Teens are watching adult flicks (children, 3 year old, school, friends)

[vision33r]

So based on some replies here, we should do away with ratings completely. Since they are irrelevant right? What's the point with ratings if parents are letting their kids watch SAW and other grotesque movies since they are rated R.

Thats why there's a drink age and smoking age too. Seems from many of you, having an age restriction on anything is bad. Now I can understand fully why kids are doing things they shouldn't be doing such as underage sex at a much earlier age because they see it in all the adult TV shows.

[vision33r]

Originally Posted by Wmsn4Life

I am curious ... How many teenagers do you personally interact with daily?

My teens are 18, so they watch what they want. My 10-year-old is on a big iCarly rerun jag right now, well, that and The Middle. I would not allow him to watch the shows you mention.

While 18 year old is still a teen but they are technically legal to watch most film. That is different than kids that are 13-16, I will give 17 yr olds a pass since I was 17 once and I had no issues.

[ScarletG]

Originally Posted by vision33r

So based on some replies here, we should do away with ratings completely. Since they are irrelevant right? What's the point with ratings if parents are letting their kids watch SAW and other grotesque movies since they are rated R.

Thats why there's a drink age and smoking age too. Seems from many of you, having an age restriction on anything is bad. Now I can understand fully why kids are doing things they shouldn't be doing such as underage sex at a much earlier age because they see it in all the adult TV shows.

Movie ratings are not a restriction and have never meant to be one. They are a tool for parents to use when making choices for their specific child. I don't relay on just that one rating (whose system isn't that good to be honest) to make my choices for Mt family.

[vision33r]

Originally Posted by ScarletG

Movie ratings are not a restriction and have never meant to be one. They are a tool for parents to use when making choices for their specific child. I don't relay on just that one rating (whose system isn't that good to be honest) to make my choices for Mt family.

They are a form of restriction since Rated R movies do not permit kids under 17 without parental consent. Video games that carry MA Ratings are not sold to minors directly unless someone is 18+.

I actually don't have much issues with teens watching Rated R films but video games is different, there are lots of games that offers more realism than movies. I play violent games all the time but I keep them away from my kids because I don't want them getting addicted to the act of harming people or doing offensive things portrayed in the games.

[Zimbochick]

Originally Posted by vision33r

They are a form of restriction since Rated R movies do not permit kids under 17 without parental consent. Video games that carry MA Ratings are not sold to minors directly unless someone is 18+.

You posted out yourself the fault in your argument.

[psurangers11]

Originally Posted by vision33r

They are a form of restriction since Rated R movies do not permit kids under 17 without parental consent. Video games that carry MA Ratings are not sold to minors directly unless someone is 18+.

I actually don't have much issues with teens watching Rated R films but video games is different, there are lots of games that offers more realism than movies. I play violent games all the time but I keep them away from my kids because I don't want them getting addicted to the act of harming people or doing offensive things portrayed in the games.

Is this serious?

Somehow or another you have figured out that there's a difference between the real world and video game fantasy land world, why wouldn't your kids be capable of this?... one day they are going to see you playing these games that you're telling them they can't play because it's bad.... how do you see that scenario playing out?

Besides... they'll have friends and go over to their houses and be exposed to it no matter what you do, so you can't be naïve. Do yourself and your kids a favor... put down the video game controller and teach them some right/wrong in terms of video game violence.

[ratchetjaw]

Saying of "adult flicks":

Today's younger generations probably don't (or can't) appreciate how easy they have life, when they have access to as much (free!) pr on they want, on demand, in their pockets 24 hours a day. Now, when I was a broody 13 year old, the best one could hope for (apart from stealling our brothers' Playboys) was to set the C-band to a scrambled "adults-only" transponder and maybe see a nipple or sideboob through the psychedelic Videocipher mud. If you were lucky enough to have a geeky wirehead kid living a few houses down, you could mmmmmaybe bribe him into building you a descrambler from a handful of resistors, caps and stuff -- well, we didn't have that luxury. We had to be thankful for what little we could get.

