Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4

Original poster

AIBU wondering about age limits for teens & watching Game of Thrones

76 replies

thiswashelpful · 04/12/2016 11:03

My DS (15) is spending weekend at friends after going to see big football game. Message from him this morning saying that they stayed up real late watching GoT box set...That's got me thinking...

What age are teens starting to watch this stuff?

I know it is very violent, torture, rape, explicit sex, nudity, etc.

OP posts:

littlesallyracket · 04/12/2016 15:06

It is basically soft porn for people who don't think of themselves as consumers of porn.

By all means, hate the programme and refuse to watch it, but be wary of making sweeping judgements about people simply because they don't like the same TV programmes as you.

Anybody who watched GoT hoping for soft porn would be sorely disappointed upon realising that each series is 10 hours long and you probably get a total of about five minutes maximum of mostly very mild sexual content in an entire series. Sex is a minuscule and largely incidental element of a sprawling, incredibly complicated story with a cast of thousands.

ElspethFlashman · 04/12/2016 15:13

The problem with the hardcore content in GoT is the tone.

It's sexploitation as entertainment. It's from an exclusively male point of view and it's degrading to women.

The sex scenes where a woman has as much power as the men are as rare as hen's teeth.

So I don't think it's massively healthy to be seen by someone still trying to figure out the world of sexual licence.

Whereas as adults, we're (hopefully) able to watch it with a curl of the lip.

lananzack · 04/12/2016 15:27

Your son has taste, GoT is brilliant.
It depends on his level of maturity really.. There is rape, incest, murder, violence, weird zombie dead people, swearing, nudity, mutilation, sadism... It's quite twisted actually now that I've written those things down.
But yeah, depends on his level of maturity. I could have probably watched it and enjoyed it at age 15.

BertrandRussell · 04/12/2016 16:59

"But yeah, depends on his level of maturity. I could have probably watched it and enjoyed it at age 15."

I think that rather depends on your definition of "maturity"................

GreatFuckability · 04/12/2016 17:02

People always claim GoT is misogynistic- and its true there are definite storylines and themes about misogyny, its the opposite of misogynistic in its content. Especially if you look at where it has led over the seasons, it's packed full of strong, fully rounded female characters!
My child is much younger than 15 and,watches with me sometimes. I censor any bits i feel inappropriate, but she is well aware of fantasy v reality.

BroomstickOfLove · 04/12/2016 17:08

Mine aren't old enough to watch it yet, but I'd be happy to let a 15 year old watch it, especially if we watched it together.

BertrandRussell · 04/12/2016 17:14

Thankful to say my nearly 16 year old is mature enough not to want to.......

limitedperiodonly · 04/12/2016 17:28

it's packed full of strong, fully rounded female characters!

The female characters are no more strong than the male ones. That's what I like about it.

Danaerys is autocratic and could descend into inbred madness, Cersei is a vengeful, petulant drunk, Catelyn was brave but made sentimental and suicidal decisions, Sansa was ignorant and selfish and is now terrifyingly hardened, Arya is psychotic, Ygritte was rash, Brienne is noble but stupid, Elaria is grief and power crazed, her daughters are bad actors.

Margaery and Olenna are clever and pragmatic but not terribly nice.

Gilly is one of the few good and clever characters but that's not because she is a woman.

lananzack · 04/12/2016 17:41

Bertrand I couldn't much better word it, I mean emotional maturity. Is he past the mindset of suggestibility/being horrified at some of the things shown in GoT. It's a fine line at that age and I think it ultimately depends on the teen himself.
I know at that age I wouldn't be particularly phased and would casually get on with my day after watching something like that, whereas I know others that it may have played on their minds.
You know what I mean!

littlesallyracket · 04/12/2016 17:46

I'd be interested to know how many people who think the content of GoT is beyond the pale would also object to Macbeth, or King Lear, or Titus Andronicus, or a Jacobean revenge tragedy, or Wuthering Heights, or Nineteen Eighty-Four, any number of other great works of literature. I certainly encountered content just as 'shocking' as Game of Thrones when I was doing my English degree.

veryveryVERYdarkblue · 04/12/2016 17:52

My primary school dd says a male classmate claims to watch it. Hope that's a silly boast.
Not my taste as an adult - hardly Lear or Wuthering Heights. It's gratuitous shit with barely a story to justify it.
I'm happy to watch all kinds of low brow crap. But not this. No problem with others enjoying but don't kid yourselves about how shit it is.

