Did your parents/do you censor the media for your kids?

milos_mommy

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#1
I would assume most people do to some extent, but to what extent?

Growing up, it never really seemed like my mom censored TV, music, movies, etc. for my brother and I....we were allowed to watch/listen to/read whatever we wanted. But, I also only really wanted age-appropriate things. I did have cds with swear words on them and sex or drug content, but it was nothing horrible and honestly I never even noticed what it was about until I was older.

I remember wanting to see Titanic when it came out. Mom and dad said I had to wait until it was on video, and then my mom watched it with me and fast-forwarded the scene in the car. I was in 3rd grade, so 8 years old.

The first time I saw a sex scene in a movie was when 8-Mile came out - I would have been 12 but I don't think I saw it until I was 13. After high school, nothing was ever off-limits to me, a lot of times my friends wouldn't be allowed to go to the movies with me or see certain artists because their parents didn't approve of R-rated movies or the language, which I thought was silly. It was nothing we weren't exposed to in school anyway.
 

Fran101

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#4
Nope. Especially not sex and nudity or language lol we were allowed to watch/see whatever and ask questions.
When it came to violence/horror yea a bit..but they were never forbidden.

We knew what language was polite and all about safe responsible sex and drinking because our parents talked to us about it and we were exposed to it. PARENTS need to raise their kids and inform/expose them instead of just putting blinders on them IMO so when they do encounter something in the media or world meant to "lead them down a dark trail" so to speak, they KNOW the right and wrong way because they are informed in more ways than just "Oh it's wrong. why? because."

Teaching kids that sex or nudity is some forbidden bad thing.. well, I won't even go into specifics but let me just say I attended a catholic school where abstinence only sex-ed was paramount and let's just say it didn't go well for kids whose parents ALSO censored everything else. Sex was forbidden and mysterious..and of course, all the more tempting. and since they knew NOTHING about it (like condoms or STDs etc..) there were of course problems.

So yea.. my parents didn't sensor much. Nudity, sex, alcohol..we were informed, exposed, had 100 talks about it, traveled all over the world and seen many cultures and it all became just..part of what we knew.

Scary movies/horror films they did.. just because monsters and stuff was something I NEVER handled well.. but I would want to go to the movies and see some horror flick and then sleep in their bed for a week lol so it was easiest to just encourage me to pursue other films.
BUT these movies were never forbidden. It was not like "YOU CAN'T SEE THIS SCARY MOVIE SO THERE!" ... it was explained WHY they didn't want me to see it and I was given a choice.
All it took was ONE "Well, I want to see it anyway" and being scared for a month and I learned my lesson on my own lol

But yea.. we are not the kind of family that doesn't curse or watch R movies in front of the kids. They see everything.. and we talk about it so they know right/wrong and what they are seeing.

And somehow..none of us kids have turned out to be serial killers yet! LOL
 

Xandra

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#5
When I was little, like 9-ish I was supposed to hide when the sex scenes came on (I know this because I remember them telling me to hide during parts of Bridget Jones' Diary lol). I can't remember when they decided I didn't need to do that anymore.

Mostly no though... they never paid attention to movie ratings or anything. I think a lot of it was my parents never really cared to investigate if what I was watching was inappropriate or not lol

My mom used to rent Watership Down for me when I was old enough to choose, 4-5. I mean if you want to avoid traumatizing your children through media that should be the first thing you censor lol, that movie is scary.
 

sparks19

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#6
Not really. At this age she doesn't really have much interest in watching any of the shows I watch so it's not a big deal but I will watch some of my shows while she is around. Not like The Walking Dead or American Horror story LOL but the majority of shows I watch I have had on while she's playing around the house.

my mom didn't censor what I watched. I think my best friend and I started watching horror movies together at about 10 years old lol. My moms rule was "don't scare yourself because you aren't coming in my bed because you are afraid of the movie" LOL

I try not to curse much in front of Hannah but that's not nessecarily because I don't want her to hear it but more because I am just trying not to curse much anymore in general. It dawned on me when Hannah started repeating things that I was saying (not nessecarily swear words but more things like "stupid" or "shut up") and I realized how awful it really sounded and then I would tell her that they aren't nice words to say and there are better ways of expressing herself. AFter that, when I would let one slip she would call me on it and I realized "Wait... why am I telling her there are better ways of expressing herself when I can't find better ways of expressing myself and I'm the adult." If I was expecting her to find a better way to express herself than I certainly could do the same for myself
 

Romy

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#8
I filter my kid's stuff. My daughter is five, my son is a baby. She'd have horrific nightmares if she saw something like The Walking Dead. One time she was watching Animal Planet and flea preventative commercial where the fleas were giant and CG.

She had nightmares about it for MONTHS and developed a severe flea phobia. So yeah. I also don't have the news on around them. There's too much of newscasters randomly blurting stuff like "AND THEN THE CHILD DIED OF PELVIC INJURIES AFTER BEING REPEATEDLY RAPED BY THIS GUY" and. Just. No. They don't need to hear about that stuff either. Not at their age.
 

CaliTerp07

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#9
Yes. We could not watch PG-13 moves until we were 13, rated R until 17. All music had to be run by mom before we purchased the CD.

I never questioned it. It said PG-13 on the label, so 13 seemed logical. I am BLOWN AWAY how many of my mom's kindergarteners were allowed to watch jurassic park.
 

