Kids and CSI (cartoons, lawyers, teens, teaching)

[brit3218]

I'm 21 and I am totally addicted to CSI! I love that show! lol Do you allow your teens to watch this show? I know for younger kids it's completely out the question. But what about teens who enjoy that kind of stuff. I know when I was a teen a loved horror movies, and things of that nature.

[djacques]

I don't watch CSI, is it really that bad?

I was a very early reader and news watcher, I saw and read about some pretty grisly stuff well before the age of 10, from the massacre of the Romanovs to war crimes in El Salvador and Lebanon. I didn't become a psycho killer.

[EEEPNJ]

I don't watch CSI, so I can't speak for that show. But take a show like The Sheild. I used to like it, but I'd never let my kids watch it - far too graphic and violent. In fact, it was a great show but got so disturbing, I stopped watching it after a while.

[djacques]

I would draw a very important distinction between shows/news/documentaries etc. that show violence with ones that glorify or minimize the effects of violence...I'd rather my kids see a realistic war movie than GI Joe, or whatever the current equivalent of it may be.

[wyoquilter]

My husband and I like all three of the CSI shows. Our kids ages 8, 10 and 12 will sometimes watch them with us. Most of the times when the shows are on they are usually watching the Disney Channel or cartoons on another t.v. or in their rooms reading books. My 12 soon to be 13 yo. watches them the most with us and that started mostly this current season. She prefers CSI and CSI NY over CSI Miami. But now that Grisom is gone from CSI she likes CSI NY the most.

The shows really are not that violent and gore is kept to a minimum most times. They all know and understand that it just a T.V. show so it is all acting, but they also understand that the crimes on the shows can happen in real life. It gives us an opertunity to talk about what to do if they ever found themselves in some of the situations. Like if someone is following you and it makes you scared, do you 1) take a detour into an isolated area? or do you 2) get to some place more public as quickly as you can and or call for help?

Now shows like the Shield and Sons of Anarchy are another story those have to much violence, to much sex and the cops are not really the good guys. My hubby and I still watch them, but only after the kids are in bed. Law and Order SVU could be used as another teaching tool. It does show how good dectectives go out and get as much info. about the crime as humanly possible and how the system works as a whole. Like why it's neccassry for cops to have warrents to obtain eveidence. How and why lawyers cut deals. How some criminals try and plead their cases, like mentally insane. How some eveidence gets tossed. How the good guys don't always win and sometimes the bad guys get off. How jury tampering is possible and how it is so wrong to do that. But it's still a bit confusing for younger kids with all of that. So we don't let the kids watch that just yet. Maybe in a few years when they are in their mid teens.

[PriscillaHR]

We don't watch those types of shows in our house at all. We are a military family and the imagery is unsettling to our kids (as it is to me). we don't need the added stress that those types of shows cause and so we don't allow them in our home at all.

[Jackyfrost01]

there's no need to see that on tv. There's enough of that in real life. We watch comedy shows. Real life is too serious as it is, why continue it with a serious and graphic tv show? not us.