Young children and pg-13 movies?

[Bcat]

Hey so I'm curious as to what other people think about this. Would you allow a really young child (I'm talking like ages 4-6) see a pg-13 movie?
I went to see gotg2 a second time and there were several children who couldn't have been more than 6 years old (one of which was sitting right behind me and had to be shushed the whole time) This movie had a ton of violence, swearing, and crude jokes. I also know someone who is considering taking their 4 year old to see the new pirates of the carribean.

Am I old fashioned, or is this just too young to take kids to these kinds of movies? I mean, the definition of pg-13 is "may be inappropriate for children under 13" and 6 is half that age. Although I'm seeing a ton of people taking really young kids to see them.
Personally I would consider taking an older child, like 10 or so, to see a movie like that if they were especially mature.

I hope this doesn't come across as judgemental. I honestly don't care what other people do with their kids and I'm not going to tell other people how to parent their children. I just personally feel this is too young an age to see a pg-13 movie and wanted to know what other people thought about it.

 

[piichinu]

I agree with you

 

[Drokmar]

I mean, in my personal opinion, I would not ever allow any child of mine to see a PG-13 movie unless they're 13 (maybe 12, lol). I'm no fan at all to people who allow children to see violence like that. The only thing worse than movies is when I see a 6 year old playing Call of Duty or something like that. I can't seem to understand parents who would allow their child to do things like this, and I guess that makes me "old-fashioned" then?

Also you make another valid point, I believe that anyone younger shouldn't necessarily even be in that theater, just on account of the fact that they could end up being a little too obnoxious and ruining the experience for everyone else. Now, apologies to anyone who has a well-behaved child, but you're not everyone.

So in short, no I wouldn't let a child see a PG-13 movie, nor do I appreciate anyone who does it, at least as far as an actual movie theater goes.

 

[Corrie]

If the kid was 10, then I'd probably be okay with it but 6? That's far too young. They probably don't understand it anyway so what's the point?

 

[visibleghost]

dont take tiny kids w u to the cinema. if u think they can handle it watch it at home because if they cant it will ruin the movie for everyone else.
i think it's kind of a bad idea to let ur kid watch movies w a bunch of blood or w/e because 5 yr olds are scared of everything and it doesnt seem like the smartest thing ever to fuel their nightmares But, like, it's not my business what movies they watch. just dont take them w u to the cinema

 

[-Apples-]

When I was younger, I used to take ratings very seriously. But then I realized that they don't take restrictions as seriously for the lower ratings. The higher the minimum age requirements are, the more serious they are about it. For a PG movie, they wouldn't care much if a child under 10 wants to see it, but they would recommend supervision. But for an NC-17 movie, nobody under 18 should even watch with no exceptions.

But yes, children under the age of 7 are too young to see a PG-13 movie, and those under 13 are too young to watch without supervision.

 

[Alienfish]

Well don't take them, especially those who can't behave and just laughs really loud in the wrong places and sit with their noses into their phone anyways. Those rules have been very light here recently in here since you can take 11 and up on pg-15 movies(our equivalent I guess) so yeah..

Plus yup they probably wouldn't care/understand the movie anyways.

 

[Nightmares]

I think anything under 10 is a bit too young, I think

Maybe 8+ for a 12A, idk...I don't remember what films I watched at that age, though
I used to watch 15 films and TV at 12+

 

[zeoli]

At around 8 years old, I was watching South Park and playing grand theft auto vice city? I was also allowed to watch PG-13 movies and some rated R movies depended on the majority of content. Violence was fine and sexual content wasn't. This was because of my parents though, as the only thing my grandma did allow was PG-13 movies.

Even in my experience though, I would never let a kid watch a R rated movie under any circumstance. But, as you all can imagine, I don't mind PG-13 as much. Granted, if I had kids, I would try to learn about the movie somewhat and gauge whether I think it is alright or not.

I still don't understand to this day though why I was allowed to watch a "mature" show and play a game that, at the time, was pretty bad for a kid. Yet, it feels hypocritical to say no to R movies. After seeing Grand Theft Auto V, I would DEFINITELY not allow a kid to play that.

I know I went a little off topic mentioning a show and game but I felt like it went along with it.

 

[Soda Fox]

I think it's up to parents to decide if their kids are old enough for the content. I would hope the parents are mindful of other watchers and keep their kids behaved but if a parent thinks their 6-year old is old enough for a PG-13 movie I think a kid that young can be. PG-13 just means the child should be 13+ to watch alone or can watch with a parent at younger ages anyway right?

R is a different story because it doesn't include the PG but I know when I was younger my parents brought my young sister and I to R rated movies and we turned out just fine.

*autocorrect errors

 

[Bcat]

At around 8 years old, I was watching South Park and playing grand theft auto vice city? I was also allowed to watch PG-13 movies and some rated R movies depended on the majority of content. Violence was fine and sexual content wasn't. This was because of my parents though, as the only thing my grandma did allow was PG-13 movies.

Even in my experience though, I would never let a kid watch a R rated movie under any circumstance. But, as you all can imagine, I don't mind PG-13 as much. Granted, if I had kids, I would try to learn about the movie somewhat and gauge whether I think it is alright or not.

