To urge parents not to take their underage children to see the FNAF movie?

[Ahsoka2001]

Today it was announced that the new "Five Nights at Freddy's Movie" has been classified 15 by the BBFC for "strong threat, violence" - https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/five-nights-at-freddys-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0xmdeznzy4

I know there's a large fanbase for the FNAF franchise aged 10-14. I'm sorry that they won't be able to see the highly-anticipated movie version on the big screen. But at the same time - as someone who works in a cinema - reading this news has me dreading the release of this film.

A 15 certificate means that NOBODY who has not reached their 15th birthday is allowed into the auditorium. This is enforced by UK law and applies even if the parent accompanies their child. No one underage being in the screen is a condition of the cinema operating. It's just like alcohol - sell alcohol to anyone underage, the venue loses its license and won't be able to remain in operation.

So, if I turn away your under-15 from the FNAF film, I am just following the law. Underage patrons being let into the screen could mean not only legal action against the cinema, but legal action against me - I could also potentially lose my job.

Many people think, "It's not like it's alcohol, it's just a film." No. It's treated almost just as badly as alcohol and other age restricted products. Please be kind to cinema workers who have no choice but to turn away underage customers. It's a shame I have to say this but please don't become aggressive or verbally abusive (it's happened to my colleagues before). I'm sure this isn't the vast majority of people but it's one of the prime sources of customer aggression in the exhibition sector.

Oh - and if your child genuinely is 15 or over, please make sure they bring valid photo ID :) If you don't want them taking valuable documents like passports out then a clear photo of these should suffice. The last thing we want to do is turn away people who ARE within the law but if we do have to...we have no choice and it's absolutely nothing personal.

Cannot believe the type of garbage some parents let their children watch/play. No wonder we have such a messed up, violent society 😳.

Oh! Makes sense! For classic board games and Lego sets etc the age rating does refer to difficulty.

The confusion comes by assuming a video game age rating is like a board game/toy age guide rather than a film classification.

Woman in black was originally a 15 (just 6 seconds of footage is what has made the difference between a 12A and a 15!!) and the BBFC still feel it’s borderline and recommend thinking twice about showing it to anyone under 12. We used to show it at the end of year 7 alongside a gothic horror scheme but there were (understandably!) some kids who were not comfortable with it - we stopped showing it.

My daughter was a fan now 12 , to be fair the download for iPad my be different than the computer game but there is no reference to children being killed by a pedophile or that they are killed in the games she played, it was just a security guard trying not to get ' jumped scared' by one of the animatronics.
So it seems they have added all this backstory and violence to the movie as there is no gore or violence or blood in the game.
I always monitor what she's looking at .

@RancidOldHag I am indeed referring to VHS tapes - nothing to do with misremembering! I’m not sure my parents were aware that there were ratings 😊I would pick the film and they would pay for it - and I’d go home and watch it and often have nightmares. Having the rating on the box made a big difference in what I was allowed to watch unsupervised.

Passports?

Pretty common for kids to have those in the U.K. (not necessarily the case elsewhere).

So it seems they have added all this backstory and violence to the movie as there is no gore or violence or blood in the game

The lore and backstory comes from the games. It's not a new additon for the film.

Well it clearly did damage you because you're lacking in empathy and understanding that other people are different than you, and think kids being stopped from watching age-inappropriate content "need shielding" (implying weakness) rather than that this might be a sensible boundary.

There are studies that actually show that children exposed to age inappropriate material grow up to lack empathy.

It never ceases to amaze me what parents will allow their kids to watch. A few years ago, I was shocked to discover that many upper primary/lower secondary students had seen Squid Games.

I agree with a PP above who is also a teacher - It's completely inappropriate and it's something that we're taught to look out for in child protection training.

If you’re going to let a 9 or 10 year old watch it you may as well let them see the new Winnie the Pooh. It’s full of cuddly cute teddy bear and friends too…

Dd8 is scared of movies like nightmare before Christmas. Her cousin 8 years watches scary movies and ILS pride themselves on it. Wasn’t so funny when she tried to bring a ghost sensor kit to a camp sleepover to scare other kids or telling my dd scary ghost stories at PILS sleepover to the point I got a call at 11pm to pick up dd as she was terrified.

What happened to kids just playing Naughty Bear 😂

You need to watch things and check things and parent.

My kids like anime - they are allowed Demon Slayer but not Attack on Titan (That's just for me)

And they are ok with it... when we tell them we watched Alien and Indiana Jones as 7/8 year olds they are amazed...

