*SPOILER ALERT* To think that Stranger Things is inappropriate for children / teens

[leawakeford]

My child wants to watch Stranger Things because all the other kids at school have watched it. From what I can see it features violence, sex, inappropriate language and very scary imagery. Surely parents shouldn’t be letting their young children and teens watch this!

He's 14??? YABU - let him watch it

This. In spades. HUGE fans of the show in our house. S4 is definitely darker but the over arching vibe holding it all together is the strength of friendship at that age and how literally you feel you could save the world with it.

Plus I think most kids with plenty of unrestricted unsupervised access to an iPhone will see more damaging content on something like Tik Tok

14?! I thought you were on about an 8 year old. YABU

I think it’s a 15 so I guess technically you would be right to not allow your 14 year old to watch it. But practically YABU if your child wants to watch it, IMO. 14 is fine to watch ST.

I don’t recall any sex scenes? Implied people have had sex but presumably your 14 year old is aware people have sex? Even the language isn’t that bad- asshole, shit, son of a bitch for example. ST4 does have graphic violence/horror.

Mine is 14 and watched the first seasons when she was 12. We absolutely love it ! It's so well made. I wouldn't watch proper horror but it's not, it's just excellent drama / thriller

14??? 🙄 Absolutely fine for him to watch
Mine were watching it from 11+
They're 15+ now and I don't police what they watch.

14 is fine for stranger things! I thought you were going to say 10/11. At 14 it won’t be too scary for them, the first three seasons aren’t really scary at all. Yeah there’s violence in that there’s some fight scenes, but nothing extreme or that they wouldn’t see anywhere else (or in video games) and there’s like 1 sex scene that I can think of, but it’s not graphic at all, more alluded to really. And the characters are older. The relationships between the younger characters are all very age appropriate.

Agree no bad sex scenes, we watch anything rated 15 unless it has sex, by mutual consent ! That's been our position since she was 11. (Although I think killing eve might be 15 and that's the only one I don't let her watch. )

This latest series is a lot more horror like. Although the end of the last series was a bit gory.

Robert Englund, (aka Freddy Krueger) plays victor kreel in the new series and it definitely has a nightmare on elm street vibe.

14 is okay.

It is dark though clearly not real.

I have seen it myself.

DD 14 watches it with her Dad.

My 10 & 8 year olds have watched seasons 1-3 of Stranger Things, but don't scare easily.

That being said I won't let them watch season 4 given the more "horror" nature - vecna isn't particularly scary, but the hallucinations and methods of death aren't things they need to see.

At 14? Yeh I'd have no problem with them watch it assuming they weren't the terrified type.

I think it's a bit ridiculous to stop a 14yo from watching it. Do you censor his reading? Does he have a smartphone, and if not do none of his friends have one? It's highly unlikely that he won't already have seen and heard worse at that age. I understand the wish to shield them from unpleasantness for as long as possible, but banning Stranger Things at 14 is really far out of keeping with reality.

He's 14.

Allow him some freedom and independence.

I grew up in the 80s/90s and Nightmare On Elm Street was practically a children's film based on how many of my peers had watched it. See also Dirty Dancing, Friday the 13th, Robocop, Terminator, and Ghostbusters.

14? Watch it with him. It's really good.

It's definitely fine for a 14yr old to watch!

@Jott Me too.
We watched whatever was rental from the video shop. 😅

It’s not my bag at all… so don’t watch. My DD 14 watches with her dad and loves it.. but she says some bits season 4 could be scary for younger kids

My 12 and 15 year olds have both watched it and I have watched a lot of it with them. I think it is totally fine for 12 plus, and also agree with the person above who would rather them watch that then ridiculous reality TV shows!

Same! Tiny little shop with threadbare carpet, reeked of cigarette smoke, and if you were polite to the lady behind the counter she would keep the old posters for you when she took them down to replace. We used to choose our films based on how good the box looked and our parents would almost unquestioningly rent them for us. I remember watching Child's Play 2 with my cousins and none of the adults were particularly worried because "it's about a doll".

Ds is 12. We watched series 1-3 without him, then let him watch them all with us when he was 11. He's loving series 4. He's a big film and horror fan, so likes analysing it. The 80s is also some glamorous past life for him.

He started high school in September. I'm more worried about the casual way he mentions lads smoking weed on the way to school and the fights on the way home, than watching pretend horror on the telly.

I'm also a teacher. High school is way scarier that stranger things.

I cnt answer your Q as you've grouped children and teens together!

My 13 yr old - yes with her dad. I hate it.
My 10 year old - not in a million years!

My 13 year old loves Stranger Things - we have watched it together, and it is completely addictive, great story, great acting, great music and eighties nostalgia - she has not been traumatised by any of it, even the recent series (which I agree is aimed at a slightly older age range, but the first 3 seasons she watched age 11-12 and it was fine).
Season 4 is not for the faint hearted, more violent death/ horror aspects.
I would let my 11 year old watch the first 3 seasons though he is not interested at the moment, but I think he would enjoy it (and I can watch it all again!)

For what it's worth, the thing that freaked me out watching most as a kid was an episode of Fraggle Rock called 'the terrible tunnel' - you never can tell what will capture the imagination....

I agree , you cannot heavily police what a 14 year old watches - if you don't take the opportunity to watch with them at home they will just watch elsewhere.

Children it might be a bit intense but I'd let a teenager watch.
once they get past 12 they know what interests them, a bit of horror is fine and they can turn it off if they don't like it.

It depends on the child. Ds1 watched seasons 1&2 at about 11/12 (year 7) after we'd watched it first. He's 16 now and we're glued to season 4 together.
Ds2 is 12 now (year 8) and has tried it but didn't get any further than season 1 episode 1 when the demigorgon comes out of the wall.
There's no sex but it's pretty scary - certainly not appropriate for primary age children.