Why don't some parents pay attention to netflix age ratings?

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Someone on quora was moaning because she let her daughter watch Chilling Tales of Sabrina and it was too dark/sexual for her 11 yo.

In America it's a T14. I think that means 14+? In the UK, it's a 15 which means 15+.

Instead of moaning that programs intended for adults and older teenagers are too dark for your kids, monitor what your kids watch.

Joke is she was sitting right next to her kid watching it. She must have thought 'oh it's like Sabrina the Teenage Witch'. No. TV didn't have age ratings in my day unless it was on video/DVD but Sabrina DVDs in the 90s were always PG (suitable for kids if parents approved). Sabrina the Teenage Witch was on Nickelodeon, Chilling Tales of Sabrina isn't on Netflix Kids.

Just pay attention to ratings. I think it's great that TV has them these days, makes it as easy to navigate as a cinema.

Possible Reasons:

• They do not have to.
• They do not want to.
• They do not care to.

Legally, she can't.

Of course she can get away with it just like my auntie and uncle used to with video - they'd let my 13 yo cousins watch 15 rated horror movies if they wanted. But she can't legally & it's silly to get on your high horse after letting your kid watch something you know is unsuitable by the age rating.

PG/12A are parental choices. Higher than that is the law.

It's illegal for an 11 yo to watch a 15 movie/show or play a game rated that high.

Idk how it works in America but surely it's similar and parents can't just let their kids watch R rated shows/movies without breaking the law?

I am pretty sure they can do just that here. It would be illegal for an 11 year old to go buy a movie/show dvd or game rated that high but the parent is not going to get in trouble if they buy it and let their child watch or play it.

I suspect there laws regarding pornoography, like a parent I am sure would get in trouble if they were letting their child watch that, but I've never looked into that. But as far as an R rating parents can still choose to let their child watch it.

Where do you live that it's actually illegal for an 11 year old to watch something rated 15+? to me that sounds strange. Do they enforce it usually?

Last edited by Sweetleaf on 17 Dec 2020, 2:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

WHAT law?  The worst that could happen to a kid faking their way into an adult movie is having to explain to their parents while at the police station.  I do not know of anyone who has done time in jail for their kids looking at free porn sites, for example.

There are no laws in the US about what ratings children can watch at home, only in theaters. They can't watch R-rated movies in theaters without a parent or guardian present and they can't admitted to NC17-rated movies at all. Any law about what parents can let children watch at home would be almost impossible to enforce, massively intrude on people's privacy, and divert resources away from monitoring more serious crime.

Ah I googled.

Only in a cinema. Mum lied to me when I was a kid

Still, though, my mum knew better than to let me watch a 15 before I was 15 then complain it was too scary for me. Of course it's too scary for a kid under 15 - it's not meant for them.

It's silly for parents to expect every single piece of media to be child friendly.

My mom finally let me see a couple horror movies she wouldn't let me and my siblings see as kids when I was 12. Jaws was one of them, which I thought was stupid looked like they used a toy shark. The Omen was ok, The exorcist was boring but Rosemary's Baby was interesting.

The shark was mechanical, and in the sequels, it was more obvious. In Jaws: The Revenge (one of the worst movies ever made), it’s clear they weren’t trying to hide the fakeness.

I really wasn't allowed to watch anything like that til I turned the appropriate ages (15 for 15s, 18 for 18s)

At home at least. Mum got shocked cos we were shown Schindler's List in history class when we were 13. We saw extracts of it - to bring home the true horrors to us - but didn't see the things which made it a 15 (for eg the sex scenes) and the (historically factual) horror/violence we saw was in the context of studying in a history class rather than any form of entertainment. I consider that to be appropriate.

Once when I was 21 I watched a movie rated 15 with mum. It was really sexual so we turned it off I have a theory that no matter how old you get - unlike horror - watching that kind of thing with parents is awkward.

In these parts, those who haven’t “cancelled” Netflix (due to the Cuties controversy) enforce the ratings system very strictly.

