At what age would you let your kid watch movies like T2 or RoboCop?
 

I intended to take my friend's kid to see T2 in the theatre, he is 8, but his mother said no thanks. She said the boy would be too scared of the violence.

If I remember correctly, I saw T2 & RoboCop when I was around 12.

The other day I showed How to Train Your Dragon 1 to another kid when her family visited me, the girl is 5, and she cried because she got scared of the dragon. :(

Re: At what age would you let your kid watch movies like T2 or RoboCop
 

Yeah, it's a tough one...

I think they should be gradually introduced to live action cinema that contains a bit of action and tension and then slowly some gun violence and then slowly move up until you reach Robocop level violence much later on...'

I saw Robocop at a VERY EARLY AGE and it's one of my favorite films and I liked it a whole lot then but the violence did make me sick to my stomach.

I think because I was very film interested early on, I slowly introduced myself to it and pushed some limits myself. I think it did scar me but it also hardened me... So it's tough to say how you as a parent or just a grown-up are supposed to dictate the limits of a child.

When it comes to Robocop, I actually don't understand why kids nowadays would be scared to watch it? It's a heroic robot, who doesn't dream to have one? I remember when I watched it at a young age, I was disturbed by the drug and prostitute in the movie, but I was never scared from the violent scenes, I thought it was really really cool.

The mindsets in the early 90s was so different. I think part of the reason Robocop was made was to sell some toys!

Re: At what age would you let your kid watch movies like T2 or RoboCop
 

Tough one. I don't have kids. I saw violent movies fairly early I guess. I remember all the fourth grade boys all clamoring to watch the latest Friday the 13th or Elm Street flicks. Horror like that was a bit much for me at that age (9), but sci-fi action was fine. My nephew is 11, about to be 12 this month. We just finished the Alien series including Prometheus. I think it also depends on how sensitive the kid is and their personality though. I'm close with my nephew. I can read him well enough to know when something is too much, and I can get a good idea of what I should or should not allow based on my awareness of who he is.

Family is one thing too. Friend's kids are something else.

Yeah, but there is a lot of celebration of criminal violence, prostitution, drug use, and gratuitous gore (the guy literally melting from toxic waste near the end whose head pops like a watermelon when hit by a car? lol!)

You are right that the 90s were different. Movies like that came out constantly. Not so much now. I think we were all pretty saturated and had high tolerance levels to it all. kids probably aren't getting such a dosage today. Between the lack of similar movies, having more family oriented (even super hero action movies are tame compared), and over-protective moms, I just don't know if kids today are mentally prepared for such flicks of our youth. Sure, they can laugh at the practical effects and that may help them to not get too caught up in it all, but the themes are very loose and could be a culture shock to a kid.

It's a mixed bag for me though. Maybe that's why I don't have any kids!!

Re: At what age would you let your kid watch movies like T2 or RoboCop
 

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Re: At what age would you let your kid watch movies like T2 or RoboCop
 

Great thread btw.
I thought to take my nephew to the 3d T2 re-release, but then realized he'd need to watch Terminator for context. I'm not sure he would be good with that one.

I don't think it matters that much if T2 is watched first. At least that was my own experience.

Re: At what age would you let your kid watch movies like T2 or RoboCop
 

I really can't relate to this question as for whatever reason (sociopath) i was rarely ever scared by any movie or show as a kid; the three exceptions are: The Exorcist, Pinocchio (Disney) and Poltergeist II. Knowing myself i think i'd be pretty strict with this sort of thing. I have nephews and nieces but none of them are at that age where they are wanting to watching iffy things like the thread examples so i haven't crossed that bridge, would probably copout and call their mums/dads to ask.

Objectively, you gotta agree that it's a very violent movie. A guys hand is shot off and he is completely bullet'd down and blood flies everywhere... a man is acid'd to death and generally it's a splatter movie inside an action crime-thriller.

Obviously some kids are going to find that... uh.... a little much.

Re: At what age would you let your kid watch movies like T2 or RoboCop
 

In the same mindset as everyone else on this one.
I got 2 kids, aged 11 and 12... I wouldn't let them watch RoboCop until they were a bit older. Maybe 15 or so.
T2, I'd probably let them watch now tbh. It's not as ultraviolent as Robo.


That being said, I was about 11 or 12 when I first saw T2, and 6 when I first saw RoboCop :laugh:


I went through my DVDs, and judged offhand which films I would let my kids watch, and compared them to the BBFC Age Ratings.
There are 18 and 15 rated movies that I'd say yes to... and some 12 and PG rated movies I'd be wary about.
I think the consensus is that it's up to the parental judgement rather than going with what age rating happens to be printed on the DVD box.

I saw Terminator 2 in the theater when I was about 10, same age I saw The Thing, Alien, Aliens, and Friday the 13th movies. It depends on the kid but in most cases you are ready to R rated movies at 13.

Quoted as an example.


Any movie, regardless of rating can have this sort of twist to the general plot.


RoboCop... a cyborg who gets revenge on his killers... a heroic robot who fights crime.
In truth, it's an violent movie, filled with gore and drugs, murder, rape scenes and so on.


Try this then.
There's a trilogy of movies out there.
Involved, is rather a lot of violence including realistic hitting and punching, underage drinking, loads of swearing, incest, murder, on-screen attempted murder, even a relatively graphic and realistic scene depicting the hanging of an innocent man while people look and laugh at him while he's kicking and wriggling... and, there's even a perverted kid making sexual gestures toward his groin... and there's also a rape scene.


That trilogy is rated PG in the UK.

Re: At what age would you let your kid watch movies like T2 or RoboCop
 

It's the parent's decision, not mine. Only they know what gives their kids nightmares.

Probably 11 or 12. Exposure is much more now than it was when I was that age. The internet. Maybe 11 or 12 is being too conservative. How about 9 or 10...

I remember reading about some teacher in US several years ago showing 10 year olds a horror film without parental permission and got the sack. And rightly so I thought.

Exactly what I think. At the age of 6 I was already watching Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Van Damme, Arnie and Stallone films. With very mid level of violence. At the age 12 I remember having Face/Off as one of my favorites films ever. The film is of course very violent. But I was already ok with that. When I showed Face/Off to my cousin he was scared and started cried. He was 11 at that time. The main reason was exactly because he wasn't used to it. The only 'live action' film that he watched was Star Wars Episode 1 and Space Jam... We die of laughter whenever we remember this story nowadays. :)

Love how he had basically seen one and a half live action films :D

Every kid is different. My girls were never into anything too violent or scary so it was never an issue telling them they couldnt watch something. They just werent interested. Anything involving a ghost? Nope! When the older one was in her early teens we did a film watching club where you randomly select films from a list of hundreds. Could be ANYTHING. Dramas, obscure foreign films, old classics, big budget action films, you name it. And whatever you got you had to watch. And then after you were supposed to write a review for it and submit it. I remember we pulled the movie An American Haunting once and she could barely get through it. Basically finished the movie laying down with her head buried in the couch pillows. LOL. I wrote this long overanalytic review of it that went on for paragraphs and paragraphs. Her review consisted of "make it stop... make it stop...". Ha ha!

So Im probably not the greatest person to give advice on this...

I remember when me and my cousin watched RoboCop at young age. On the waterman hit by a car scene, we were really entertained and paused the video tape even just to examine how his body was dismembered just like that while laughing out loud too.

It's hard for someone like me to imagine how RoboCop can be scary.