To ask if you'd let your children watch horror movies?

[LiteraryDevil1]

DDs tell me they have been watching horror movies at their dad's. Stbexh's gf watches 18 rated horror films with her ds who is 7. "He doesn't find them scary as he knows they aren't real." They watched Poltergeist at ages 8 and 10 with his gf. I'm unimpressed and don't think it's appropriate at all.

No. Ds is 7 and is otherwise a fairly robust character but his slightly older cousin showed him some clips on YouTube (no parental locks on the tablet) and it really bothered him. Little minds can't process properly what they see as they're generally trusting and innocent - even if they understand it's not real. A few more years time and he'll probably be doing what I did and sneakily watching them when he's alone or with friends. But for now he's still my innocent 7yo and I have no desire to expose him to horrible images.

We've watched Jaws and American Werewolf in London, the old school effects seem to make it funny rather than scary? Wouldn't let the youngest (now 8) watch anything worse but DS1(11) has seen a few at sleepovers, mostly 15s.
I'd have to have watched them myself first.

No. My Nana, who was a bit lax when it came to ratings and thought that anything scary was just daft, let me watch Salem's Lot when I was 9. I had nightmares for months and spent many an hour worried that I may have heard knocking at the window.

I would let the 11 year old watch a 12a horror like Woman in Black but no higher. Watching good movies too young is a terrible waste

I watched loads of scary and gorey 18+ horror films with my brother from the age of about 8, but I would say that DM was rather neglectful of us in many ways, so I wouldn't use my own childhood as a reasonable benchmark.

Saying that, DD is 6 and has watched things that I would not let her classmates watch on playdates. But then I know my own child is fairly unmoved by a bit of horror, whereas many other children are more sensitive so I wouldn't take the chance.

It's one thing to watch age inappropriate films with your own child, quite another to show them to someone else's.

I watched The Sixth Sense when I was younger- can't remember the exact age but young enough to be absolutely shit scared afterwards and even now my family still say 'I see dead people' to try and scare me even though I'm 25 .

Also watched Stir of Echoes with Kevin Bacon and refused to go upstairs to the toilet on my own after it! I was basically a shit bag child and I'm now a shit bag adult.

Hmm..DS16 confided recently that he’s been having nightmares and waking in the night sweating. Concerned I asked what he was having nightmares about. Turns out 3yrs ago he watch a film called ‘Human Centipede’, he said it was fine at the time and wasn’t bothered by it all. I knew nothing about this. For some strange reason it must have lodged in his subconscious and now started having nightmares about it.

You never know with these things, I think OP’s dc are too young.

No way. Watching violent films has been involved in a few horrible cases of child crime the Bulger case and the Edlington one.

Anecdotally I have noticed younger children who don’t watch mildly violent shows like batman or Star Wars are less likely to be violent than those who do.

My DF used to do this when my mum was out, away etc. He'd take us to the video shop (I know I'm old) and let us choose anything. My DB is two years younger than me, I watched child's play at 10/11 , something called demonic toys which was just as grim, candy man and all kinds of other 18 rated horrors. Dad would watch them with us and essentially laugh at how ridiculous they were. I don't remember ever being scared, but I do remember my mum going mad when she found out and our viewing habits changed. I don't watch horrors much more,, I find them boring and they don't make me jump. DFs very old fashioned in some ways and essentially claims he 'doesn't believe in being scared, especially of things that are not real'. So as a child , being scared of heights,'dad I don't want to ride down this really steep hill in the woods' ,'tough we're not walking it'll take too long'. Dad I don't want to climb up that ladder to get my things from the loft with you (he'd decided I was old enough) , 'tough if you're scared just do not it anyway, life is scary'. It has made me a pretty resilient adult but I don't think I'll have the same approach! Ultimately most parents would think those films are unsuitable so YANBU.

When I was about 13/14 my DM said if you want to watch horrors, watch a good one and watched silence of the lambs and the shining with me, but I was only allowed after I read the books.

