Movie Certification - what's the most you'd let your child/teen see?

Sam Mac

Please say your child/teens age as well!

G, PG, 12, 15 or 18?

This counts for DVD/BluRay and Cinema movies

Would love to hear your choices!

lonestargirl

I don't think it's as simple as that, it depends on the reason that the fIlm was given the cert in question. Nudity or sex scenes wouldn't bother me but violence, and particularly sexual violence would. It depends also on the child and whether or both they are able to deal with the themes in question. My mother let me watch 'the diary of Anne Frank' on TV when I was about 8. She sat and watched it with me and explained the history and answered my questions.

Orion

It's a tough one to answer. Sometimes ratings make no sense. My kids are 8 and have seen some 12 and a couple of 15 movies. It totally depends on the movie. If I haven't seen it myself I generally check online - particularly IMDB which gives a parental guide based on different categories - violence, sex, profanities, frightening scenes etc.

For example: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1392170/parentalguide (no I won't be letting them watch that mainly because of the basic premise of the film).

I then make a judgement call myself. I'd never let them watch a 15 movie without an adult there to turn it off if needs be during it. And a 12s movie I'd have to be certain of too to let them watch alone.

Sam Mac

Orion wrote: »

It's a tough one to answer. Sometimes ratings make no sense. My kids are 8 and have seen some 12 and a couple of 15 movies. It totally depends on the movie. If I haven't seen it myself I generally check online - particularly IMDB which gives a parental guide based on different categories - violence, sex, profanities, frightening scenes etc.

For example: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1392170/parentalguide (no I won't be letting them watch that mainly because of the basic premise of the film).

I then make a judgement call myself. I'd never let them watch a 15 movie without an adult there to turn it off if needs be during it. And a 12s movie I'd have to be certain of too to let them watch alone.

I honestly don't know how in the name of god the hunger games got a 12A rating.

Violence/Gore 9/10 !

I wouldn't be suprised to see a 15 sticker on it when it's out on DVD and BR

cynder

Due to my parents being lax with me on film certs I'm lax with my kids, but it really depends on the film, 12 year old watch's 12 movies some 15s and some 18s Like terminator, Bruce Willis films arnie films, jean Claude van damm films, really the 18s action movies. Nothing Like saw or hostal. Nothing based on sex and no 18 horrors. She can watch some 15 horrors.


My boys 7 and 5 watch all pgs and some 12s depending on content.

cynder

Sam Mac wrote: »

I honestly don't know how in the name of god the hunger games got a 12A rating.

Violence/Gore 9/10 !

I wouldn't be suprised to see a 15 sticker on it when it's out on DVD and BR

I would give hunger games 2/10 for gore/violence.

Pretty mild stuff.

10 would be something like hostal or saw. 5 would be a Bruce Willis action film, 7 a jean Claude van damm film, I would put hunger games on par with jaws and Jurassic park and the spiderwick chronicles, prince Caspian.


Have you seen the violence in tom and jerry? I would give that a 0..

Procrastastudy

I'd be more worried about the PEGI Certs on games. No matter how many times to gets explained to parents the latest GTA always seems to get record sales.

While I have no knowledge of how the VRA certs are come up with - the PEGI certs involve various parties including behavioural and child psychologists. There is simply no knowing what damage has been done to people because of the images etc they have been exposed to.

People with young kids letting them watch 18 cert DVDs and play 18 cert games really should have a visit from a social worker.

ash23

My daughter is 9 and I've been letting her watch certain 12A movies since last year. But I google the content and check why it's rated that way and make a decision based on that.
Usually they are older movies I have seen before so I know what's in them.

bullvine

I am Dad of the year... I let my 8 year old Daughter watch Poltergeist and Salems Lot recently, as long as it doesnt have S*X in it, I am fairly easy going. The Bad Language doesnt bother me as long as its not Vulgar and doesnt have too much in it, I know a lot about movies so its easy to decide what she watches. I obviously wouldnt let her watch something like the Saw Movies or Robocop because of the amount of blood in them but if your familiar with movies your probably better off deciding yourself than going with the ratings.

syklops

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

I'd be more worried about the PEGI Certs on games. No matter how many times to gets explained to parents the latest GTA always seems to get record sales.

While I have no knowledge of how the VRA certs are come up with - the PEGI certs involve various parties including behavioural and child psychologists. There is simply no knowing what damage has been done to people because of the images etc they have been exposed to.

People with young kids letting them watch 18 cert DVDs and play 18 cert games really should have a visit from a social worker.

I was at a friends house recently and her son who is about 7 was playing GTA on his PSP. Now even if the PSP game is milder than the Xbox/ PS 360 version, there is still a fair bit of violence, mafia gang wars, robbing cars and what not.

I am far from a prude, but do you really want you 7 year old seeing that stuff and at 7 for him or her to have an attitude that its ok just because its a game.

I don't get it myself. Same kid also has a World of Warcraft account. Something I find truly ironic considering the reason my friend is a single mum and not still with her ex is due in part to her ex's refusal to give up World of Warcraft and go get a job.

cynder

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

I'd be more worried about the PEGI Certs on games. No matter how many times to gets explained to parents the latest GTA always seems to get record sales.

While I have no knowledge of how the VRA certs are come up with - the PEGI certs involve various parties including behavioural and child psychologists. There is simply no knowing what damage has been done to people because of the images etc they have been exposed to.

People with young kids letting them watch 18 cert DVDs and play 18 cert games really should have a visit from a social worker.

What would you define as young?

