Do you agree with movie / game age ratings?

[Deleted]

So, movies have ratings, right, and videogames too.
But what your kids watch, is really up to you.

You can follow the ratings and not show your kids
any movies or games the ESRB forbids

You can let them be free and watch what they choose
but at the end of the day, is it their morals that lose?


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Really though, in the UK we have like U for everyone I think, PG for kids but with Parental Guidance, then like 12, 15, 18. I think in America you have a different system because I see things like "rated R" or whatever and I don't really understand the American system but whatever. Do you stick to the ratings with your kids (or if you have kids, would you) or do you just let them watch whatever? Or only up to a certain point?

Do you think the ratings are correct or should they be changed? And is there really a point to them? Does watching stuff rated for older than you as a child mess you up at all?

I know as a child I was allowed to watch whatever, really, and it's not done any long term damage I don't think, but I remember having the odd nightmare about something I'd watched (though I suppose kids get nightmares about anything, even kids movie villains) and nightmares aren't really the end of the world right. Equally though, even if nothing bad neccesarily happens to your child if you let them watch/play whatever they want, is there any HARM exactly in not letting them watch things they aren't old enough for yet?

Personally I don't feel like we should rate movies on things like the violence or sex in them, but on like, the complexity of the plot or whatever. Like, a movie that may be difficult for a child to understand should be rated for older audiences because if they watch it when they're young they won't really appreciate it.

[Deleted]

is there any HARM exactly in not letting them watch things they aren't old enough for yet?

Yeah. You're being a dick.

I remember playing GTA when I was like 8 years old, it was awesome. Nothing bad happened to me. Well, it wasn't due to GTA, at least.

[AeneasBK]

I always felt a little left out when kids at school were talking about Terminator or Aliens and I had no idea what they were talking about (Even Jurassic Park). Having said that when I watched Aliens when I was about 14 it scared the shit out of me so I can't say I blame my parents for not letting me watch things I shouldn't.

As far as games go, when I was growing up they weren't really realistic enough imo. Carmageddon was about the only "risque" game and I didn't have a powerful enough computer for it (was a family computer at the time).

[Deleted]

The ratings have destroyed several great movies and games in the past. They're a load of complete BS.

How about instead of relying on some arbitrary ratings system, parents actually start parenting, and finding about a movie or a game to know first hand whether they want their children to see that movie or play that game?

[Rucati]

It depends completely on what it is, and why it has that rating.

If it's rated R because there's a lot of profanity that's really not a big deal. If it's rated R because it shows a guy getting his dick bitten off (Teeth I'm looking at you) then no kid should ever watch that, in fact no human should probably have watched that regardless of age.

As far as games, that's a bit different since it isn't real people. There are still some games that probably shouldn't be played by kids, Condemned comes to mind, but overall most games really aren't that big of a deal, things like GTA or Saints Row (probably less so Saints Row) are fine for kids as far as I'm concerned.

[Terahertz]

I think some movies are rated too harshly. Specifically ones with sex scenes and more intense action scenes. Therefore I think the 18+ rate should be changed to like 14+ or so.

In my childhood I was allowed to watch any movie. Some movies though did give me nightmares. I remember Chucky coming on TV and I wanted to see it, but my mom told me no. I then went on ahead to push and in the end I did watch it. For maybe 2-3 years I was constantly afraid because of the movie. So I do think some movie ratings have weight to them. In the end it was my own fault for ignoring my mother's warning.

After all though, ratings are recommendations and nobody really takes them seriously anyways.

[zealo]

I think the general ratings are a good rough estimate, however it does not work when parents are not following them.

The amount of squeaky kids with a microphone that i have encountered while playing on xbox live in 16/18+ games tells me a thing or two about that.

[Deleted]

I always felt a little left out when kids at school were talking about Terminator or Aliens and I had no idea what they were talking about (Even Jurassic Park). Having said that when I watched Aliens when I was about 14 it scared the shit out of me so I can't say I blame my parents for not letting me watch things I shouldn't.

As far as games go, when I was growing up they weren't really realistic enough imo. Carmageddon was about the only "risque" game and I didn't have a powerful enough computer for it (was a family computer at the time).