BertrandRussell · 04/12/2016 18:07

"I'd be interested to know how many people who think the content of GoT is beyond the pale would also object to Macbeth, or King Lear, or Titus Andronicus, or a Jacobean revenge tragedy, or Wuthering Heights, or Nineteen Eighty-Four, any number of other great works of literature. I certainly encountered content just as 'shocking' as Game of Thrones when I was doing my English degree."

Gosh. I would have thought that anyone with an English degree could tell the difference..............

ElspethFlashman · 04/12/2016 18:32

We're you doing your degree at 15?

limitedperiodonly · 04/12/2016 18:51

Many of the writers of GoT and other quality TV and film dramas have a very good education in English or Classics. They are the popular entertainment of today, which Shakespeare was in his day.

That might not be a good reason for saying that 15 year olds should watch those programmes, but that's a bad reason for dismissing them as of no merit.

BertrandRussell · 04/12/2016 19:04

"We're you doing your degree at 15?"

No. Rather my point. Nobody unable to distinguish between contextually appropriate and gratuitous sexual violence should watch GoT. And considering that you don't seem able to even with an English degree.......

ElspethFlashman · 04/12/2016 19:07

Bertrand are you mixing me & little up?

BertrandRussell · 04/12/2016 19:08

Oh gosh, I am! so sorry, Elspeth!

Hulababy · 04/12/2016 19:10

DD is y10 so she and her friends are mainly 14/15.

According to DD some of her friends do watch GoT. Dd isn't interested anyway, but I wouldn't be happy with her watching it based on what I have heard. I haven't seen it though. DH does watch it and my parents have watched it too - they say that it isn't suitable, so even if she wanted to watch we would be saying no.

I am not yet happy for 14y (15 in April) DD to watch ANY 18 rated TV/films.
She has seen a number of 15 rated and has done for past year, but I do feel 18 rated is above and beyond by quite a long way.

DioneTheDiabolist · 04/12/2016 20:50

It's gratuitous shit with barely a story to justify it.
The story is epic and amazing.

Redsrule · 04/12/2016 21:02

I think people are mad to think G of T is appropriate for an under 18 but my rules are for my children. Just remember that once seen you can never go back and incest and bestiality are not 'normal'. The books are well written but a hideous description of rape does not make me think 'this would enhance my child's understanding of language the way Shakespeare's description of Lear's madness and the storm would'.

abigamarone · 04/12/2016 21:10

I've got a (just turned) 15, I'm fairly relaxed about age restrictions, he's seen a fair few 18 films and has 18-rated games on his xbox. I won't be allowing him to watch game of thrones anytime soon though. And I love it. I made my elder soon watch it when he wasn't that interested (he loves it now as well)

limitedperiodonly · 04/12/2016 21:40

BertrandRussell: Nobody unable to distinguish between contextually appropriate and gratuitous sexual violence should watch GoT. And considering that you don't seem able to even with an English degree.......

ElspethFlashman: Bertrand are you mixing me & little up?

BertrandRussell: Oh gosh, I am! so sorry, Elspeth!

Excuse me while I snort. You fucking ridiculous pseuds

RitaCrudgington · 04/12/2016 22:15

My 75 year old DFIL borrows my GOT DVDs as soon as I've finished with them so I think that previous claims to be "too old" may be in the eye of the beholder.

The plots are serious stuff and have a fair amount of depth to them (by the standards of mainstream telly). They're not Breaking Bad or The Wire but they're not crap. Rape is referred to but not explicitly depicted.

I have a 14 year old and have not let her watch it - if she wanted to watch it at age 16 plus I wouldn't be too concerned - it's shocking but late teens enjoy being shocked, and the moral context is normally pretty clear. My huge reservation is about the "sexposition" in series one (and to a lesser extent in later series) which clearly exploited the female actors' bodies for titillation in a very cynical way. I think that's far more worrying than the terrible fictional things that happen in the storyline.

Pagwatch · 04/12/2016 22:15

scottishdiem · 04/12/2016 22:24

Well at 16 young people can have sex. One assumes they have to do it with their eyes closed because they are unable to watch it until they are 18. It depends on the 15 year old I suppose. Some are more mature and "older" than others at that age but I suspect there was nothing that they havent already seen, as others have said.

Flip

1 2 3 4