5 ms·

Speaking of movie ratings, is there actual evidence that watching "adult" movies at a young age is really bad for you? Kids watch pretty much whatever they wan

Speaking of movie ratings, is there actual evidence that watching "adult" movies at a young age is really bad for you? Kids watch pretty much whatever they want on the Internet these days, anyway.

TeMPOraL 12y ago
And hey, before Internet they also were watching anything they wanted anyway - it only takes one kid who gets a VHS from somewhere (e.g. from an older brother)...
- ptaipale 12y ago
  Using a smartphone to watch a horror or porn flick without adults noticing is much easier than what it was to sneak to someone's home with a CRT TV and a VHS recorder and a cassette to watch. Not that kids didn't see bad things in the bad old times - they probably saw more of it in real life - but the ubiquitousness of these devices is not necessarily only a good thing.
  - TeMPOraL 12y ago
    I agree. The point is, kids back then (which includes myself) had their ways. You want some porn or horror/action movie? That's what older brothers are for ;).
aswanson 12y ago
I can only speak for myself. Being exposed to pornographic images at 9-10 years old had a negative effect on me. It made me want sex far earlier than I would be ready for the physical and emotional consequences.
- guard-of-terra 12y ago
  Do you really think keeping people in the dark about things they are supposed to want is a good things? Are we now factory-farmed chicken (with our consent) and not humans?
  - philsnow 12y ago
    > Do you really think keeping _people_ in the dark Yes they're "people", but the young are also our charges, and we are responsible for their right upbringing. If you found your 9yo kid-plus-friends going through your "best of" porn folder at a sleepover or whatever, would you stop them?
    - scarygliders 12y ago
      I refer you to a reply I made before this. Also, we're not talking about 9yo kids/porn here - stop changing the goalposts - we're talking about 11yo boys and Aliens specifically.
- Crito 12y ago
  Maybe these children are going to want to shoot aliens at an earlier age now. Wait... Edit: Am I wrong? What exactly is the concern with Aliens here? Kids already like guys shooting aliens. Is there some sort of "alien-violence puberty" that I am not aware of?
  - psykovsky 12y ago
    Don't even get me started on the crap cartoons show these days. Violence everywhere.
  - scarygliders 12y ago
    I've upvoted you because I'm noticing a pattern on this topic where anyone questioning the "think of the children!" attitude is being downvoted. Before you guys downvote me; I'm a parent. The boy is now 13yo and has been growing up with Star Trek, Dr Who, and whatever other sci-fi I like to watch. Even some Dr Who and Star Trek had material some of you would consider to be a bit 'iffy' to show kids. Doesn't seem to have done my son any harm - he's growing into a well balanced kid who goes to the Air Cadets, is popular, and does well at school. As a parent, I see no harm in showing 11 year old boys Aliens. Listen - you cannot wrap your kids up in cotton wool. The reality of life is way more brutal and uncaring than is shown in a mere film. As long as these kids understand that it's just a story, that it involves plastic and latex models, these are actors, and so on and so forth - where's the harm for these 11yo kids? Like I say - life is hard. I for one don't want my son growing up to be some limp-wristed little snowflake because I shielded him from all sorts of things. Seriously guys, get real.
    - DanBC 12y ago
      > Even some Dr Who and Star Trek had material some of you would consider to be a bit 'iffy' to show kids No, people are arguing against films like Saw or their 1980s equivalents. > Like I say - life is hard. I for one don't want my son growing up to be some limp-wristed little snowflake because I shielded him from all sorts of things. Seriously guys, get real. What life lessons is a child going to learn from watching "Hostel"? Also, "limp wristed"? FFS.
- mod 12y ago
  Speaking for myself, I was exposed to pornography at 8 until about 10 pretty consistently (friends' dad worked until dinnertime, they were home alone, they found his porn stash [not stache]). I can't say I wanted or didn't want it, but I turned down some opportunities in high school and was fairly old, compared to the average in my circles, by the time I had sex. I don't think the pornographic images (movies, not softcore, in my case) had much effect.
- TeMPOraL 12y ago
  It's a complicated topic. Being exposed to porn at a similar age definitely affected my attitude and desire for sexual encounters, though I still didn't get one until being in a serious relationship at 24.
- belorn 12y ago