I remember playing Doom when I was just a wee little snot goblin and I think that was rated at 15 or 16 or something. It was among the first games I played (not counting sega megadrive games) and really loved it, and because it was something my dad and I could both enjoy, we hooked up two consoles and did the multiplayer stuff on Ultimate Doom and really bonded with my dad over it. Hell, last night actually he phoned me up and we were chatting about it as he was cleaning out his study at his house and found it and played a bit and like, brings back memories and stuff! If I was only playing like kids stuff that he wasn't into, we probably wouldn't have had stuff like that. At the same time though, some kids ARE impressionable, and like... We rented a copy of manhunt when I was like 13 or 14 or something and like, it was pretty shocking, and if I was a bit younger something like that might have messed me up a bit.

[Deleted]

This is why you became a lesbian. Ratings are there for a reason.

[Deleted]

This is why you became a lesbian. Ratings are there for a reason.

May / may not actually be true. When I was little I saw some movie (still to this day not sure what it was) that my parents were watching I think, like i walked through the room at maybe age 6 or something, and saw this guy in bed with this girl, and these little green ants ran across the top of his willy onto her and all over her. I thought the green ants were sperm and that's how women got pregnant. I was TERRIFIED.

[Rucati]

May / may not actually be true. When I was little I saw some movie (still to this day not sure what it was) that my parents were watching I think, like i walked through the room at maybe age 6 or something, and saw this guy in bed with this girl, and these little green ants ran across the top of his willy onto her and all over her. I thought the green ants were sperm and that's how women got pregnant. I was TERRIFIED.

No idea what movie it is, but as a 23 year old guy I'm pretty sure I'd be terrified if I was watching that too. Perhaps we need more ratings above R18 and AO.

[Lupinemancer]

I don't!
When I was about 10, I had already watched movies that was rated 15, and above. I even watched the first Jurrasic Park movie when I was 7, and nothing happened. I have not been affected, traumatized, or anything. The only thing that happened of it is that I like to see such movies today, and it lowered the time it took me to want to only watch cartoons, to more "adult" movies. So I was pretty much ahead of others my age

[Summer]

I don't know about teenagers but I can say for sure about my 6 year old that if he sees cartoon with a lot of fighting going on he brings that into playing with his friends etc. If he happens to see something that scares him, he might not want to go to bed alone or turn off the lights that night, or have nightmares.

I don't know about long term traumas but kids this age certainly model their behavior based on what they see. My dad who works in a school told me they had a 7 year old kid who plays (or watches youtube vids?) GTA and comes to school telling the other kids how he went to a bar an killed all the girls in there. Parents are involved in a huge divorce battle up to suing each other so guess don't have time to watch what he's up to on the computer.

tl;dr: There certainly should be ratings.

[Deleted]

This is why you became a lesbian. Ratings are there for a reason.

Pretty sure my sexuality was thrust upon me at the moment of conception. I can't imagine seeing any number of vaginas or penises as a child would have swung my sexual orientation in either direction...

[Deleted]

Pretty sure my sexuality was thrust upon me at the moment of conception. I can't imagine seeing any number of vaginas or penises as a child would have swung my sexual orientation in either direction...

May not be true. It's one of those "is it correlation or causation" things, but people who transition after puberty are more likely to be gay, people who transition before puberty (or at least, start their HRT before puberty) are more likely to be straight, which suggests that sexuality could be determined during puberty.

Edit: ALSO WHY HAS NO ONE COMMENTED ON MY POEM IN THE OP IT'S GREAT AND I SPENT AGES ON IT.

[Deleted]

Pretty sure my sexuality was thrust upon me at the moment of conception. I can't imagine seeing any number of vaginas or penises as a child would have swung my sexual orientation in either direction...

/10typeythings

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Edit: ALSO WHY HAS NO ONE COMMENTED ON MY POEM IN THE OP IT'S GREAT AND I SPENT AGES ON IT.

needs more "likes" for it to be your own material. i suspect google plagarism

[Naxere]

I don't see the harm in helping parents decide what's appropriate for their children to watch.

[Vizardlorde]

My parents didn't set any rules mostly mom brought home kid's movies with the occasional thriller, but everything I could get a hold of online was fair game.

[Gaman]

No I do not. IMO the now R rated should be 13 or 15years limit at max. By that age you have watched enough porn to not get mentally destroyed by seeing a tit in a movie, hearing someone say fuck, or seeing someone actually bleed from a wound.

[Graeham]

I think they're needlessly rigid. It's a matter of mental maturity rather than physical age. My mother allowed me to play stuff like Resident Evil and Silent Hill back when I was a kid because she knew I could separate reality from fiction. Plus some of the stuff I'd seen in the real world was by far much more worse than anything present in the game and so I was pretty mature for my age.