What Age Should You Be?

[rah]

A child can only judge after the fact and then it's too late so someone has to be the judge.
I don't want the government to make that call so it has to be the parents. And as always, some will be good at it and some bad but the alternative isn't great.
At 16 the kid is probably old enough not to worry about it.

 

[Kyriakos]

Movies can have a far more obvious detrimental (scare) effect on pre-puberty children. Mostly due to violence, but other stuff too (I was once quite frightened by the unexpected transformation of a hot girl into a werewolf, in what must have been a ridiculous b-movie ).
For start of puberty, of course, porn films can have a very catastrophic effect (cause the ephebe may not even know what they are watching, and treat the movie as a kind of documentary; if it's a movie/people went to the trouble of producing it, it must be serious etc).

 

[rah]

Yes, a documentary on how to tip the pizza boy.

 

[Lexicus]

Yes, a documentary on how to tip the pizza boy.

"I ordered a pizza with extra meat"

 

[MaryKB]

When I was little, my father would watch movies with nudity and not care if I was in the room. I didn't understand what was going on, or why those people weren't wearing clothes, but the worst "sex scene" I probably saw was from Highlander, which of course is silhouettes and difficult to understand what's happening if you don't know.

When I was in eighth grade, my previous seventh grade teacher was suspended for giving his class a book to read that had a sex act in it.

 

[AmazonQueen]

Given the many scandals about children's homes and social work department's record on child protection I'm inclined to distrust any increase in state power in this area but some parents aren't fit to be parents.

 

[Kyriakos]

Yes, a documentary on how to tip the pizza boy.

Sure, blame the child for not being willing to identify how stupid the world is ^_^

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Do we actually have documented results of children's exposure to this material? I imagine some might exist for pornography (though given IRB standards, maybe not), but for something like a video depicting a fish being gutted, or a person transforming into a monster? I wonder how often this is even considered. Also interesting that fairly gratuitous violence is comparatively acceptable for children in today's culture.

Some children get scared over incomprehensible/random crap. Others can watch movies like the exorcist and not be bothered at all apparently. But do we know how *either* of such examples actually translates to their long term development/well being?

I'm unconvinced in some ways. Like kids who shooting games are pretty obviously aware that it isn't real and freak out/panic/get severely scarred if they encounter real shooters. That pattern of reaction is pretty similar to adults, but I've seen it out of kids < 10 years old. So what are we evaluating when determining if a kid is "ready" for that, precisely? If kids barely past the age of reason are trivially seeing that stories depicted aren't real, in what way does viewing the material harm them?

I'm not saying it doesn't, but I've not seen anything beyond very anecdotal claims that it does/can. And after "video games cause more violence" has been debunked for the hundredth time I'm not going to trust the anecdotes.

 

[Kyriakos]

Well, re the exposure to hard porn for people at the start of puberty, it is documented and a known subject of note in psychology.
More generally, I suspect that most children do not have the view that the world is filled with garbage or runs as a result of mostly low motives (eg money). It is important for a child to have a somewhat positive view of the world, else they won't bother socializing or even being extroverted much. Later on, of course, as adults, they can have even a very negative view but still go on.
Imagine how more difficult it would be if (eg) the infant had the view the society was overall lowly, when they were attempting to learn to speak and get into more contact with other people (their parents).

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Well, re the exposure to hard porn for people at the start of puberty, it is documented and a known subject of note in psychology.

That's surprising, must be from earlier times before research was given pretty rigorous standards for human experimentation. I'd imagine this exposure had at least some negative consequences, if only for it constraining expectations to something quite far from reality.

More generally, I suspect that most children do not have the view that the world is filled with garbage or runs as a result of mostly low motives (eg money). It is important for a child to have a somewhat positive view of the world, else they won't bother socializing or even being extroverted much. Later on, of course, as adults, they can have even a very negative view but still go on.

Again, what evidence do we have for this? The world is what it is, regardless of positive/negative views about it. How does knowing actual facts sooner inhibit development for children?

Imagine how more difficult it would be if (eg) the infant had the view the society was overall lowly, when they were attempting to learn to speak and get into more contact with other people (their parents).

Before the age of reason children don't have the capacity for this in the first place, to my knowledge. You could tell an infant this and present him research papers and it wouldn't mean anything to him.

 

[Zardnaar]

When I was little, my father would watch movies with nudity and not care if I was in the room. I didn't understand what was going on, or why those people weren't wearing clothes, but the worst "sex scene" I probably saw was from Highlander, which of course is silhouettes and difficult to understand what's happening if you don't know.

