Raising a child is no walk in the park. You have to be hyper-aware of everything – from toys to language, to materials which may influence their attitude and behavior. With the world becoming more and more connected nowadays, the Internet may be a great distraction for the new generation, but it can also be a potential threat to how you want to raise them.
In choosing a movie for let’s say, a movie night with the kids, letting them choose the titles to watch will surely excite them. Although, you still need to evaluate the title beforehand in order to make sure that it won’t have themes and languages which may not be appropriate for children. In this article, we’ve collated the four basic parameters in choosing what movie to watch with the kids:
Age-appropriateness
Suffice it to say; a movie needs to be age-appropriate for kids. In this regard, lots of animated films will come to mind. But that doesn’t mean that they’re instantly safe. Quite the opposite really, because some animated films have scenes of violence covered-up by humor and plot of the story. The best movies for kids are always those that have a character that reflects them, or their ages.
That means the main character is around their age, younger or older by a year or two, give and take. Look for the G rating. A G-rating means it is for the general audience. But even then, you shouldn’t take the rating as canon, because there are several differences among countries on how they rate a movie. A G-rated movie or show can still have one disturbing scene or something that will confuse the children, so watch out for that.
Violence
One of the most pressing things that you need to consider when letting your kids watch videos and movies online, violence not just constitutes two characters physically fighting. It also constitutes verbal abuse, as well as scenes of aggression and attack. For example, there are many types of violence, like cartoon, psychological, well-rewarded, and others.
For cartoon violence, young kids below seven can have a difficult time processing what’s real and fictional. This will affect how they perceive reality after seeing scenes that depict violence. One of the more alarming effects of having kids watch violent scenes is that they’ll copy it, thinking it’s the normal thing to do. Psychological and emotional violence also needed to be monitored, so much so, that when possible, you need to be present in the room while they watch any kind of movie.
Product placement
Most parents won’t consider product placement as a harmful device in most TV and movie programming. Still, there are recent studies that prove excessive product placements may affect teens as well as children in a way that’s damaging to their mental health. When kids see a product or merchandise, for that matter, in a movie or TV show online, they tend to want it.
This means they’ll beg for the parents to get it for them. While this can come across cute, studies have actually found out that product placements can be addictive to children. The more they are exposed to products and services, the more they create a perfect life in their minds that includes it. So be wary of shows and movies that promote subtle yet effective product placement.
Coarse language.
Another one that mostly flies under the radar of some parents, coarse language doesn’t necessarily mean curse ones. Youtube, for example, doesn’t have a rating system that you can depend on to ensure that what your kids are watching doesn’t have coarse language in it. The only thing that you can base it on is the classification.
Almost all movies, especially the ones which are released on theatres, need to have a viewing guide on them. But, since we are consuming our content more and more through the Internet, it makes it harder to filter out coarse language inside them. One of the many tricks you can do to monitor what your kid is watching on Youtube, for example, is making sure that the videos are strictly for kids, and do not have comments. When you see that it has comments, it’s pretty much understood that it’s PG-13.
Takeaway
Making the most out of your family time needs not to end in you distraught because your kids have seen something that they shouldn’t have. So to prevent this from happening, do your research beforehand. Check the movie and reviews published on it.
