Young Kids in certain Movies
 

Well since PG-13 means parental guidance for children under 13, and the girl was under 13, and her parents were there, I think it was a completely appropriate situation.

Okay well I am a child developement major so I land 50/50 on this... on the one side tv/movie are said to have a detrimental effect on childrens brain developement. Especially if the child is in the toddler and infant range. And the violent images can leave tramatic depressions on the brain as well(learned that in a brain developement class :P). And children in general work with the monkey see monkey do theory. So the foul language settles in.

However when I ignore what I learn in class, I don't see a problem with it. If the parent is bringing there child to such a film then obviouosly the parent feels that they can serve as the bridge and tell their child that _____is bad and _____ is just fake. Also PG-13 means parental guidence until the age of 13. Meaning the parents should as I said serve as a bridge until 13yrs old, because the film will have content that would be impressional on a younger mind.

So in short version I would say that it it soully up to the parent to judge there childs ability to understand and take in the content of the film

Like Key said, PG-13 means parental guidance under 13, so if parental guidance is okay with kids younger seeing the movie, alrighty, like Nissa said.
I think the same concept applies to other ratings, such as 14A, which means only 14 or older by my understanding. I think it's the same idea as PG-14 would be.

Kids shouldn't be watching violent movies at any age, but especially at 11 and under. Those kids are just starting puberty and have are trying to figure themselves out, so by watching violent movies, they'll just grow up violent people. Now, that's not always the case but I'm saying about 60% of them just become violent.

Agreed. just gonna have to say that.

This debate reminds me of one of the others about adult content in kid films. One of the biggest arguements in that debate is that the kids don't understand the humor and so aren't really effected by it. so although I believe that you should save Pg-13 movies for kids that are 13 and up it really doesn't hurt the kids if you take them to that movie when they are younger than 13.

Well the PG is for parental guidance(sp) suggested, pg-13 is if over 13 its fine, R over 17... but even then its not a built system as some have pointed pout some of us mature faster then others and can handle it better

Uhh... sources please? To any/all of your three sentences.

First, Keyori, your avvie is beautiful.

Now, onto the topic. If a child is lucky enough to have responsible parents, then outside of a few concepts it doesn't matter what sort of material they view as long as their parent(s) is present to sort out any questions or issues. If they can help the child tell fantasy from reality and if they can successfully broach any topics such as violence, sexual subject matter, etc. then I think it's perfectly fine. If a person has a child who is well-behaved in public, then by all means they should be entitled to take them to a movie, or let them watch and listen to what they like. Society hs created these guildelines so that parents don't have to think. Most people accept that a bunch of people who don't know their child still somehow magically know what is best for their child, and they unquestioningly follow a brainless system of mnemonics to categorize what do do with your children and how to entertain them appropriately instead of actually raising them.
Now, I'm not saying that you should take your kids to see slasher films. Kids' minds are very impressionable and images can stick with them for a long time, causing mental anguish and trouble far down the line. However, if a parent is certian their kids are mentally prepared and mature enough I don't see a problem with something like Iron Man. If I had a child they'd be going with me to see Lord of the Rings, Serenity and such, and I'd probaly let my young kids watch anime, with the understanding that it depicts adults in adult situations, and rather than using media as a babysitting droid I would actually watch these things with my kids and talk to them throughout. I probably wouldn't let anyone under 10 try to sit through something like Alien or Saw though, simply because gory images can burn themselves onto a kid's brain (my family used to watch slasher flicks with me toddling around all the time and, coupled with a not-so-shiny childhood, I cannot sit through a horror film without feeling slightly traumatized, even at the age of 22).

I've noticed that's been the case for games, too.

I recently played a game for the original Xbox, and I noticed its rating was Mature.

It got that rating because some of the characters swore during dialogue.

There was no nudity, the violence was laughable (no blood, victims disappeared after you defeated them, and there was very little fighting to begin with), and the most "sexy" thing that happened was the female main character kissing a male twice.

I thought that, compared to other games rated Mature (Red Dead Redemption, anyone?), it was laughably mild and wasn't really deserving of such a harsh rating... however, that game was released nearly 7 years ago. Funny how things change so quickly, eh?

Depends on the person really. My younger cousins watch stuff that would scare the shit out of me and I'm an adult and they're not. The movie ratings are guidelines- in my opinion.

I think it's entirely up to the parent. I started watching horror movies with my parents when I was 4 years old and I turned out alright. I knew that what happened in the movies wasn't okay and that if I heard a bad word, I wasn't supposed to repeat it but it wasn't a big deal.

I'm a psychology major, so I know there's this study and that study but really? Hearing a few cuss words and seeing a little bit of fake violence is not going to ruin your life forever unless you lack parents responsible enough to help you clear the line between Hollywood and real life.

I think it's fine to take a kid into a PG-13 movie (and this is coming from a mom with two kids). A lot of stuff goes over kid's heads- I've seen stuff that I watched as a child and thought "wow, I didn't realize how much I didn't get!" As for cursing, I let out a swear word around my kids now and then, though I mostly do not. I've heard my daughter say a few curse words, she's 13. I've explained to her that it is generally considered rude to curse and I didn't particularly want to hear her doing so. I told her that she should especially not curse around adults, especially her friend's parents, but that if she chose to curse around her friends, well whatever. It's not like she won't do it anyway if she wants. I like to keep those lines of communication open, and that's one way to do so.

I think that it depends on the movie, and the kid. Some PG-13 movies are fine for kids, while others are really not. I think that it should be a case-by-case basis, using the ratings as a loose, general guideline. Also, the maturity of the kid should be taken into account. I think that most kids are more mature and can handle more than we give them credit for.

That said, there are some movies that I've seen to which parents had brought kids that, no matter how mature the children were, should have not been in the theater for the movie no matter what. When I went to see Kill Bill vol. 1 when it first came out, there were these two parents sitting in the front row with their kid and a bunch of others. The kid looked about seven and, from what I heard(they were really loud before the movie started) he was there with his friends for a birthday party. Why two adults thought that any movie by Quentin Tarantino would be a great idea for a seven year old's birthday is beyond me. They all left about ten minutes into the movie, screaming and crying.

I saw a lot of kids with their parents the couple of times that I saw Watchmen in the theater, too. I think that some parents just saw it as a superhero movie and ignored the R rating. Needless to say, once again, there was crying and running out of the theater.