  I don't think kids will reach puberty earlier because of what images they view. From everything we know about growth and hormones, exposer to images has never really been suggested to have an impact.
- wishinghand 12y ago
  I kind of had the opposite reaction to the same effect- I was exposed around 10 years old to pornographic images (Playboy) and also read the articles about sex. I wanted it far earlier than I was ready for but I felt like it had a positive effect on me- more at ease with the idea of it, my body, how others might react, how to communicate what I want and figure out what my partner wants.
zo1 12y ago
If by "adult" you mean horror/grotesque movies, then yes. I watched them from a young age with (I have no idea how) my parents blessing. To this day, I struggle being alone at night. I'm jumpy, imagine all sorts of weird and nasties creeping and crawling around the dark recesses of whatever room I'm in. It's not debilitating, as I've learned to consciously reason out of my fear of irrational things, but it still pops up in my head. Still makes me jumpy. Still makes my heart-race, and still pisses me off that my mind would do that to me. Needless to say, I'm not showing any such movies to my kids until they're at-least mid-teens.
- jaredmcateer 12y ago
  To counter your anecdote, my parents never really censored what I viewed as a kid either. Aliens was (and is) one of my favourites as a kid. My babysitter used to "force" me to watch horror movies, she and my parents thought it was funny or something. I don't feel I'm any more or less uncomfortable in the dark by myself than the average person is.
  - philsnow 12y ago
    zo1's anecdote shows that at least some kids get lifelong anxiety issues from watching horror/slasher movies at an early age. Your anecdote shows that at least some kids do _not_ get those lifelong anxiety issues from the same. How does yours "counter" zo1's in the slightest? That would be like the tobacco industry saying "but look at all the smokers who never got cancer!". I'm (honestly, as a human being to another) glad you don't seem to have been affected (overly) by your caretakers abusing you, but you can't seriously be advocating this kind of behavior, enough to argue for it?
    - shawabawa3 12y ago
      > zo1's anecdote shows that at least some kids get lifelong anxiety issues from watching horror/slasher movies at an early age. No it doesn't. It shows that at least one person has lifelong anxiety issues that they attribute to having watched horror movies. I don't have anxiety issues and I watched horror movies at a young age, maybe I would have anxiety issues if I hadn't? Maybe on average it has a positive effect on anxiety? Maybe it's completely unrelated. You can't draw any conclusions from a couple of anecdotes
nl 12y ago
There's an academic consensus that exposure to violent media increases violent and aggressive behavior, eg[1][2]. Needless to say, this is very widely disputed and fought over. It's possibly more controversial than climate change. However, it's quite widely studied[3], and the consensus position is fairly settled. [1] http://www.jaacap.com/article/S0890-8567%2809%2960387-7/abstract http://www.jaacap.com/article/S0890-8567%2809%2960387-7/abst... (This is a meta-study) [2] http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2014-41977-001/ http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2014-41977-001/ [3] http://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0,5&q=impact+of+violent+movies+on+children http://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0,5&q=impa...
- jazzdev 12y ago
  Reason.com reports that this consensus is cracking [1] And the correction at the end begs a fascinating question about whether the media should present both sides of an issue. If 99% of research says A and 1% says not-A, is the media being misleading by reporting both views? If the media doesn't present not-A, then is it censoring opposing views? [1] http://reason.com/archives/2014/11/14/video-game-violence-a-scientific-consens http://reason.com/archives/2014/11/14/video-game-violence-a-...
  - nl 12y ago
    Actually, they published an article highlighting the different view of a single researcher (ok - he had a co-author in one paper). Note that the paper showing the decrease in violence makes no claims for the reasons behind it. I find his argument compelling, but that doesn't mean the consensus is any different.
Spooky23 12y ago
Some kids react poorly to things. I love movies and want the kids to enjoy the experience. Personally, I'm pretty unflappable, although things like horror movies don't do anything for me at all. My wife cannot tolerate gross stuff at all. Criminal Minds (prime time TV fare) kills her appetite. My son is too little to develop preferences, but my one nephew hates movies where someone pops from an off camera to attack somebody. Freaks him out, even in a not scary movie.

