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?

You are not being imaginative enough. It isn't that people literally emulate what they see in the game, it's an attitude that infuses itself into their outlook. So whilst they might not be murdering rapists, are you sure they aren't entitled around women and misogynistic?

I've played GTA5 quite a few times and while that particular mission is a hard watch, never at any point do you cut his fingers off.

Spend my life on safeguarding at school. Guess what parents let their kids play because they are completely clueless about anything!!?? Nothing makes me happier than calling in bad parenting like this!

I'm sure you're child is different and mature. They're not. You've just not parented properly!

Thank you for your input.
however Il take my childrens teachers advice on how well adjusted, polite and thriving they are rather than some woman off Mumsnet. Wishing you a lovely weekend xx

This is peak MN

a grown adult who turns a film off because of a bit of bad language

So as expected, nothing to back up your ridiculous claim that 13 year olds can’t distinguish between fantasy and reality.

the utter BS posted on here sometimes makes me worry for us as a species

That's not advice. It's how they are at school. If the teacher knew that your child played games involving violence/rape they wouldn't be so complimentary. They'd judge you and be impressed your child was so resilient despite the bad parenting choice. However, personalities change every school year.

If you care. Its a 2 second google. I just did it to check I was right. I was. But I guess you know best. No wonder schools are on their knees when it comes to staff. Very few of us want to get paid peanuts for highly strung, challenging children. (I'm staying because I can do it, not forever though)

From 2016? Newer result from the search said "children cannot tell the difference and are influenced" That's from this year!

I'm sorry I can't convince you. I'm just going to have to accept there are good parents who parent and bad parents who don't want to parent. I see it every day. Thank god its half term and I can see my son playing fifa and some car game!

Children of what age

There is a reason you’re not quoting your sources

As ‘children’ can be 2 year olds or 15 year olds.

this is from 2022 “between the ages of three and 10, children gradually become more sophisticated in their ability to understand the difference. For example, young preschoolers tend to believe everything they see on TV is real, yet by five or six they understand that if something violates physical reality, such as the special effects or animation in their favorite TV programs, it's not real”

www.verywellmind.com/can-children-understand-the-difference-between-fantasy-and-reality-5217713

I can’t imagine why you’re just continuing with this silly idea that at 13 children as a whole can’t tell the difference between fantasy and reality.

You must be joking.

I imagine you will argue to the death that violent/adult games are OK for your 13 year old.

It's pretty much common sense it has no benefit at best and at worst will effect them.

I work in an underprivileged area. So I have met many parents with your exact attitude and there are many reasons for this. Like I said, I'll look forward to a half-term spent with my kids who don't even ask about these games. Sheltered but happy. Maybe. I'll agree to disagree.

Absolutely no way.

If you’re letting your 13 year old watch Breaking Bad and play GTA then you’re a bad parent, and a lazy one.

Id say, give them free reign to what what they want.

for context, at that age I too had, duke nukem, gta the original top down pc version before it was 3d, command and conquer, dark reign, age of empires, (war strategy games)

watching various 18rated films e.g. Blade, x files, tv la femme nikita, (basically gov't assassins, ect

and turned out fairly normal (in certainty strange,) but I'm not strange due to tv or game influences

If he's playing gta, there's not much point censoring anything else....

It amazes me that people are happy to let their kids play games with sex, murder, drugs, rape and sexual violence but the same parents would be shocked if they were asked to buy the same child some porn..

Absolutely, definitely not. No idea why you would think this is acceptable op.

This. 100%.

OP there is no way I would want my daughter going out with your son at any point in the future.

He doesn’t want one as he thinks he doesn’t need one

There's plenty of criminal and child psychologists who do....but I guess your better trained.

As children we watched whatever had been rented from the video shop the night before while our parents had a Sunday morning lie on.

It didn't do any long-term damage other than a few sleepless nights as children frightened Freddie or Jason would pop in.

I would prefer an 18 movie to gta.

It depends on the child.

My son played GTA at just 14 with friends. Once the initial novelty had worn off, they rarely played it. From age 14, we let him watch or play whatever. No issues. He’s a good lad. He’s 19 now, still games, loves films and is very responsible and respectful.

My daughter is 14 and has no interest in older films or games, but again, she’s sensible so would let her watch/play anything now.

No. It's pretty hard to monitor. He probably watched breaking bad because he thought he can play 18 games so what's the difference. He could join 18 websites because 'it's the same' etc. etc. I let my 14yos watch 15 certs with me over the past couple of years but it's not often and blanket rule of 'no 15 on their own'.

Ds played GTA & COD at 13, he knew that they were games & nothing was real in them, he also had the language blocker on them so no swearing. Ironically at 18 he prefers to play younger games like Minecraft online with his friend.

I've never sctually seen the game GTA. Reading what the game involves though,I'm shocked that anyone is ok with playing it. Let alone children playing it.
To thecpo who said they would would update when their chi