Would you let your 13 yr old watch or play 18s?

[Offandonagain]

I know the rating is 18, but personally I think that is unreasonable and totally depends on the film.

My 13yr old is not allowed to watch psycho/horror gore Halloween type films such as Halloween at this rating, or sexy stuff such as Wolf of Wall Street

But he has gta on his computer due to him moaning to me that his friends have it and he wants to be able to play with them.

He is also currently on to season 2 of breaking bad, which I didn’t realise he was watching until yesterday as he’d binge watched it whilst ill and I was in work. I’ve seen them all and know what to expect. I don’t want to stop him because he’s really in to it and I know if it was me I’d be pissed off.

yabu - bad bad parent

yanbu - it depends on the individual film/game?

Aren’t representative!!

OP, would you buy your child a soft core porn video? Let’s say it’s a collection of topless women dancing around in thongs.

There's an age limit for a reason.

In answer to the OP: of course not.

Ffs get your 13yo off GTA! What is wrong with you?

You're naive if you think 18 games are worse Han 18 movies. In 18 games you actively make 18 content where as watching 18 films is about passively watching 18 stuff happen to strangers. Halloween the movie is far tamer than GTA- you've fallen for the classic myth that game violence isn't as bad as film violence.

My kids have watched and played games above their age and I'm comfortable with that. Once they get to the teens you can't really protect them from that kind of thing. YouTube has the gory bits and if your son has access to a streaming service to watch BB then he could watch Saw or whatever anyway. Do you monitor his Internet usage ? Most teen boys will have sadly seen much more sexually explicit content than Wolf of Wall Street whether it's on their devices or a friend's.

It's an 18 for a reason. Just like it's a 15 for a reason. DD3 is 13. She's allowed to watch Us, PGs, and 12s. That's it. When she's 15, she can watch 15s.

Read commonsense media's own review.

DS is 16, and nope, I would not but this for him. It's an awful game with messages I wouldn't support for anyone, let alone kids or older teens.

Never in a million years.

Sorry haven't RTFT but guessing most is like the first page - as it always is on posts like this.

I have taken your approach OP - Considered the content, context and child and made my own decisions. My son (14) has played 18 games (including GTA which he and his mates predominantly play for the open world nature - not the storyline or prostitutes) and watched some 18 films (mainly horror which as PP have said isn't that terrifying). So far he's fine. Top set at school, polite to people, kind to animals and small children and not out shanking anyone or sleeping with sex workers.

My 17yo and 15yo were told a long time ago that GTA would never enter this house. 18 games/films not allowed for either - that's a hard limit in our view - though we have been a bit more liberal about 12s and 16s (not in UK), allowing some a year or so before the age. The 15yo has seen some 16 films and series incl Breaking Bad (fairly recently - was older end of 14), which tbh I was not terribly happy about. Tbf we only let him have Fortnite at 13.

I have taken your approach OP - Considered the content, context and child and made my own decisions. My son (14) has played 18 games (including GTA which he and his mates predominantly play for the open world nature - not the storyline or prostitutes)
This is sensible. Similarly I buy Playboy for my DS, because predominantly he just wants to read the articles.

My DH recently finished playing GTA. I asked him his thoughts about a 13 year old playing and he basically said hell no, there is a part of the game where you torture someone to death by electrocution, beating them and cutting off their fingers. Not passively watching it but actively playing it. There are scenes in a strip club, prostitutes etc.. I think it's hugely irresponsible to desensitise a child to violence and overly sexualised content by letting them play 18 games. There are lots of role playing/open world games that aren't an 18

GTA is casually violent and sexist. You really want your child role playing as a pimp? Fucking hell. He’s a CHILD. He can’t distinguish between reality and fantasy, his brain is still growing and learning.

you’re numbing your child to violence, sexism, sexual violence. It causes problems later - just look at the sexual harassment girls in school have to deal with now.

he badgered your to get it? All his mates have it? Just fucking parent. If I gave in to my 13 year old based on what he SAYS his mates do he’d be watching 18s, have every single console on earth, have the latest IPhone, £300 trainers and stay up half the night.

we have a ratings system for games and films for a reason.

No
My dd is 13 and doesn't have anything not rated her age regardless
I leave that decision to the professionals

Our kids know that we don’t give a shiny shit about what other parents let their children do - allegedly that is a kids, teens in particular can be a bit elastic with the truth. Or their friends make stuff up.

I’m not responsible for other people’s children, just my own.

It's about violence and behaviour being dumbed down and normalised the more your exposed to snd desensitised the more it takes to shock you. What you watched at 10 is not enough do you want more so you stop the 15s and watch the 18s then what. Real life on the news isnt shocking empathy is numbed becouse as a child your synopsis are still forming.
The major shootists and child convicted violent criminals played violent games many have parents who were shocked and unaware.
We even see the impact of what we watch on suicide.
What's wrong with a child being a child?

‘What's wrong with a child being a child?’

people bemoan their loss of childhood and blame the internet and meanwhile there are parents like OP out there doing their best to accelerate it.

Apparently he is emotionally mature for his age 🙄

My 12 year old tells me his friends get to watch / play 18s all the time etc. It’s not always necessarily true what they say to each other, but in any case I just ignore him and say no.

Have you ever played gta? It's pretty brutal and has a lot of violence and aggression towards women. It's a fun game for grown ups who understand that it's not real and who's understanding of relationships and gender etc are already formed and healthy. 13 way too young for that imo.

Yes

GTA - not a chance. I've had 3 teenage boys, and they all said that all their friends were playing it.... not even true, and so what if they are? It's horrible, for all the reasons people have already given. On the other hand, the youngest was playing Assassin's Creed and COD since about 13 ( it was either that or keep him away from his brothers) so that was the compromise.

Like I said, I let my 7 and 9 year old watch older things.

We’ve watched suicide squad, birds of prey, venom. All these are 15.

But even I wouldn’t let them play GTA.

Absolutely not. There’s plenty of excellent age appropriate films and games they could play/watch instead.

Tbh, I’ve never actually watched an 18 myself and my children know that.