Speaking of movie ratings, is there actual evidence that watching "adult" movies at a young age is really bad for you? Kids watch pretty much whatever they want on the Internet these days, anyway.

TeMPOraL 12y ago

And hey, before Internet they also were watching anything they wanted anyway - it only takes one kid who gets a VHS from somewhere (e.g. from an older brother)...

ptaipale 12y ago
Using a smartphone to watch a horror or porn flick without adults noticing is much easier than what it was to sneak to someone's home with a CRT TV and a VHS recorder and a cassette to watch. Not that kids didn't see bad things in the bad old times - they probably saw more of it in real life - but the ubiquitousness of these devices is not necessarily only a good thing.
- TeMPOraL 12y ago
  I agree. The point is, kids back then (which includes myself) had their ways. You want some porn or horror/action movie? That's what older brothers are for ;).

aswanson 12y ago

I can only speak for myself. Being exposed to pornographic images at 9-10 years old had a negative effect on me. It made me want sex far earlier than I would be ready for the physical and emotional consequences.

guard-of-terra 12y ago
Do you really think keeping people in the dark about things they are supposed to want is a good things? Are we now factory-farmed chicken (with our consent) and not humans?
- philsnow 12y ago
  > Do you really think keeping _people_ in the dark Yes they're "people", but the young are also our charges, and we are responsible for their right upbringing. If you found your 9yo kid-plus-friends going through your "best of" porn folder at a sleepover or whatever, would you stop them?
  - scarygliders 12y ago
    I refer you to a reply I made before this. Also, we're not talking about 9yo kids/porn here - stop changing the goalposts - we're talking about 11yo boys and Aliens specifically.
Crito 12y ago
Maybe these children are going to want to shoot aliens at an earlier age now. Wait... Edit: Am I wrong? What exactly is the concern with Aliens here? Kids already like guys shooting aliens. Is there some sort of "alien-violence puberty" that I am not aware of?
- psykovsky 12y ago
  Don't even get me started on the crap cartoons show these days. Violence everywhere.
- scarygliders 12y ago
  I've upvoted you because I'm noticing a pattern on this topic where anyone questioning the "think of the children!" attitude is being downvoted. Before you guys downvote me; I'm a parent. The boy is now 13yo and has been growing up with Star Trek, Dr Who, and whatever other sci-fi I like to watch. Even some Dr Who and Star Trek had material some of you would consider to be a bit 'iffy' to show kids. Doesn't seem to have done my son any harm - he's growing into a well balanced kid who goes to the Air Cadets, is popular, and does well at school. As a parent, I see no harm in showing 11 year old boys Aliens. Listen - you cannot wrap your kids up in cotton wool. The reality of life is way more brutal and uncaring than is shown in a mere film. As long as these kids understand that it's just a story, that it involves plastic and latex models, these are actors, and so on and so forth - where's the harm for these 11yo kids? Like I say - life is hard. I for one don't want my son growing up to be some limp-wristed little snowflake because I shielded him from all sorts of things. Seriously guys, get real.
  - DanBC 12y ago
    > Even some Dr Who and Star Trek had material some of you would consider to be a bit 'iffy' to show kids No, people are arguing against films like Saw or their 1980s equivalents. > Like I say - life is hard. I for one don't want my son growing up to be some limp-wristed little snowflake because I shielded him from all sorts of things. Seriously guys, get real. What life lessons is a child going to learn from watching "Hostel"? Also, "limp wristed"? FFS.
mod 12y ago
Speaking for myself, I was exposed to pornography at 8 until about 10 pretty consistently (friends' dad worked until dinnertime, they were home alone, they found his porn stash [not stache]). I can't say I wanted or didn't want it, but I turned down some opportunities in high school and was fairly old, compared to the average in my circles, by the time I had sex. I don't think the pornographic images (movies, not softcore, in my case) had much effect.
TeMPOraL 12y ago
It's a complicated topic. Being exposed to porn at a similar age definitely affected my attitude and desire for sexual encounters, though I still didn't get one until being in a serious relationship at 24.
belorn 12y ago
I don't think kids will reach puberty earlier because of what images they view. From everything we know about growth and hormones, exposer to images has never really been suggested to have an impact.
wishinghand 12y ago
I kind of had the opposite reaction to the same effect- I was exposed around 10 years old to pornographic images (Playboy) and also read the articles about sex. I wanted it far earlier than I was ready for but I felt like it had a positive effect on me- more at ease with the idea of it, my body, how others might react, how to communicate what I want and figure out what my partner wants.

