wondering whether it's just me being over sensitive, or whether any other parents agree.

It's that horror film dvds are displayed on such low down shelves in supermarkets etc where children can easily see them. Some of them are really horrible, and I know I wouldn't want my daughter to see them.

To me it's just a matter of common sense. People have a right to buy these movies if they want to - absolutely fine. Why can't the shops just display them higher up, where adults can easily see them but they won't be right in the face of any passing 5 year old? Wouldn't that make more sense?

I was in Asda yesterday and they have a horror section from floor level and there was some pretty grim images there. I've attached a pic of one of the ones that was at toddler eye-level. Would you mind your young child seeing this image of a mutilated face sewed up where the eyes/mouth etc should be? Personally it makes me want to vom.

P.S - apologies for the nasty image, I didn't realise it would appear quite so large for those of you with a sensitive stomach, thought it would be a thumbnail.

I agree. It's just common sense to keep such images a little higher up. Sadly, shops won't care a toss or do anything about it if you don't complain.

Well I wouldn't stand and stare at it with them but if they caught sight of it, I'd just say "Ewww" and move them on.

I do agree though, that they should probably be higher up.

The problem is if you put them higher up in our supermarket they'd then be at eyeline for older children - who are in fact more likely to be able to understand and be effected by what they are seeing. Our supermarket has separate adult and children's sections though.

Just whisk your toddler past or don't go through the DVD aisle.

I'm a horror fan, but I agree that if it can be avoided, it should be.

If your Asda is similar to mine, it will have the lower shelving, away from the XBox games and Chart DVDs?

Mine has horror on one side and adult orientated DVDs, history etc, opposite and parents should avoid that isle unless they need to be in it, if they've got issues with it.

I think that some Producers avoid overly graphic covers, if they know that they're going to end up on the £3-£5 shelf, which is a workable solution, as is having alternate covers.

They've toned down the "soft porn" imagery, which I object to more.

Some DVD racks in my local supermarket go well up to adult head height and taller, and I think that graphic 18 rated material should be at the top.

And yes, it ought to be a matter of commonsense.

My HMV has them "spine outwards", which is also a good solution.

Eigg - I must admit I hadn't thought so much about the higher shelves still being within eyesight of teenagers etc. I don't know what the solution would be to that, it's a head-scratcher.

I'm all for avoiding the aisle, but sometimes you may not know the horror section is behind you whilst you're browsing the other way and all the while your kids are in full view of it, or you have to go down that aisle to find something in a different section etc

I used to get the hump with ads for horror films on the side of double decker buses as well - think the 'Saw' films, as I vividly remember there being a poster of a severed head on a pair of scales sailing past me on a bus in the high street and being really irritated at all the little kids who would have seen it go past. Again where's the common sense?

The one I your OP resembles a potato to me. But I agree, in general they should be placed higher up.

PROTECT YOUR CHILDREN FROM EVERYTHING!

As a horror fan from a very young age, I respectfully disagree. Since adverts on the side of buses also bother you, it's hard not to conclude that you don't want these movies visible anywhere. Kids can find lots of things disturbing, not just horror ads, and you can't ban everything that upsets your PFB.

oh no

Ha!

I think, OP, you're confusing your feelings about this genre with your child's (and most other children's) feelings.

goodnight, yes, but the other stuff isn't designed to scare people - horror films (and their promotional images) are. I don't think they should be banned altogether, but it's reasonable to want there to be some effort to prevent children from seeing them close up, even if it is just moving them up a few shelves.

but the other stuff isn't designed to scare people

Totally irrelevant when talking about toddlers / children. Do you know the random things that children are afraid of for no good reason? Examples:

www.buzzfeed.com/mikespohr/29-parents-share-the-funniest-thing-their-kids-are-afraid-of#.phqB6D0qn

I'll just leave that there.

Can't say I'm bothered by it no worse than some of the Halloween decorations you can get its just a DVD case of maybe a head or a deformity etc.

Then again my 6 and 4 year old pretend to be zombies trying to eat my brains at times. The things they learn at school.

To add however ragady? Ann the children's video and Henry hovers used to give me horrendous nightmares as a child. Can't say I had nightmares about severed heads though.

Nothing wrong with being scared of butterflies, those things are creepy.

But of course we can't hide absolutely everything that might conceivably scare a child, else everything under four foot would be just be a giant censor grid (until we find out some kid somewhere is scared of censor grids...). But when something is intended to scare an older teen/adult audience, it's reasonable to assume it may be even scarier to children (not all children, of course, but a more significant amount than those who are scared of Adam Sandler), and therefore it can't hurt to take reasonable precautions to not put it directly in their eyeline.

But when something is intended to scare an older teen/adult audience, it's reasonable to assume it may be even scarier to children

I don't think that logic necessarily holds. But that's just my opinion.

I was terrified of the toilet flushing. But I loved watching Steve McQueen battle The Blob.

It is sensible, I suppose, to not put it in their eyeline, assuming that all toddlers are in buggies in Asda as opposed to in the trolley seat (higher up) or being held (higher up still). But OP being irked about bus ads makes me think that's not quite where she's coming from. Bus ads aren't exactly in their eyeline, are they?

That's a good point about toddlers in trollies/being held, although actually I was thinking more older children that would walk around the supermarket (so I guess... five or six year olds?)

I'll be the first to admit I was a sensitive child - scared of balloons, butterflies and Goosebumps book covers. So the picture in the OP would have probably got to me.

I'm not concerned too much about bus adverts because they are, by their very nature, fleeting!

Oh yes, you're right, OP did say 5 year olds.

Still, that's a lot of lost retail space / chart space that will have to be rearranged ... we're talking 2 or 3 rows of DVDs?