How firm are you with age ratings on films/games?

[BowieFan]

DS1 and DS2 are both 14 (15 in two weeks) and I've pretty much let them watch anything up to a 15 since they were about 11, as they were both sensible kids and most of the time they were watching the films with us anyway.

18 rated films are kind of an approval basis. DS1 is a horror nut and I have no issue with him seeing things like The Exorcist or Friday the 13th. Anything like 50 Shades of Grey, they'd have to come to me first to have a discussion on why it's not a healthy relationship and all that, and if they understood it I'd probably let them watch.

Games don't come up that often but I've pretty much let them have GTA and CoD since they were 12 as me and DP are both gamers and understand what they're playing. We wouldn't let them have horror games until this year though because we're aware they affect you differently to horror films.

How firm are you on age rating things?

I haven't got time to pre-watch film or test all the latest games so I just go by the ratings.

I did let 10yo DD watch a 12C though, because I wanted to watch it: a nice subtitled film about a dog. (Belle and Sebastian) She got completely hysterical when the dog slipped off the side of a mountain. That taught me.

And my DC are very mature and independent in other ways, so I don't think they're generally immature, but they are kids and I don't want them exposed to violence.

I grew up in a religious household and all age guidelines were strictly adhered to. Of course at the time I felt so hard done by, but looking back it has done me no harm. They were doing what they felt was right, I just wanted to do what my friends were doing.

I plan to be more lenient and judge on a case by case basis, but not as lenient as my 13 year old self would hope!

We were more strict with ds1, but he's got a really active imagination and used to be very easily scared when he was little. Ds2, 7, has watched all the Star Wars and Harry Potter films, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, because we've all watched them so many times we know which bits to warn him about and he isn't affected in the same way. It's swearing and sexual stuff I'm more careful about than violence if it's in a fantasy context - pretty sure he gets that light Sabers and orcs aren't real!

Lynette I was sure Belle and Sebastian was a PG ...

The Common Sense Media site is quite useful for the little summary if anything that parents might want to be aware of in each film - not just violence but potentially upsetting things which might mean certain kids will be more affected by a given film than the rating suggests etc.

Mine have been watching all the popular stuff since about 5 onwards. Ds1 now 12, ds2 now 7. So all the Star Wars, Harry Potter, Marvel stuff, James Bond, etc. Nothing's inappropriately scary or sexual in those. All of their friends watch about the same.
I have only one friend who objects her dc watching Harry Potter, but only because 'witchcraft is un-Christian'.
Oh, and one school mum once told me off for 11yo's watching Hellboy, but i must admit i never paid attention to it being "12". Really. Watched numerous times, and nothing more 'grown-up' than Avengers.

No, nothing inappropriate for a 5 year year old in James Bond at all. Absolutely nothing.

Ffs.

This is the argument for books BowieFan as it's easier to self censor when you're reading. Anything on screen sucks you in and its easier to watch something unpleasant than it is to turn the darned thing off.

We let 9yo watch 12 ratings, i.e. Zelda game and last night we all watched the Chris Hemsworth / Moby Dick film. He's already heard that bad language in the car and he wasn't fazed by the gory bits. I don't let him watch / read ANY horror though. He didn't even get to watch Mona the Vampire! 😁

Having read through this entire thread I'm surprised to see that OP thinks Alien is ok because it only features one instance of overt gore. And that's true. But it's a horror movie. It's not just about gore and sex and swearing, it's about threat. That's why some PGs have 'mild threat' on the label. Threat can be a lot more terrifying than gore in a way that a child could find harder to rationalise when they're alone in the dark in bed at night.

Would you allow your child to play Alien Isolation because they've seen Alien? Assuming you've not played it?

Was about to pick up on James Bond being appropriate for an 8 year old aswell!!

Some of the older ones perhaps not so bad, but the most recent films are very violent/disturbing. Almost 11 year old DD watched the latest one, and asked it was a 15 as it was so much more graphic than anything else she'd watched (and I felt bad that I'd not watched it first but just assumed it would be fine). If people's much younger DC are not finding this the case, then this suggests they have been desensitised to a worrying level.

Vanilla I find books far more intense than films - so does one of my DC, who can watch films relatively superficially but has a vivid imagination which can scare her and remain with her in a way someone else's imagining on a screen doesn't.

I do think that young kids who just aren't affected by watching age inappropriate stuff are watching it very superficially and not understanding most of it - same goes for books. There's probably no harm in that case but also little to no actual point!

Surely it makes more sense to read and watch things the child can understand and engage with, rather than stuff you hope will go over their head...

With the older James Bonds I suppose the main issue for very young children is that they just absorb, accept and internal use the misogyny - they don't have the filter or the discernment to see the tongue in cheek aspect nor the "of its time" anachronism. The violence in the really old James Bond films is on a par withTom and Jerry so probably not the issue.

*internalise not internal use

FeliciaJollygoodfellow

I've played Alien Isolation and loved it but my DS1 found it boring when he played it. Didn't scare him. I only let him play it because he'd played Dead Space, which I felt was scarier.

Alien is an excellent film and whilst yes, it has its moments I don't think it's as scary as Jaws, which has a lower rating. Even now, Jaws scares me and it's because it is brilliantly crafted and its scariest scenes happen in broad daylight!

I used to play GTA from about the age of 12 and it never affected me. I never equated the game to real life in anyway. Just like playing Duck Hunt on the Nintendo when I was 5 never made me want to shoot ducks. I always loved ducks.

I did however watch The Exorcist at a sleepover when I was around 12, and it terrified me. I tried to pretend I was falling asleep because I didn't want my friends to laugh at me for being scared, but I ended up seeing most of it anyway and I really wished I hadn't.

we still have an annual visit from our social worker who has had no cause for concern about our lads

Why the visit? That's not standard.

I've always erred on the side of caution. I just tend to think there is no need for DC to be exposed to potentially disturbing content when there is no way to know if or how it will affect them. And it is quite possible for an imaginative or sensitive child to dwell on images or ideas in a negative way whilst being perfectly aware that "it isn't real". I did! I was fucked up for weeks after seeing Jaws at too young an age; I knew it wasn't real, but that didn't stop me from imagining how it would feel to be eaten by a shark.
And I didn't even SEE Robocop, but my brothers were watching it and I was disturbed just hearing it from the next room. YOU HAVE 20 SECONDS TO COMPLY. YOU HAVE 10 SECONDS TO COMPLY. . I love that film now, but at age eight I was horror-struck at the thought of being trapped in a room as a malfunctioning robot counted down to shooting everyone.
So for that reason, I prefer for my DC not to have stuff like that to keep them awake at night. There's a wealth of age-appropriate entertainment available.
As a film geek I'm absolutely looking forward to watching things like Aliens, Terminator, Robocop etc with them. But it won't be now, at ages 8 and 11.