My daughter has never seen one, she's in her '30,s.

Human Centipede is ridiculous bordering on funny as an adult but def not for kids.

My son had a sleep over aged 11 and they watched Sean of the Dead - it absolutely terrified him into tears when he came home and couldn't sleep. At 21 we laugh about it now.

Some kids are fine, some aren't. I grew up watching Jaws at 7 and all the subsequent sequels. The original terrified the fuck out of me, I couldn't even have a wee or bath properly without thinking it was going to come at me. Even see canoeing recently I felt a bit NerrNu - NerrNu- cue the cello!

*sea

No.

I watched horrors as a child and it still shocks me that I was allowed to tbh! It was just the culture back in the 80s/90s where kids watched them.

I hate horrors now and haven't watched one for years because they freak me out now and I wouldn't let my dc watch them.

It was in the era of "little Jonny went to the shops and bought fags for Mum" and "the corner shop up the road sells fags/booze to underage kids on the hush hush" 😉 18+ horrors don't have a place for children imo.

It depends on the film and the kid. My oldest is getting into horror films, and we've watched a few 15s (she's 13).

Common sense media is a pretty useful tool to find out whether films are suitable or not.

Poltergeist is often recommended as a good "starter" horror btw. It's nowhere near the likes of Wolf Creek or Saw or whatevs in terms of inappropriateness.

It wasn't the culture back in the 80s because we didn't have video recorders to watch them on. Unless we were really rich and with irresponsible parents.
In the 90s I guess you didn't have to be rich but you still needed irresponsible parents.
That isn't how it was for everybody.

And yes I bought fags for my mum.

Then I guess I had irresponsible parents

And horrors would have been on Tv in the 80s. I know the Halloween's were and a lot of the older movies. My friend hates swarms of birds after watching Birds as a kid on tv when she put it on late during the holidays when she couldn't sleep.

After seeing 'a Serbian film' mentioned twice I read the plot on Wikipedia. What the actual fuck is that all about! I like scary films but that's just messed up, whoever thought that up needs some therapy or something.

Anyway, OP, you know your kids and if they're affected or likely to be by the films it must be worrying for you that they are watching them. Are you able to talk to your ex about it?

Slap no. The man isn't blessed and says it's nothing to do with me what they do whilst with him.

Not intentionally, I didn't.

I was a really good reader and had read most of Steven King and James Herbert books around that age.My parents were lax (1970's) and I had a television in my bedroom, so watched a lot. Stuff from the books would bother me more.

What really scared me was seeing the bombing of Hiroshima on television, that stayed with me and the threat of being bombed for years.

Some Parents don't filter the News.

My Mum did a lot of childcare for me and my youngest, in particular grew up watching CSI and the like. Then my Mum thought Donnie Darko would be OK for her at around 8, because it had a rabbit in it. She watched Poltergeist with me at around 10. But not much else, except Dr Who type stuff. I wouldn't have deliberately chose a horror film to watch with her. At that time we were watching newly discovered Anime.

She wasn't bothered about what she saw and shares a love for horror films, with me and my Mum.

I think that I should have been shielded from the casual sexism more than the horror stuff, tbh. Although we watch Horror Films together, I avoid anything with sexual stuff in.

I would let mine watch poltergeist at the age of 9 and 11. As long as they aren't having nightmares etc I don't see the problem. I was watching 18 horrors by that age. I watched the exorcist when I was 10 and I had already seen poltergeist before that, I thinl it's funny.

I must have had irresponsible parents then. And rich.... (my mom was a cleaner/bar maid and dad fixed cash registers on minimum wage) because in the 80s aged 11 we'd rent Nightmare on Elm St, Hills have eyes, Hellraiser etc. Which I loved. I'd also seen The Fog, Halloween etc. Watched with my dad - happy memories actually.

I love horrors still and my early exposure did not have a negative impact. I think it was a different era in so many ways though.