Would you allow a 6 year old to watch Harry Potter

[Wills]

I've allowed dd1 to watch the first Harry Potter as I don't think this is too bad. The problem is that she's head over heels in love with it. Hermione is now firmly ensconced as her heroine which is fine by me. So.... I don't really feel that she's up to the next film especially the bit with the spiders (having spent the last year desperately trying to overcome my own phobia of the crawly things in the hope that she wont have a phobia etc etc). But I have allowed her to listed to the audio CDs and she's even trying to follow along using the book. Is there a difference between reading the book and watching the film? The issue is that dd1 still firmly believes in fairies, Father Christmas and Mr Tumnus (and long may that last). Given these beliefs I can't really tell her that any fears she may gain are not real but at the same time will she get as much from these sort of stories once/if she no longer believes in such things?

I think it depends on the 6 year old. If you feel it's too scary for her then it probably is.

I do think there's a considerable difference between reading the book/listening to the audio version and watching the film - and the spiders in HP2 are very scary.

I'd leave it til she's older - it'll keep

The second film is a LOT more scary and I wouldn't let a 6 year old watch it.

I am not sure if the book is suitable or not. I think in general visual images are much more powerful and your mind has no optional 'cut out' when things get too scary. If she reads that a character has a hideous scary face, she can just imagine the worst face she can think of - but a film version could be much worse than her own imagination, IYSWIM.

They don't truly understand the difference between truth and fiction until about 9 years old, even though they will be able to say "oh it is just a story" well before then, the real emotional understanding comes later.

I think the film version of the most recent book will have to be an 18.

my children all love harry potter. i watch it with them, and if they get scared then we just switch it off or skip to the next scene.

Which neatly brings me to the point that the books themselves get scarrier and at some point I need to stop borrowing the disks of the books from the library. Yes/No?

We all love Harry Potter and my 5 (yes sorry if this appears too young) year old DS2 watches with glee. I think it all depends on the type of child and what has an affect on them. If I thought he was at all distressed he would not watch.
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I thought the last one was incredibly scary - I read it to/with ds1, who was 8 or 9 at the time and he was quite upset by Dumbledore's death and the bit with the corpses coming to life and rising out of the water.

I reckon the one where they ban Quidditch and close Hogwarts might make her lose interest though (is that book 5? Can't remember). That's the only one ds1 didn't persevere with.

bloody hell, book 5 involves torture.

I actually find that book quite upsetting, tbh.

oh yeah and the corpses. Its quite grim really

dd (6) is too frightened to watch it but I would say virtually all her friends have seen it and were fine (but she is just 6 and most of her mates are about to be 7 so not sure if that makes a difference).

id make em read hte book first

Our rule is that they have to read it first and they have to be 7y before they can read it. Seems to work for us.