The right’s logic regarding TV: Kids will repeat dirty words, which will leading to drinking, drug use, fornication, sodomy and devil worship. This is why they are in such an uproar over shows like the Simpsons and South Park.

Meanwhile, I wrote this letter to the FCC:

See in my day it made sense to have a watershed.

Sure you could watch a VHS but that was about all you could do and unless you showed your own kid one you brought home, it was pretty hard for a kid to do = they wouldn't be allowed to go to the shop and buy one.

Nowadays it would be better to just make sure that kids watch kids' tv and things with appropriate ratings. Enforce a parental lock in households with children present - have the kids watch kids' netflix. Let adults who live alone or with other adults watch whatever we want, whenever we want. We already do through netflix etc.

Personally I watch things which would've only been allowed after 9pm. I ignore whatever time of day it is. In fact before I got this much into horror movies, I only watched them during the daytime - that way I wouldn't have nightmares.

But it's not ok for kids to watch stuff which will disturb them. I'm not just talking about nudity. Although I do have doubts about adults who'd let their kids watch sexual stuff before they're teenagers at least.

And parents who know the rating shouldn't let their kid see it if they think their kid will get scared by it. That's irresponsible. Read the ratings.

I see adults who let their kids watch 15s and then moan that it wasn't suitable for a child under that age to be passing up on their own responsibilities in order to moan about the companies and pressure them not to make things which those of us who are adults might enjoy.

In this specific case I think it was cos she was bone idle, remembered she liked Sabrina as a kid, didn't have a parent lock on and heard her 11yo kid go 'can I watch Sabrina?'. Chilling Adventures =/= Teenage Witch.

But I'd never have asked as a kid to see a movie I knew was a 15. Age ratings weren't done in my day for TV but I never watched films I was too young for, including 12 rated movies.

In the U.S., restrictions aren't about appropriateness, but rather about the religious conservatives trying to control everything.

I doubt they couldve made a better shark than the one in Jaws back in '74.....it scared (and some were even traumatized by it) lots of people back then

I consider myself lucky that I did not grow up in a household which took film and video ratings so literally. When I was 12/13 years old, I was routinely watching videos of 15 and 18 rated content (mostly comedy and action films and TV shows). I didn't watch any horror until I was about 15 and again, I frequently watched 18 rated stuff when I was technically too young for it. I also saw a number of films at the cinema that I was underage for (i.e. I saw the South Park film, rated 15, when I was 13). I was never challenged or refused entry by staff when I went to see these films. Ironically, I once tried to buy Terminator 2, a 15 rated film, on DVD in a shop and despite actually being 15 at the time, the shop assistant refused to let me buy it as she didn't think I was old enough to watch it! I had to get my mum to buy it for me instead.

These days, I don't give film ratings a second thought although if I had kids, I'd obviously pay more attention to ratings for film and TV content.

I still look like a teenager now, which affects how I behave quite a bit.

So for eg I tend to go to see kids stuff at the cinema because if I go see something I like I get all this hassle about not looking my age.

I saw Shutter Island at the cinema when I was 22. My parents were warned 'you do know it's a 15, right'.

My social anxiety means I hate being carded a lot. I don't drink either so I avoid being carded over that.

My dad refuses to watch anything which is age rated. But that's different - he's religious so he can't watch the sexual stuff & he has mental health conditions where he interprets things as too real & can't relax in terms of horror movies or anything with violence. Ironically for someone easily scared, he loves Disney.

Tbh in my day, TV shows lacked age ratings. There was a general understanding of what was for adults only, what was for adults and teens, what was for families (quiz shows for eg), what was for kids and what was for kids and would annoy adults trying to watch it (for eg the Teletubbies is annoying if you're above a certain age!) They were just for films. I found tv shows which focused on relationships boring until I was a teenager - why watch an argument about who cheated on who when you're 10 and can watch two superheroes fighting...