I still don't understand to this day though why I was allowed to watch a "mature" show and play a game that, at the time, was pretty bad for a kid. Yet, it feels hypocritical to say no to R movies. After seeing Grand Theft Auto V, I would DEFINITELY not allow a kid to play that.

I know I went a little off topic mentioning a show and game but I felt like it went along with it.

Yeah, I mean I completely agree that not all media is equal in terms of content and that I, personally would allow more violent content over overtly sexual content when allowing an older child to see a certain movie.
The movie I was talking about with all the 6-year-olds in it however did have some pretty suggestive stuff though, nothing too overt, but several crude jokes and a scene taking place at what was obviously a brothel.

The thing is I know someone personally who allowed their 6 year old to see this movie and this person is the definition of a helicopter mom so it kind of baffles me that she would allow a child so young to see it when she's so uptight around everything else.

I know another mom (who was visiting from out of town) with 3 kids aged at the time from about 4 to 10 and she refused to let them watch teen titans go but instead put the tv on the amazing spider man (the andrew garfield version) And I'm just??? What exactly is in teen titans that your kids can't see that isn't in the amazing spider man?

My parents did let me watch a (heavily censored for tv) r-rated movie when I was around 8 or so too. It was rated R primarily for language though, which was censored out.

 

[Mega_Cabbage]

I think it's fine as long as they seem mature enough. I've seen a 7 year old act perfectly fine at a pg-13 Harry Potter movie and I've seen grown men act like obnoxious children during R rated movies. Age doesn't necessarily correlate to maturity.

 

[Mink777]

It's all about the maturity of the kid. A mature 7 year old would be better off watching a PG-13 movie than an obnoxious 12 year old for example.

 

[Bowie]

To me, it's perfectly fine. While it may not be what you want them to see, if they're interested in it enough they will find a way to see it. I remember watching really graphic horror films like SAW when I was extremely young.

I really think that it depends on the child. If they wanna see it, let them. They'll find out for themselves whether it's for them or not, and aside from a few nights of being scared of looking underneath the bed, it's not gonna do any harm. Just warn them.

And don't let them be afraid to ask you about it. Be open to everything they're interested in. Ask them about it.

 

[Kristenn]

I think it's okay. PG 13 is still clean....if they say anything bad the child probably wouldn't catch on to it

 

[Twisterheart]

I think it depends on the movie, as well as the kid. There are many PG13 movies that in my opinion, are fine for young kids to watch as long as their parents are there. I also think it depends on the kid. Some children are easily scared, while others are fine. When I was growing up, I loved the Jurassic Park and Pirates of the Carribbean movies even though they were PG13. But at the same time, I used to be friends with someone who was terrified of Jurassic Park and to this day refuses to watch them because she finds them scary. And at the same time, I heard stories of kids who were scared by Zootopia, which is only PG

Really, it just depends in my opinion. Although, I do think if a parent is going to show a PG13 I think they should do their research and decide if this is something they want to expose their child to, and if their child can handle it.

 

[Tao]

Depends on the kid and the movie. Some kids can't handle certain things, some/most PG-13 movies aren't even deserving of a PG-13 rating in the first place...There's PG movies from the 80's and 90's way more 'inappropriate' for children than a lot of PG-13 movies...


The closest personal anecdote I have is that I grew up watching 18+ rated movies from an early age. So did my brother and sister. We were all fine with it. My cousin would have probably needed to see a therapist if he saw 'Evil Dead 2' though...He saw some of Alien once and hid in his room crying (it was the cat jumpscare, not even the Xenomorph).
There were still a handful of movies my mum wouldn't let me watch, I can't remember what they were, but the point stands that she obviously made the decision for herself rather than using the rating on the box to do the work for her.



Parents should probably do some parenting and see for themselves whether or not something is appropriate for their kid, rather than relying on questionable rating committees to do the parenting for them...Especially since these ratings aren't exactly foolproof. There's many movies and games that have gotten inappropriate content past the censors simply by purposely putting in worse content to avert attention.

 

[Nuclear Bingo]

I feel like it's a case-by-case basis. My parents took me to see PG-13 movies starting around when I was 8. I didn't start cussing until I was 16 because of my morals. (meaning I was not influenced to repeat those words as a child). I was disgusted until like 17 by sex and sexual content in movies. If anything, the content deterred me from behaving like that in reality.

I know kids whose parents were extremely restrictive on what they were exposed to and had way worse attitudes than people whose parents let them watch R rated movies as a child. There's a lot of variables.

 

[Fleshy]

As a lot of people have said, I think it depends on the kid. Some children are sensitive or scared easily and wouldn't be able to deal with some mild violence or slightly scary scenes, while others like that kind of thing. Parents should watch movies first to make sure they are suitable for their young child. That being said, I really don't think any young child should be exposed to anything sexual (even if just mild PG-13 level), intense violence, language, or very scary/disturbing scenes, let children be children, there's plenty of time to watch that kind of stuff later.

 

[B e t h a n y]

I don't really understand American classification, does PG-13 mean restricted to only people above 13 or it's just not recommend for people under 13? Because that rather mean M or MA15+ in Australia.