To let my 8yo watch Titanic?

[GlummyMcGlummerson]

I know it's a 12 but she's taken a real interest in the history of the Titanic and spotted the movie on our NowTV stick and has asked to watch it. Obviously the post coital car scene and the "draw me like one of your French girls" are the biggest turn offs for allowing her - although I expect she'd giggle at Kate Winslet'a breast rather than feel uncomfortable. I have had the sex talk with her, but in a very objective "this is how babies are made" way not "it's quite nice to have a shag in a car with someone who looks like Leonardo DiCaprio" way. WIBU to let her watch it (obviously watching it with her)?

When shown in cinemas there is no longer a 12 rating so Titanic is actually a 12A meaning under-12s can't see it by themselves but "adults planning to take a child under 12 to view a 12A film should consider whether the film is suitable for that child".

So for those deferring to the BBFC, they have already given the nod for parents to judge the suitability of the film for their own children.

It's hardly The Human Centipede, I'm sure she'll be fine.

My recently turned 8 year old is also obsessed with the titanic and he asked to watch it so we let him about a month ago. He loved it. The nude bit didn’t bother him as we sleep naked anyway so he didn’t find it unusual and the bit in the car he just took as a bit of snogging in the car. We did talk to him about it first and told him you know the ending and what happens, people will die but this is just a story and they are actors (He does understand people died in the real thing but wanted him to understand he wasn’t watching actual people dying). We all seemed to miss the dead baby, I don’t remember that at all. He is absolutely fascinated about the 1st class/3rd class issue and the unfairness of the survival rates which he can quote from memory and we have had some really interesting chats about being treated equally etc. In the end you are parents and can make the right decision for your child. If you feel unsure then watch it first. We also said to our child that it was a grown up film and if he felt uncomfortable then say and we can watch something else.

DD1 watched it when she was 9 and loved it. She made all of her friends watch it on sleepovers. They all loved it. After the first couple of viewings she decided she wasn’t interested in the romance bit, only the disaster bit so forwards to when the ship hits the ice. She’s gone on to watch documentaries and read up about it.

She was not traumatised by watching it at all apart from the first time she saw it during the last scene when ‘old Rose’ is dreaming of Jack and the ship’. She was bawling her eyes out but to be fair I cried at that bit at the cinema too.

I believe in making decisions using my own judgement in relation to my own child. The BBFC do not know my child therefore I am in a far better position to do this.
I'm quite bemused by the number of people who do not feel qualified to be the authority on what is appropriate for their own child.
I would let my 8 year old watch Titanic, but would first make them aware that they will see depictions of drowning. The sex scene, if I remember correctly, comprises of a nothing more than a hand sliding down a steamy window.

If your 8yo can understand and process that it is a film (ok, based on real events) then I'd let her.

I don't think I'd have let my daughter's watch it at 8. We watched it recently (they were 11 and 13) and they cried near the end. I doubt it would scar your daughter but I'd be more worried about how sad it is than the sex scene. Obviously it was sad but they also have watched A Night to Remember (youngest is absolutely obsessed with Titanic) and they didn't cry at that.
You know your daughter best but I'd watch it alone first.

No, don’t let her.

When my DD was in year 2, the teachers showed it to the class. Not all of it, just about 10minutes. But it was the scene of the ship actually going down.

Children, including my DD, were leaving the classroom in tears. She had nightmares after, too.

I was livid, & went to speak to the teachers. They told me it was a bad error of judgement, didn’t appreciate it would affect them in the way it did. But, Apparently most children were fine.

I didn’t care that most children were fine, I cared that mine wasn’t. They absolutely should have got parental permission to show a class of such young kids a 12!

I didn’t push it further, but I do know they haven’t done it again.

Depends on the child. Mine is 7 and actually obsessed with all things titanic (having done something about it at school) and I probably wouldn’t let him watch it because a. he wouldn’t be into the kate winslet story at all and b. He is an emotional chap who will get upset at quite a lot of the later scenes. Depends on the kid though, some might be ok with it at 8.

I let mine and fast forward any dodgy parts.

I (naively) watched this film years ago with my now adult son when he was quite young. I just asked him if he remembers it and he mentioned the dead baby in the water. To be fair that stuck with me, as well as the putting the young children to bed to die. There is understandably, so much death and suffering depicted in that film, it’s one thing for a child to read about it and layer their own experience and understanding of emotions over it but see it brought to life.. I think I’d wait a bit if it was me.

DD watched it with us when she was 7 - it sparked a fascination with history which led her to eventually study the subject at university. She's just graduated and will be starting a masters later this year.

She's a tough cookie though and was reading stuff like Trainspotting and Clockwork Orange by the time she was about 12. She always knew that if she had any questions about stuff she watched or read she should talk to us about it.

Only you know what your own DC are comfortable with. Age restrictions are (within reason) a guide - I wouldn't want my 8yo to be watching, say, Paranormal Activity but Titanic would be fine if they were quite level-headed. I grew up watching Hammer Horror films with my mum and the only lasting effect it had on me was to turn me into a goth for my teens and twenties!

I'm pretty sure I watched it when I was 9. Still love it.

My 8yo has watched it twice and wasn't traumatised in the slightest, but she's quite a pragmatic wee thing and hugely inquisitive. She asked about a gazillion questions all the way through it, has a book on it and genuinely finds it all fascinating. She knows that the Jack and Rose/necklace bit was made up to make the story more interesting.

I think I'd rewatch it first and then make up your mind about whether your daughter could handle it.

The nudity/sex scenes are pretty tame. The last hour or so is rather harrowing - of course it is, it was an awful event. I watched it at around nine and cried my eyes out, but I don't think that's a reason not to watch it, just a normal response.

It's totally inaccurate, third class passengers were not stopped from escaping, one of the men shown as a coward in the film was actually a hero. It's a Hollywood history 're write. It's 12 for a reason. Get one of the many excellent books on the subject.

Yabvu it's really sad and would be too much for an 8 year old!

Honestly - if she's interested in the history of the Titanic show her A Night To Remember - a much better film without all the stupid romance stuff (which is bollox and nothing to do with history!)

Depends on the child I guess. I'm another who watched it at 8 or 9 when it came out on video at home and watched it absolutely fine.

I watched Ghost and Pretty Woman at about that age so Titanic seems pretty tame tbf. It does depend on your child though.

I think it’s fine OP. You can always FF through the bit in the car etc. I’m sure Titanic has been shown on the telly in the late afternoon several times in years gone by. I remember watching it at my mum’s house once.

Those recommending a Night to Remember, it’s a good film but I don’t think an 8 year old is going to like the old-fashioned direction and acting at all tbh.

My ds watched it when he was 8. And lots of documentaries too. It’s entirely up to you OP.

My kids watched it when they were about 9 and 11 and at 17 still refer to it as the time mum let them watch Titanic and they were scarred for life 🙈 (it was the mum reading the kids the goodnight story that was the worst bit). They find it funny now but tell me they couldn’t sleep for days. Parenting fail on my part but all kids are different I guess.

I think 8 is too young for that film. Not the boobs, those are just boobs. Everything else.