~Jessie~

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#10
Yes and no.

I was allowed to watch certain PG-13 movies before I was 13, but my parents screened them first. I watched Jurassic Park when I was 8 or 9. I generally wasn't allowed to watch rated R movies until I was in high school. My best friend in middle school's parents would let us rent whatever we wanted, so we would generally get R-rated horror movies. Haha.

I remember sneaking watching American Pie with my friend when we were 14. My parents wouldn't let me go see it in theaters or rent it since it was so raunchy.

I was allowed to read Goosebumps books when I was 7 (right when they came out), but I wasn't allowed to read the Fear Street books by the same author until I was 10 or 11, which made me SO mad at the time.

The WORST was when I was at my friend's house in 2nd grade. His MOM put on Candyman for us... which if you've seen it, it's not about some nice man handing out sweets. LOL. I had nightmares afterwards and finally admitted it to my mom. She called my friend's mom and I wasn't allowed over there anymore. I would've NEVER let my kid watch that movie.
 

Xandra

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#11
Yeah I watched Goosebumps and Are You Afraid of the Dark? since I was really little, can't remember how young. We watched Steven King movies when we were 9-10 (bathrooms were scary scary places until we worked up the nerve to watch the second half of IT)... I definitely saw Jurassic Park when I was young, my dad bought it for me when I was in single digits... dinosaurs, why not right?? And I remember seeing the Ring in theatres when I was 11, I think it was rated 14A.
 

~Jessie~

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#12
Yeah I watched Goosebumps and Are You Afraid of the Dark? since I was really little, can't remember how young. We watched Steven King movies when we were 9-10... I definitely saw Jurassic Park when I was young, my dad bought it for me when I was in single digits... dinosaurs, why not right?? And I remember seeing the Ring in theatres when I was 11, I think it was rated 14A.
I loved Are You Afraid of the Dark. I watched it every week.

Do any of you remember those Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books? The ones with the REALLY scary illustrations? Those were my favorite books when I was 7 or 8 years old.

http://tuneinrockon.wordpress.com/2...tions-from-scary-stories-to-tell-in-the-dark/

The illustrations were by far the scariest things about those books. 20 years later, this is STILL terrifying:

 

Xandra

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#13
HAHA yes I do!!! The elementary school library had them but I think they were quasi-restricted. I was actually looking at those not to long ago. I think they got the idea for "Closet Girl" from The Ring from those books
 
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#14
Yes and no. I don't really censor but we do not have cable do that helps. I worry more about commercials than anything. I am very open with my children and like tem to be exposed to a lot of things but I do feel certain shows and movies are not appropriate for a 5 and 6 year old. Books, no. If they are capable of reading it go for it.
 

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#15
HAHA yes I do!!! The elementary school library had them but I think they were quasi-restricted. I was actually looking at those not to long ago. I think they got the idea for "Closet Girl" from The Ring from those books
Our 2nd grade music teacher ended up getting in big trouble for reading stories to our class from them. A bunch of kids ended up telling their parents how scary the stories were, and he was almost fired over it.

I'm suprised my parents let me read them, but I guess they thought they were like any other scary story book (I had a bunch of books with scary short stories- I loved them as a kid!).

It seems like every kid remembers those books, which is surprising that so many parents let their kids read them.

ETA: Closet girl from The Ring gave me nightmares. I can still picture her. lol.
 

Romy

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#16
What makes me mad is when they run very adult commercials between 3 pm and 8 pm, DURING FREAKING KID'S SHOWS.

I was watching some animated children's movie with her and a commercial for genital herpes medication came on. I mean, seriously people can't that at least air during a grown up movie or a little later in the evening? This is why at our old house I didn't have cable. When I get my own place again, cable is going in the toilet.
 

-bogart-

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#17
ow just realized there was a second part to this ,

yes to an extent i do censor the thing the kids watch , caleb can not watch wrestling or anything to out there . (he tends to take movies as facts , ask him and he will tell you he is part werewolf.)

Jacob and Torie can watch anything , even though they really never sit long enough to watch.

Ginnie is scared of EVERYTHING! I really watch what she watches as she will FREAK OUT FREAK OUT , there is a show called oobie that has a talking hands as main people and she will run screaming terrified out of her wits from it. we had to block nick jr due to it coming on. She is a very very scary child. took her over 6 months to like riding in the truck without freaking and puking.
 

sparks19

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#18
Ginnie is scared of EVERYTHING! I really watch what she watches as she will FREAK OUT FREAK OUT , there is a show called oobie that has a talking hands as main people and she will run screaming terrified out of her wits from it. we had to block nick jr due to it coming on. She is a very very scary child. took her over 6 months to like riding in the truck without freaking and puking.
that's understandable. I h appened upon that show one day and thought WOW that's nightmare inducing LOL that is a FREAKKY show
 

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#20
I started watching South Park when it first came out, so I was like, 6 years old. The Simpsons raised me. I don't even think I was in elementary school yet when my dad thought it would be cool for me to watch Tales From the Crypt with him.

We were censored from nudity, so if my mom and older sister watched Sex & The City they were like LALALALA GO AWAY. Which is fine and makes sense.

But otherwise, naw, no censoring. I had friends that couldn't watch MTV or even Nickelodeon half the time and I always thought.... really?!
 

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