Censoring for Kids

[Deleted]

The high school poem thread made me think. We might have done this one before, but it's been a bit and kids are older, opinions might have changed...

Do you censor what your kids read and watch? For what? At what ages? 

I dont ont just mean sex and violence. I know some parents who won't do Harry Potter because of magic, or anything with Egyptian gods, for instance...

[Pants]

B is only 3, so right now we are pretty selective with what she watches. As she gets older though I don't plan to censor in any specific way. But I also have zero problem with her swearing, sooo...

[ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ]

My opinion, it's fine to protect the wee ones from certain viewing or content/reading material. As they get older, more freedom and knowledge is better than stifling or censoring.

If you over-censor an older child (say from 10 or so on), they're going to seek out information elsewhere - and often get wrong information.

Better to be open and honest with kids from the get-go when they're old enough to handle and absorb certain content or discussion.

As for television, I think that violent or crime-riddled movies or TV should be limited to kids who are at least in their teens. But you can't keep them tented in bubble wrap - they also learn things from their peers before you even bring it up if you avoid having a good old sit-down talk.

[Pants]

Growing up, my parents heavily censored what we could watch (sex and violence) but never censored what we could read. I often wish they had been more proactive about discussing the content of what I was reading, however. I read "go ask Alice" at 12 and my mom, to her credit, did say "if you have any questions come talk.to me" but because we never had had those conversations in the past, around other less fraught topics, I didn't go talk.to her even though I found several parts very disturbing. I hope to be more proactive with my own kids.

[Deleted]

I don't censor anything my 12 year old watches or reads.  Granted, I wouldn't knowingly allow him to download porn or anything like that, but I don't really pay a lot of attention to movie ratings or screen what he's reading.  He's actually pretty good about knowing what he can handle.  He won't watch any horror movies and is way to embarrassed to watch anything with sex in it with his mom.  If I'm watching a movie he thinks is going to be "one of those", he'll choose to go read in his room instead.  LOL  He's mostly into Sci-Fi and Fantasy books and shows.

The 4 year old I try to limit screen time entirely and I keep it age appropriate.

[andi9899]

I did when my kids were little. Since they are 15 & 17 now,not so much. My sister is way extreme about "protecting" her kids and they are growing up in a bubble. They will be in for a rude awakening when they are older and she can't "protect" them.

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

I don't plan on censoring books that the girls read.  Odds are I'll have  read it myself already. If not I'll read the back/jack cover and skim the books so I have an idea of what they are reading, but I am not going to ban any books in our household.

We're terrible with TV censoring.   Gwen loves watching Archer with us which isn't remotely age appropriate. She's also watched the South Park movie with us. .. uncensored.   She also watches the Walking Dead and True Blood.

I don't have much issue with fantasy violence.  She seems to grasp zombies and vampires aren't real.

We don't watch shows like Law & Order, CSI or Criminal Minds.   Those types of shows bother me and I'd prefer none of us watch them.   I tell DH to turn off the "slasher porn" when she is around.

DH screens his video games.  He stopped playing Grand Theft when she asked him why he wasn't blowing up a RL cop car.  That was an interesting discussion.

[Shooby]

No, I don't censor. I really dont' have the energy to monitor everything and really I dont' think it is the end of the world if they see a slasher film or something.   Now, I don't bring that stuff into my house.  I dont' let them rent R rated DVDs or anything like that. And, no, I dont' want violent or sexually explicit materials in my home or on my TV so I "censor" what can and come in. But, have they seen things at other peoples' homes?  Yes.    They have seen things elsewhere for sure.

[Deleted]

How old are they Shoob. I've had the R rated movie debate with othe moms and my opinion is that the optimal phrasing there is 'without parent'... As in there are this there Id like them introduced to when they can still talk to me and I have some influence. 

Sexual violence is is the one thing I guarded the longest. Don't need teens developing their sexuality to conflate violence with sex. But even that, limitedly and with the right amount of disgust and discussion...

[cael]

I've probably talked about this before: my mother, although she let me check it out of the library, would not let me buy a copy of Gone With The Wind because of use of the N-word in it. ...but I could read it from the library. MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL. She half-heartedly denies it when I mention it now, but that's absolutely what happened. Oh and this is when I was 14 - not 8 or 10, freaking 14 and starting high school.

Other than idiotic things like that I was pretty much not censored on what I read. We didn't watch a lot of TV until we were 13-ish plus so that wasn't particularly an issue (and dad's a huge SF fan so we watched a lot of that), but mom did censor music I bought (no parental advisory albums) I... kind of get it, and at the same time don't. I don't have kids so I don't have experience with it yet, but I would like to think that unless it's seriously inappropriate (graphic sex and violence), I wouldn't censor my kids. I certainly wouldn't censor them with regards to social issues/history, and being a huge SF/F fan myself I'd hope they would like that stuff too.