The things we had to go through to catch an eyeful a couple decades ago...

Just my £0.02 worth.

[Unsettomati]

Originally Posted by vision33r

Actually a lot of kids as young as 10 yrs old are watching adult flicks like Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Walking Dead, True Blood, etc. These are primarily adult rated TV shows that starts at PG-13 for some and most of them are Rated R to NC-17 in some episodes.

So? Let's just use Breaking Bad, since I'm most familiar with it of the ones you list.

Compare that to the countless Schwarzenegger/Stallone/Willis/Norris films the previous generation of kids watched. Now see the difference - Breaking Bad depicted violence with costs. Those other actions films? They slaughter people by the dozens, if not hundreds. The people they kill are evil caricatures, and after killing them the hero rides off with the girl and a catchy line.

Breaking Bad? The antagonists are actual people. And the 'good' guys? Jesse is destroyed emotionally by killing Gale. He sees his friend Combo and his girlfriend Andrea murdered due to his actions. And Walter? He loses it all - not only his life but his family.

Anyone who thinks Breaking Bad is going to be more desensitizing to violence than, say, Die Hard, really isn't paying attention.

They can catch it because it's accessible to them on the internet easily, while their parents are watching it on TV, the kids are watching it on their mobile devices.

While I watch many of these shows I was surprised to hear that many teenagers also watch the shows that features tons of blood, gore, and sex.

Are you parents aware of what your kids are watching?

Blood? Gore? Sex? Like all those Friday The 13th films released beginning in 1980?

Originally Posted by vision33r

I merely pointed out that there are kids as young as 10 watching this stuff while many teens from 13+ are watching this stuff.

This could be a reason why many teenagers today are desensitized of violent and sex depictions. They crave for more intensive depictions.

You know, youth violence has been dropping for the last 20 years.
http://johnjayresearch.org/rec/files...abit201304.pdf

Originally Posted by vision33r

So based on some replies here, we should do away with ratings completely. Since they are irrelevant right? What's the point with ratings if parents are letting their kids watch SAW and other grotesque movies since they are rated R.

Thats why there's a drink age and smoking age too. Seems from many of you, having an age restriction on anything is bad. Now I can understand fully why kids are doing things they shouldn't be doing such as underage sex at a much earlier age because they see it in all the adult TV shows.

Saw is rated R. Planes Trains And Automobiles is rated R. One for horrific torture and killing, the other for a word beginning with an 'F'.

If you place much value in the rating system that puts those two films for as equivalent, you really need to pay more attention.

I would not have let, say, my 14-year-old watch Saw. I would let my 14-year-old watch Breaking Bad. They are not the same.

My kids are all at least 16 years old - they are all mature enough to determine what they watch for themselves.

We do not have a game system in our home, not because I was never worried about content but because I consider them a waste of time. There are plenty of films that are thought-provoking and stimulating that my kids watch because they don't have a game console. Even if they see - horror of horrors! - a naked woman or someone bleeding.

My youngest son read Cormac McCarthy's The Road in fifth-grade. It was heavy, with some disturbing scenes. But it was also terrific literature, and I was glad to have him interested in it. It's not so much the content as the value in the specific work. The point holds with film. My kids saw The Shining some years ago. It too has intense scenes. It is also an amazing film, and I was again glad to have them seeing it.

It's really not that hard to teach kids that art and real life are different things.

[aneye4detail]

Meh, my 13 year old watches The Walking Dead with me in between playing GTA. But I never said I would be nominated for parent of the year either. I just don't believe personally in attempting to shelter kids from the world. I believe my son is smart enough to differentiate right from wrong.

[Adrian71]

I was embarrassed to watch the first season of Game of Thrones with my wife. I'd never let my child view anything like that. Sex, gore, and vulgarity for its own sake ... surely we can come up with better "entertainment" for ourselves than this, can't we?