There are some things kids shouldn't see.

There’s a knife and blood. Lots of blood. The music accompanying the scene is eerie – made to scare and it’s doing a damn fine job on the little 8 year old girl watching.

I was watching a horror movie through a crack in the door before I ran crying to my bed. I wasn’t meant to be there, it was my sister’s birthday and her friends were old enough to understand that it was just a movie.  They were also old enough to talk about it with each other before they went to sleep.  Me? I just went to sleep with that image tattooed on my brain.

Somehow that movie has always stuck with me. Maybe it’s because I wasn’t supposed to be watching it so I never told anyone how scared I was.

It’s because of this that I am , what some would call neurotic, about my 10 year old child not watching anything categorized for an age above his own. I know that he doesn’t always comprehend the difference between fact and fiction.  He’s smart and he’s savvy but he did once have a period of very sleepless nights after watching an ad for Underbelly. He thought it was the news and he FREAKED out.  That’s the “wonder” of true to life TV and advertising during family TV.

Last week it was reported in The Herald Sun that

The parents of three children have been banned from allowing them to watch R-rated movies.

In an extraordinary move, a Family Court judge has ordered the parents not to allow any of their children, aged from seven to 13, to watch DVDs restricted to those over 18.

Justice Margaret Cleary also banned the mother and father from letting the children watch videos, DVDs, games or other sound or visual media classified as not being suitable.

Phew. I am going to sound like a “wowser” but who lets a seven year old child watch R rated movies? Maybe I am old fashioned. Maybe, no definitely I am neurotic but aren’t the classifications put in place for a reason?

Did you watch age restricted movies when you were under age? Would you let your kids watch them?