[Lizard Queen]

Mar 5, 2015 23:26:17 GMT -5 ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ said:

My opinion, it's fine to protect the wee ones from certain viewing or content/reading material. As they get older, more freedom and knowledge is better than stifling or censoring.

If you over-censor an older child (say from 10 or so on), they're going to seek out information elsewhere - and often get wrong information.

Better to be open and honest with kids from the get-go when they're old enough to handle and absorb certain content or discussion.

As for television, I think that violent or crime-riddled movies or TV should be limited to kids who are at least in their teens. But you can't keep them tented in bubble wrap - they also learn things from their peers before you even bring it up if you avoid having a good old sit-down talk.

This is very much the way I feel about it.  I can't say what I'll do exactly when my kids are teens, as they're so far from that point right now.  I'd like to try to keep the violent material down, as I remember writing papers about the appalling amount of violence in TV/movies back when I was getting my BS in Psych.  

[Deleted]

About the only thing I've ever censored is Grand Theft Auto. The misogyny,  killing and swearing etc. She did end up getting it but she has to keep it in her room and I can't hear it. To a big extent that is all I can do. Unless I want to lock them up and be with them every minute the best I can do is explain why I don't endorse certain forms of entertainment and not allow them in front of me. Of course I'm dealing with teens 13 and up.

[Deleted]

Oh yes. There is no GTA in the house. We do discuss the content though and why I don't like it and it's more a 'out of respect for me' type thing than 'you can not'.

As far as borrowing from a library versus buying... There are things I will not spend my money on because I won't support it, but if you want to read it, I'm not censoring you.

Works the other way too, I actually bought a couple of erotic novels a few years ago because they are written by a local English teacher under a pen name and someone found out and gave her flack and I wanted to show support. I've actually not read them, but have noticed them move around some on the shelves...

[Sam_2.0]

Right now DD is limited to shows on Disney Jr or Sprout, with some Netflix shows mixed in. But she's 3. I more do it to limit her exposure to commercials because all I hear through the whole commercial break is "OOO! I want that toy!" so then we have to talk about how we don't get everything we want, how we have to work (do chores) and save up money to buy special things, etc. Just gets exhausting to do that every 15 minutes

We do let her listen to a lot of music that other toddlers probably don't get to listen to, mainly because DH loves music so much. Heck, she watches the VH1 concert series with him and has seen several music videos that are probably a bit questionable for a kid, but DH is watching it with her so I really can't say too much. Katy Perry is her favorite right now

She loves books, and I hope once she learns to read that she really enjoys them on her own too. I am not sure how we will handle censoring at that time. Elementary school is much different than middle or high school, so I am sure those boundaries and guidelines will flex over time.

Both of our parents put a straight ban on anything over PG13 in the house while we were growing up. I don't plan to do that with DD. We may need to set limits on who can watch movies and when (if there are younger siblings around), but overall I would rather watch the movies with my kids and discuss the topics it brings up instead of just banning it. Shoot, DH's little brothers are 16 and 18 and their mom still won't allow R movies in the house or let them get cable

[Shooby]

Mar 6, 2015 9:22:24 GMT -5 oped said:

How old are they Shoob. I've had the R rated movie debate with othe moms and my opinion is that the optimal phrasing there is 'without parent'... As in there are this there Id like them introduced to when they can still talk to me and I have some influence. 

Sexual violence is is the one thing I guarded the longest. Don't need teens developing their sexuality to conflate violence with sex. But even that, limitedly and with the right amount of disgust and discussion...

They have gone to some R rated films. I don't believe in censoring. But, I don't believe they need to have a diet of "junk food" either. So, I don't freak out if they have viewed something but I don't bring it into my home nor encourage them to seek out that sort of thing.

[justme]

The only thing I remember my parents really censoring was the Simpson's lol. And after we had been watching for a while. I was probably in fourth or fifth grade and it lasted for a few years. She didn't like that it wasn't till there very end there was a moral, if there was one. Really it just made us want to watch it when we could get away with it. I don't remember any books. We had computer games not video games, but I don't remember anything they wouldn't get for us. But I don't think gta can't out till I was in high school. I know we didn't watch rated R movies for a while, but all I really remember about that was finding it odd my cousins could watch I think it was alien but not Sabrina the teenaged witch. I was a scaredy cat about movies til high school anyway so I didn't really want to see them.