As a child I watched violent and bloody films, im not damaged. I watched 18 moves at 8+ whenever they were got from xtravision, the only parts we weren't allowed to see were sex scenes. Its possible that i watched a few 18 movies before the age of 8.

I am in no way damaged from watching those films.





AS for video games, I Didnt have a games console until the age or 11... I have a 12 year old who has no interest whatsoever in video games. A 5 year old and 6 soon to be 7 year old who loves video games, they have xbox, ps3 and wii and they dont have any games over a age 7 rating (except ratchet and clank). They love the lego games, harrypotter, starwars, and so on.

I am more likely to stick to game certificates than i am movie certificates. My boys were playing age 7 games at 3. however they wont be playing any age 12 other than ratchet and clank until they are 12 or above. They wont be getting any 18s until they are at least 15 and then it will depend on the game.

ash23

I'm the total opposite to some posters above in that I am more concerned by the gore and violence than I am by the sex scenes.
I don't think anything of the mild sex scenes but I'd hate for my 9 year old to be watching anything violent.
But again, it depends on the child. My own is very sensitive to "scary" things but doesn't bat an eyelid at nudity or sex scenes.

cynder

ash23 wrote: »

I'm the total opposite to some posters above in that I am more concerned by the gore and violence than I am by the sex scenes.
I don't think anything of the mild sex scenes but I'd hate for my 9 year old to be watching anything violent.
But again, it depends on the child. My own is very sensitive to "scary" things but doesn't bat an eyelid at nudity or sex scenes.

Nudity i dont mind, sex scenes i do.

They can be pretty graphic in 15's and more so in 18's movies, in a 12a movie there isnt really much of a sex scene, one second they are kissing in bed then the next second its the next morning.

age 12 sex scenes are very mild and i would allow the kids to keep their eyes open and not fast forward the part.

bullvine

It totally depends on the child!, I didnt do me any harm, growing up the 80's watching The Terminator or Halloween.

ash23

grindelwald wrote: »

Nudity i dont mind, sex scenes i do.

They can be pretty graphic in 15's and more so in 18's movies, in a 12a movie there isnt really much of a sex scene, one second they are kissing in bed then the next second its the next morning.

age 12 sex scenes are very mild and i would allow the kids to keep their eyes open and not fast forward the part.

I wouldn't allow a 9 year to watch a 15s film anyway. I meant 12s.

deman

My kids are only allowed to watch programmes/movies at the required age if watching it alone. If I am with them, I'll allow plus 2 years. It also depends on the movie. I don't want my 16 year old daughter watching the Saw franchise for example, until she is 18, at least

cynder

ash23 wrote: »

I wouldn't allow a 9 year to watch a 15s film anyway. I meant 12s.

TBH i wouldnt even consider a sex scene in a age 12 movie a sex scence, thats why i said i wouldnt let my kids watch sex scenes in a 15s or 18s movie.

There is limited violence in a 12 rated movie.

Sleepy

It entirely depends on the movie. Our two (3 & 6) both love Jaws.

I think the only thing I've put the foot down about in our house so far was Bratz or something like that that presented vacuous Paris Hilton-alikes as role-models for little girls.

robvondoom

More a philosophical question, but which is worse? A PG action movie tellling a child that when you shoot a gun at a person they just fall down. Or an "18" cert telling a child that if you shoot a gun at someone, they are dead. Dead and not coming back.

My opinion is quite useless though as I was watching Kubrick and Cronenberg films by the time I was 10. My feeling though is that parents should spend less time trying to control what their child sees and hears (which is impossible) and more time actually relating to their children. So if necessary you can properly put into context what's been seen by having a conversation rather than preaching stentorian at them.

PlainP

My two boys are 7 and 8 and are allowed to watch 12 cert films, such as Spiderman etc.. My eldest is mad about the Titanic and so I let them watch The film. I'm not worried about sexy scenes as I just joke about them and I they seem to close their eyes themselves when these bits come on.


They also play 12 and 15 cert games such as Halo, Uncharted, Tomb Raider they love the puzzle aspects of these games. With uncharted there is a lot of s**t this and s**t that but I explain to them that this is an adults way of expressing themselves and they seem to take this and I havn't hear them curse openly...and with Halo the violence is minimal as its aliens they are shooting. They are not allowed to play online though.I think they are too young to be exposed to other peoples methods of game play.

Sam Mac

Bumpety

The Big Red Button

I'd let my eleven-year-old sister was a 12 rated movie, I wouldn't let her watch a 15 rated movie unless I'd seen it myself first.

I wouldn't be too concerned about mild sex scenes (she knows all the facts!) or about a small amount of bad language (she never uses bad language, but obviously she's exposed to it by other kids etc, so I wouldn't be too worried about her hearing it in a movie.)

I'd be more concerned about movies with a lot of violence or gore, in case she'd get nightmares. I also very much take the general theme of the movie into account - for example, even if the violence and blood in The Hunger Games was all edited out, I still wouldn't let her watch it, as I think that the idea of kids killing other kids in this way would be very disturbing and upsetting for her.

I'm also pretty careful about what she reads - for example, she started reading 127 Hours the other day, but I took it off her. I read the "worst" scene in it myself (where he cuts off his arm), and didn't find it too graphic, but I didn't like the idea of her reading about someone coming so close to death in such a horrible way. (Of course, she's read plenty of books involving themes of mortality etc, but these would be more age-appropriate - Jacqueline Wilson, Harry Potter books, etc.)

I realise that I may seem a little over-protective. She's not overly sensitive or innocent, and is actually quite mature for her age, but I just don't see the point in letting her watch movies or read books aimed towards much older teenagers, when there's plenty of material out there that's much more appropriate for her age.