Squid games

[Poppetts1234]

I know a mum that allows her 9 year old to watch this.

I’m really interested to see how many parents are ok with this?

AIBU to be a bit shocked about this?

Yes I should mind my own business but I’d be really interested to hear others opinions

Apparently there are kids having nightmares about this. We had a letter from the school so I think 9 is way too young

Here is the link for the Our Safer Schools safeguarding update on squidgame: oursaferschools.co.uk/2021/10/08/squid-game/

I saw a comment under a news article about it from someone saying they’ve let their five year old watch it and she just fast forwards through some bits because they “make him sad” my 14 year old doesn’t want to watch after just the trailer.

Bloody hell, I’m half way through and hooked/traumatised and I DO fast forward through some of the gory bits.

I genuinely can’t believe that primary school children are remotely interested in watching this. It’s just not a show that I can imagine appealing to them whatsoever. Happy to be corrected but I’m really struggling to imagine any small child watching it and thinking ‘wow this is great’ rather than ‘booooring, put something else on’. The first few episodes in particular are very slow and are basically just about poor people being poor… why would any small child want to watch that?

I can well believe that some aspects of the show have made it into school playground lore through memes/descriptions from older siblings/this Roblox thing, but five year olds happily sitting through hour-long episodes of what is a pretty slow-moving show? I just can’t believe it.

When I was little we used to dance to the Time Warp all the time at parties but none of us had ever seen the Rocky Horror Show, for obvious reasons! I’m kind of hoping it’s the same thing and that kids have picked up on the Red Light/Green Light stuff through some kind of Chinese whispers. Right?!

Kids already know Red Light/Green Light, or at least around here they do and it's a game they've played for years (minus the murdering of the losers).

I am doing the honeycomb shape game with my DC as a Halloween game, we usually make cinder toffee together but seeing who can cut out a shape seems more fun, it's not going to be Squid Game shapes.

Jesus Christ I feel so sheltered.
My DS is in Year 1, I absolutely cannot imagine parents of kids in his class casually letting his peers watch this.
And 8-9 year olds?? Yes I pass judgment and plenty of it!

For those asking what impact it could possibly have, if it's 'too much' you can always turn it off etc. I saw some torture scene on TV when I was under 10, it wasn't really so bad as it was a TV drama, but I am scarred for life and I cannot watch any torture content as a grownup. I'm 40. Your DC may not show you how they're processing it, but just think about that.

It feels to me as though there's a sort of peer pressure, competitiveness amongst some parents about this.

Who can be the coolest ... or whatever ... most hands off, liberal parent etc

It's like that amongst some round here anyway.

I agree @Featherstep tv is so much more graphic in general now aswell

I saw a clip of this on Gogglebox having heard quite a bit about it. Me and DP agreed the violence was horrific and we weren't interested in watching more. Anyone who describes it as "slapstick" needs to check the definition of slapstick and is worryingly desensitised to violence in my book.

It reminded me of Nazi brutality which I haven't seen so graphically shown on screen. I don't need to to know how wrong it is and I don't think this is entertainment. Anyone letting a child watch this is seriously naive about the effects and frankly not being a good parent.

@Emmelina

I saw a comment under a news article about it from someone saying they’ve let their five year old watch it and she just fast forwards through some bits because they “make him sad” my 14 year old doesn’t want to watch after just the trailer.

And that poor kid will have those images / ideas rolling round through his thoughts all through his childhood; people begging for their lives, being nailed into coffins alive...That's incredibly sad.

Started watching this, saw first episode last night. Definitely would have been rated 18 in the past based on the multiple shootings and overall nasty feel. No way is it suitable for primary school age kids.

As a piece of entertainment for grown ups having watched first episode, I want to give it a chance, the build up was good and the production is v striking. If they develop the plot I'll like it, if the focus is on the set piece gory scenes I may give it a miss. This genre has been covered before e.g Running Man, Hunger Games, so I'm after more than the shock value to keep me engaged as a viewer

DH & I watched this (despite my trepidation) and I thought it was very good despite having to avert my eyes quite a few times and feeling very uncomfortable at certain points (the VIP and waiter scene mentioned above I found very difficult to watch). I was very surprised to note wehn we watched the penultimate episode that it was a 15 as I thought it should be an 18.