Oh I do remember mom being aghast when I was in eighth or ninth and she was in my room talking to me and my CD player switched to a song practically all cuss words. Which I got from my bro. She said she didn't like it and if I wanted to listen to it I needed to keep it down.

[Angel!]

My only censorship is if I think it will scare them.  But, I am also dealing with a 4 year old & 6 year old.   So I won't even have Walking Dead (crazy that this doesn't scare Gwen!  I find the zombies scary) or AHS on if they are in the room.  We did watch the mythbusters about zombies not too long ago & it didn't bother them. But, the zombies weren't nearly as disturbing as in Walking Dead.  They will also tell me if it is scary, we turned off Harry Potter the first time we tried to watch it because DD got scared.

Now with music & words, there is basically no censorship.  One of my more embarrassing moments was in the drivethru pickup for DS1's daycare.  I had MP3s playing on random.  You know how sometimes one song will play much louder than the previous songs...well I had walked away from the car when a quiet Garth Brooks song was playing.  While I was about 10 feet away signing some papers & talking to a teacher, it switches to Ice Cube, Today was a Good Day & the song blared.  I never noticed how many cuss words were in that song until it was playing loudly enough from my car that every kid, parent, & teacher on the playground could hear it.  Then I had the dilemma of whether to race back to the car & turn down the music or just finish signing papers & ignore it.  I just finished signing the papers & talking to the teacher.  But, I do wonder if now there are tons of parents & teachers that think I am a horrible parent because I could care less if my kids hear music like that.

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

won't even have Walking Dead (crazy that this doesn't scare Gwen! I find the zombies scary)

She loves zombies ever since we took her to Zombie Burger in Des Moines. She was able to make the connection between that and Walking Dead without us ever saying anything.

She wants to be a zombie for Halloween.  She's going ot be disappointed in mommy's make-up skills, I am no Greg Nicataro.

[alabamagal]

We just made sure that they were mature enough to handle what they watched, mainly violence.

When my DS was in 1st grade he had to write one of the What I want to do when I grow up essays. It included "watching PG13 movies". We laugh at that now that he is 22. I guess we told him he couldn't watch a movie because of the rating.

Wheny daughter was 8 she asked me "what is a trojan?" Before I answered I thought about what she was watching on the History channel and I responded "A person who lived in Troy".

[yogiii]

DS is almost 5 now and he's a funny kid.  The only movies he will watch are Cars and the Grinch.  I took out Toy Story from the library a few weeks ago and when I asked him if he wanted to watch it you would think I was torturing him.  It would be nice if things stayed like this forever but I'm sure they won't.  TV is similar, he'll watch Curious George, Wild Kratts and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood (all PBS Kids shows), that's it.  He is not open to knew things at the moment, LOL.  This censor thing is a breeze .

[Deleted]

Mar 6, 2015 12:29:36 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

won't even have Walking Dead (crazy that this doesn't scare Gwen! I find the zombies scary)

She loves zombies ever since we took her to Zombie Burger in Des Moines. She was able to make the connection between that and Walking Dead without us ever saying anything.

She wants to be a zombie for Halloween.  She's going ot be disappointed in mommy's make-up skills, I am no Greg Nicataro.

My almost 13 year old won't even watch The Walking Dead.  He's such a chicken.  I had high hopes of passing on my Stephen King collection to him someday and sharing that reading experience with him, but nope.  I can't even convince him to try one.

[Wisconsin Beth]

My Mom never censored anything I read but she did read everything any of us brought home - she loves to read.  When I moved out, she mourned the loss of my books more than the loss of me.   

Kids are 5+ (DS) and almost 7 (DD)  DD is just figuring out how to read in English so she's starting to look at whatever page I leave up on my Kindle or in an open book.  She's also reading in German but since DH and I aren't very good at German (written or spoken), we're not always sure what she's reading.    Makes it hard to censor... 

I don't watch Criminal Minds when the kids are around.  Ditto for DH's Vikings.  I don't do horror (somehow Criminal Minds, NCIS, etc are not horror to me.)  The kids are loving Odd Squad lately - it's PBS.  They want to watch Odd Squad, Curious George, CyberChase, Little Einsteins, Wild Kratts, with some Disney Jr, Peg + Cat and Teen Titans Go tossed in. 

We've inherited a crap ton of kids books - some of which were mine as a child.  So I sort of edit some of those when reading to the kids.  The dinosaur ones that were current around 1977 - on the pages where I know the info is wrong, I tell the kids the correct info or say something that is correct and skip whatever is on that page.  Technically I guess that's censoring but I generally don't think of it that way.  I mean - it's an Apatosaurus now.