*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!

I would hope you have no problems with them watching anything they want at that age… would be a bit odd to dictate the viewing choices of an adult.

We’ve just started watching it from the first series and DS (13, 14 later this year) isn’t fazed by it at all. We’re watching it and as a family and one of us usually falls asleep during the 45-minute episode so we’re hardly scared witless by it. 😂

Lol 14

An acquaintance was telling me she'd let her 11 year old bunk off school for the day to watch the series the day it came out..

My DS is 11 (year 7) and quite young for his age and has just finished season 2 with no problem. I’m currently arguing with DH as I don’t think we should let him see season 3 and definitely not season 4 as it gets far too scary.

Us too! The cheap rentals were often scary but I wasn’t an easily spooked teen/kid tbh.

We used to get my friend’s older brother (18) to get the Nightmare on Elm Street videos for us when we were 14. We’d watch them at his house after school before his parents came home from work. 😂

Well, my dds are 11 and 12 and are desperate to watch it.
I'm in the fence as a) the series is teenage kids in this situation, so I can see why they’d want to watch it.
b) I’m not one to judge as I used to watch Benny Hill, the Young Ones, Kenny Everett in the day.
I’m trying to find a middle ground to it all.
nb: my parents are not British, so we watched everything on tv and have turned out pretty decent I’d say 😬

This is very true. I can understand why you wouldn’t want him watching some of the really gory horrors but ST is aimed at a younger audience. The characters themselves in the beginning are tweens / teens.

We were very cautious with our young ones. Watching Stranger Things now with our youngest., 19.

it’s pretty tame.

14 and 16 year old loved it but won’t let my 11 year old yet, way too scary! It is brilliant though, watched it with my kids as they raved about it and ended up loving it so much!!

Ah my 10yo watches it. He's aware its a TV show so it's fine.

I am finding season 4 too scary.

Probably OK for a 14yo. I'm just a wimp.

Well the Texas Chainsaw Massacre is just a film, doesn't mean it didn't give me nightmares

My oldest was the only child in his class in Y6 who hadn't seen the first series. I thought it was OK and let him watch it with me. He's now 13.5 and I seem to be way more disturbed by season 4 than he is.

My younger child (10.5) has seen the first two and a bit seasons. Ex let her watch it with him but gave up Netflix before they finished season 3. I don't agree at all with his viewing choices for the DC but can't control what he does in his own home.

DC2 is desperate to see the rest. I've said that we can re-watch slowly from the beginning from some point in Y6. I'm hoping to string it out long enough that she'll be much older by the time we get to season 4.

We do watch some 15s together, but that rating covers so many things. For example, we're watching Brooklyn 99 and it's great. DC2 just doesn't get the sex references (and they're not too bad anyway) and it's full of really positive messages. S4 of Stranger Things is quite dark - there is definitely no 'not getting' those gruesome deaths.

Even if you're generally quite cautious about viewing, I think 14 would definitely be OK to start from the beginning if you watch it once a week. It does depend on the individual, though. I have friends who won't watch it because they don't like anything scary.

By watching it together, I can at least say when I think something is really disturbing. DC often just says "but it's not real" so doesn't seem to experience it the same way I do anyway.

Actually this is based on several true life happenings. I know horror. Some films turn my stomach and are actually disturbing. Stranger things is entertaining!

I would say there's very little sexual content (I think the most graphic is s1 when Nancy and Steve are naked in a pool and sex is alluded to, but you don't see anything). Language is pretty tame and I grew up in a household where the word 'bloody' was considered offensive. 'Horror' is a bit more subjective as it's not really blood and guts, but the idea of being trapped in an alternate dimension, which I guess some younger viewers could find scary.

Sigh, OP won't be back.

Some bits of Dr Who are definitely more scary

The weeping angels, for example (ds1 had nightmares for weeks - it should have had an age warning!!)

mamaduckbone · Today 08:23
The weeping angels, for example (ds1 had nightmares for weeks - it should have had an age warning!!“

you’re right, that whole series was really scary. The one with the gas masks, “are you my mummy”. Kept me awake at night!

I started watching the first series last night. Doesn't sound too disturbing for teenagers, but what about a squeamish person like me? I don't mind scary stuff, but I hate blood and gore, from what I gather from this thread, I should be ok up until series 4? Is that about right?

You'll be ok with season 4. There isn't more blood and gore. I'm not sure why people are saying it's more scary than a demogorogon chasing a small child through the woods in the pitch black in season 1 or a blob of human matter forming another creature/monster like in season 3. You see and hear bones snapping a few times and eyes 'pop'. I don't consider it any scarier than the other seasons.

I also grew up with Freddy Kruger, chainsaw massacre kind of films. They terrified me and I slept with the light on for a lot of my younger life but continued to watch scary movies. My 9 year old loves horror films and against the grain of most people on here I let him watch them, I’ve yet to find one he says is scary and he has watched all stranger things. We only introduced him to it in May after he was wanting something new to watch in the evening and he is totally hooked and watched series 1-3 twice before season 4 came out. He is now counting down to the second part of season 4 and wants to watch it all next Friday when’s it comes out.
I appreciate it’s a controversial topic and definitely is not aimed at children his age and most would be very scared by it but I also think I’m quite laid back and happy to let him try things like this and see how he finds it. I know in my friendship group there are a fair few children of similar ages who watch and enjoy it but at the same time some whose parents would not dream of letting them watch it for years, both options are fine.
At 14 I think unless they act very immature it’s a little odd to control their viewing so much but as I said I am pretty laid back

Intrigued by what you mean by this, OP? Do you all watch everything together, then?