12yo watched mean girls in a sleepover recently and I wasn't too happy about it... give me fantasy gore (like demon slayer) any time more than real meanness and bullying

It's because they can't be bothered to parent or don't take enough of an interest in what their children are actually playing or watching. Children don't process things the same as older teens and adults do, it's part of being a responsible parent to be reasonable about your child's exposure to such things. The amount of young children that play GTA is ludicrous, but 'it's just a game' isn't justification; there's a balance between shielding them from the realities of the world and willingly and even encouraging exposure to violence, sexual themes and the like. It doesn't make them more resilient.

I guess the question is, how has your young daughter become a fan of it?
Even the game is rated 12+.

I think the problem is with the 12a rating. Parents are used to being allowed in with younger children that the directness of the 15 comes as a shock. The 12a is ridiculous. I think it should have a cut off of 8. When we went to Avatar there were toddlers in there who were clearly bored out of their brains an hour in messing about. Some chains are very direct about it. Picturehouse didn't allow Mt 15 year old DS into EEAAO until he'd downloaded an ID but Vue let him and his friend in to Oppenheimer on his friends 15th birthday without ID.
All I remember about FNAF is that my DS's friends used to play it even they must have been about 8 or 9 and my DS was traumatised by it, so we never even looked at it again.

@TinyTear My dd8 loves anime too and she likes sailor moon. She’s obsessed with my Captain Levi doll but I won’t let her watch attack on titans, I feel it’s way too gory for her currently.

Yep. Proud of being shit parents.
“Oh my little Johnny is so clever he plays Murder Killer Vl on his playstation til 4am!, he’s had his own iphone since 4 years old, hes so advanced and a tech nerd”
Sure Jan….

There is an app that 15 year olds can download onto their phone to use in cinemas. I can't remember the name but there may be information on it on the BBFC website. If no-one knows I'll ask my DS when he comes home from school

The number of arguments we had with our then 10yo ds about Squid Game!

"But loads of kids in my class have seen it!"

"I don't care what other parents allow. Me and dad have watched it and it's totally inappropriate for your age. It's 15 for a reason."

In our case, our argument wasn't helped by the fact that dsis had allowed then 12yo niece to watch it. So we heard a lot of wailing "But Auntie X let Y watch it!" Mind you, she also let her watch Pulp Fiction more recently. Apparently it's a tame 18 by today's standards.

So let your toddler watch 18 rated horrors and by the time they are 5 you can put on the Human Caterpillar. Maybe snuff films by 8?
You might have a timid child or a sociopath. You might also get some visits from social services if anyone reports you (I would. Exposing young children to adult themes, violence etc in films and games is abusive)

This is another part of the issue, people's shitty parenting inflicts itself on other children. No one of primary school age should be watching squid games ffs and the fact children who have decent parents then feel pressured or like they're missing out is sad. It's not prudish to think extremely graphic deaths aren't suitable for young children- I always wonder how many genuinely enjoy it anyway and how many feel a pressure to say yeah that was cool.

Ooooooh! A captain Levi doll!
I am waiting for the Uniqlo t-shirts to come out 😁

my kid has spy x family and My hero academia uniqlo clothes

(sorry for derailing)

DD2 will almost certainly want to see this, and is 14.5 - arrgh.

I have never seen any Nightmare on Elm St films as an adult, I don't like horror films at all and I just have no interest at all, though I do love a ghost story. The posters and people's tales of the films really terrified me as a kid in the 1980s and gave me insomnia.

I work in a school and we have remade safe guarding reports on children who:

1. was a year 1 who could name loads of guns from watching his dad play video games.
2. was a year 5 child who was obsessed with horror (nothing wrong with this) however her writing would often involve Abd describe murders she’d seen in films think screen when the garage door cuts someone in half and the ring coming out the tv. She acted so cool and brave but actually she was completely terrified and it took up so much of her brain thinking of them.
3. was a child who watched a beheading video (real one) this child was exposed to gore and violence in media from a young age and wasn’t freaked out by watching real people be beheaded.

you have no idea the damage done to your child but professionals have to protect them. Of course no one is making a safe guarding report on a child watching Chucky but if that film then affects the child they could and you have no idea until after whet the result might be. Please start protecting children.

Bloody hell, I've never heard of this but have just watched the trailer. I don't think I'm old enough to watch it.

The amount of young children that play GTA is ludicrous, but 'it's just a game' isn't justification

It is possible to play GTA just for the car chases.

We used to let DS do that whilst still underage (younger teen) with DH alongside him to make sure that was indeed all he did.

It's unsupervised access that's the problem, plus parents not really knowing how the games work. DS wasn't remotely interested in the problematic (offensive/adult) content in GTA, and was perfectly happy playing only the parts we allowed him on to.
Goodness only knows whether he exercised bragging rights at school though, because if he did then he'd be part of the problem (because I doubt very much the parental input would have featured in what he said).

It seems pretty clear that lots of parents don't know enough about FNAF.

Things with a 12 rating really shouldn't be played by those still at primary school