We are normally quite relaxed about films, DS are 9 and 12 and they have been able to watch 12As for a few years and have watched some carefully selected 15s (Stranger Things, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, DS1 is watching the X Files with me). I would feel very uncomfortable about either DS watching this before the age of 15, and would prefer them to watch it with us then so we could discuss themes. DS1 doesn't go to sleep until quite late but any time we have heard him coming down the stairs when we are watching it, DH quickly pauses it. Neither DS has TikTok or Roblox and I check DS1's phone from time to time and haven't seen any reference to it in messages.

I'm nearly 50 - I remember watching an Agatha Christie one Boxing day when I was about 7 or 8 . A character was strangled and pushed off a boat.

To this day I am haunted by that image. Whenever it's dark, I imagine someone's behind me waiting to strangle me. I've never been able to get it out of my head. And that was from a probably poorly made, very unbelievable film back in the 80s.

I dread to think what Squid games is doing to kids' minds and imaginations.

It’s quite funny how posters are describing watching unrealistic, PG films as a child which they found disturbing at the time, have since spent years of ADULT life becoming desensitised to violence and then deciding (despite remembering how disturbing those films were as a child) to allow their child to watch actual adult programs with realistic gore, violence, rape and murder.

I only wonder why - what exactly do you think the benefit is of allowing a 9 year to watch it? What does it do for them?

I’d be fine with letting a 14/15+ year old watch it but it is definitely not for primary aged children.
I grew up watching whatever my parents watched, I was always told to cover my eyes or ears but I’d definitely watched movies that weren’t appropriate and some things gave me nightmares, other than that it didn’t do any harm to me but I’d rather not expose my children to things that they don’t understand and really don’t see any need for them to be viewing anything contains a fair amount of gore/violence etc.
I’m not insanely strict on what my children watch but I definitely make sure it’s age appropriate for them!

Why do people let their kids watch this 🤦🏼‍♀️ my sister and BIL allow my 11 year old nephew to watch it. I said to them it's completely inappropriate, I got the response 'his friend is 8 and watches it! '

Must make it okay then 🙄

Great show but definitely not suitable for young kids

I just finished watching this last night. It was really good, but also totally inappropriate for young children. My 13yo wants to watch it, he's been told no, I'd not be "happy" for him to see it for another year or two. My 9yo would have nightmares for months if she watched it!

They have many years ahead of them where they can watch this stuff, it's entirely unnecessary to expose young kids to graphically violent films.

Also it's called Squid Game not Squid Games, why do so many people add an S on it? :p

I'm amazed at how many kids have access to Netflix. If they are saying they have already seen it how have parents not noticed that they are watching it? Does no one care what kids watch anymore?
I'd love to know what needs to be in a film for it to get an 18 rating, I'm in my 40s and watch a lot of horror and this would definitely have been an 18 20 years ago.
Do Netflix set their own age ratings?

[quote GrimDamnFanjo]@Furries I didn't know she was watching it! [/quote]
How did you not know she was watching it?

Aside from the violence there's also a graphic sex scene that I would be horrified for my 9 year old to see.

No idea why some people think it's acceptable for kids to watch, presuming it's due to the kids games element of it. Well Annabelle has a doll in it but my dc wouldn't be watching that either!

@AryaStarkWolf

Also it's called Squid Game not Squid Games, why do so many people add an S on it? :p

You'll be telling us it's Tesco not Tesco's next

I've had lots of conversations with people about this recently as 10yo ds claimed that "all his friends" are allowed to watch it. I think some of his friends are watching it, but the majority of those aren't actually 'allowed' to watch it, they're doing so without their parents' knowledge due to multi device Netflix subscriptions meaning they're watching it on tablets or phones.

There is no way in hell any self respecting parent should be knowingly allowing their 9yo child to watch it. The violence is extreme, and the Marbles episode would have an emotionally significant impact on most children. My ds is pretty resilient but gets very, very upset about certain characters in films so he'd have been in bits during that episode. The concepts and ideas about humanity and human nature in certain circumstances are something their brains simply can't understand and shouldn't have to see played out in graphic detail at their age.

Dsis lets 12yo niece watch it, and tbh I don't even think I'd be happy with my 12yo watching it. My niece likewise crumpled during the Marbles episode. I was quite surprised dsis knowingly allowed her to watch it.