zo1 12y ago

If by "adult" you mean horror/grotesque movies, then yes. I watched them from a young age with (I have no idea how) my parents blessing. To this day, I struggle being alone at night. I'm jumpy, imagine all sorts of weird and nasties creeping and crawling around the dark recesses of whatever room I'm in. It's not debilitating, as I've learned to consciously reason out of my fear of irrational things, but it still pops up in my head. Still makes me jumpy. Still makes my heart-race, and still pisses me off that my mind would do that to me. Needless to say, I'm not showing any such movies to my kids until they're at-least mid-teens.

jaredmcateer 12y ago
To counter your anecdote, my parents never really censored what I viewed as a kid either. Aliens was (and is) one of my favourites as a kid. My babysitter used to "force" me to watch horror movies, she and my parents thought it was funny or something. I don't feel I'm any more or less uncomfortable in the dark by myself than the average person is.
- philsnow 12y ago
  zo1's anecdote shows that at least some kids get lifelong anxiety issues from watching horror/slasher movies at an early age. Your anecdote shows that at least some kids do _not_ get those lifelong anxiety issues from the same. How does yours "counter" zo1's in the slightest? That would be like the tobacco industry saying "but look at all the smokers who never got cancer!". I'm (honestly, as a human being to another) glad you don't seem to have been affected (overly) by your caretakers abusing you, but you can't seriously be advocating this kind of behavior, enough to argue for it?
  - shawabawa3 12y ago
    > zo1's anecdote shows that at least some kids get lifelong anxiety issues from watching horror/slasher movies at an early age. No it doesn't. It shows that at least one person has lifelong anxiety issues that they attribute to having watched horror movies. I don't have anxiety issues and I watched horror movies at a young age, maybe I would have anxiety issues if I hadn't? Maybe on average it has a positive effect on anxiety? Maybe it's completely unrelated. You can't draw any conclusions from a couple of anecdotes

nl 12y ago

There's an academic consensus that exposure to violent media increases violent and aggressive behavior, eg[1][2]. Needless to say, this is very widely disputed and fought over. It's possibly more controversial than climate change. However, it's quite widely studied[3], and the consensus position is fairly settled. [1] http://www.jaacap.com/article/S0890-8567%2809%2960387-7/abstract http://www.jaacap.com/article/S0890-8567%2809%2960387-7/abst... (This is a meta-study) [2] http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2014-41977-001/ http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2014-41977-001/ [3] http://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0,5&q=impact+of+violent+movies+on+children http://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0,5&q=impa...

jazzdev 12y ago
Reason.com reports that this consensus is cracking [1] And the correction at the end begs a fascinating question about whether the media should present both sides of an issue. If 99% of research says A and 1% says not-A, is the media being misleading by reporting both views? If the media doesn't present not-A, then is it censoring opposing views? [1] http://reason.com/archives/2014/11/14/video-game-violence-a-scientific-consens http://reason.com/archives/2014/11/14/video-game-violence-a-...
- nl 12y ago
  Actually, they published an article highlighting the different view of a single researcher (ok - he had a co-author in one paper). Note that the paper showing the decrease in violence makes no claims for the reasons behind it. I find his argument compelling, but that doesn't mean the consensus is any different.

Spooky23 12y ago

Some kids react poorly to things. I love movies and want the kids to enjoy the experience. Personally, I'm pretty unflappable, although things like horror movies don't do anything for me at all. My wife cannot tolerate gross stuff at all. Criminal Minds (prime time TV fare) kills her appetite. My son is too little to develop preferences, but my one nephew hates movies where someone pops from an off camera to attack somebody. Freaks him out, even in a not scary movie.