When I was in eighth grade, my previous seventh grade teacher was suspended for giving his class a book to read that had a sex act in it.

Just rewatched Highlander not to long ago.

I saw pornographic movies this way with the adults not caring aged 8. Didn't really understand then but I knew the birds and the bees part of them.

Uncle put one on to get rid of grandma but she watched it.

 

[Kyriakos]

That's surprising, must be from earlier times before research was given pretty rigorous standards for human experimentation. I'd imagine this exposure had at least some negative consequences, if only for it constraining expectations to something quite far from reality.



Again, what evidence do we have for this? The world is what it is, regardless of positive/negative views about it. How does knowing actual facts sooner inhibit development for children?



Before the age of reason children don't have the capacity for this in the first place, to my knowledge. You could tell an infant this and present him research papers and it wouldn't mean anything to him.

Re infants, it isn't about convincing them, but something intuitive. If one's parents don't feed him/her, intuitively it won't make a positive impression. If some sense the world is hellish was there, the child would tend to do like the fungi and close itself up until the threat subsided.

Moreover, there are always differences (in the case of porn and early puberty) depending on character of the ephebe. Yet it may happen that the first impression is traumatic.
Hardly surprising; I mean if you didn't have any experience of eating food, and saw a video of someone cutting holes into some food with their teeth, you might have formed the impression that eating is a violent procedure.

 

[Zardnaar]

We had tapes of this as kids in the 80s.

Aged 8-10

Santa Claus Kevin Bloody Wilson

Language warning. Australian In NSFW.

Have an old stereo from the 90s in storage KBW cassette tape is in it lol. I know I didn't buy it so God knows where it came from or when I last used a cassette tape.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Re infants, it isn't about convincing them, but something intuitive. If one's parents don't feed him/her, intuitively it won't make a positive impression. If some sense the world is hellish was there, the child would tend to do like the fungi and close itself up until the threat subsided.

I don't think it's reasonable to conclude a very young child (that can't yet speak coherently) would be capable of making such a conclusion based on movies/books. It's different if in physical distress because of not being fed, but that's outside the scope of this thread.

Hardly surprising; I mean if you didn't have any experience of eating food, and saw a video of someone cutting holes into some food with their teeth, you might have formed the impression that eating is a violent procedure.

In some sense eating *is* a violent procedure. But to make this conclusion versus not you must first have a concept of what a violent procedure is regardless.

It's not good/useful to make assumptions in situations like this.

 

[Kyriakos]

Here is my favorite 80s kids cartoon show:

It was awesome ^_^

I don't think it's reasonable to conclude a very young child (that can't yet speak coherently) would be capable of making such a conclusion based on movies/books. It's different if in physical distress because of not being fed, but that's outside the scope of this thread.



In some sense eating *is* a violent procedure. But to make this conclusion versus not you must first have a concept of what a violent procedure is regardless.

It's not good/useful to make assumptions in situations like this.

The point is that the hypothetical viewer would not have the ability to tie the violent image of cutting through food with teeth, with the rather glaring for others reason why food is consumed: to experience a positive sensation. Likewise, a porn movie can present the same issue: the observer (in puberty) only gets to notice the external elements, let alone in an artificial setting. If one would make a full parallel to the food example, you would have no sense of what eating feels like AND you would be watching some creep puke on their food and then carve holes into it or, I don't know, slap it with a whip

 

[Zardnaar]

Mine was probably Transformers.

 

[caketastydelish]

69

 

[Patine]

Mine was probably Transformers.

Ah, Transformers. And G.I. Joe and Jem. In the halcyon days before Michael Bay butchered and mutilated all three into horrid mockeries and abominations of what they were, and were meant to be. As they said in a Flintstone's episode, "I don't know what Bay got for making those remakes, but whatever it was, it should have been life!"

 

[Zardnaar]

Ah, Transformers. And G.I. Joe and Jem. In the halcyon days before Michael Bay butchered and mutilated all three into horrid mockeries and abominations of what they were, and were meant to be. As they said in a Flintstone's episode, "I don't know what Bay got for making those remakes, but whatever it was, it should have been life!"

G I Joe was a bit to American even in the 80s.

Jem was alright wife rewatched it recently.

 

[Mango Elephant]

You know, when I look children I know, they seem so young but I can remember the things I was saying and doing when I was their age and I feel very strange.

When I was 7, I was at a friend's house for a sleepover and we would play this online game where anime girls would get naked and have sex with each other. When I was 8, my friends and I would talk about sex all the time (until we decided it was boring). When I was 9 I did a movie report on Schindler's List. I never felt like any of that was inappropriate at the time, and looking back, I don't think it negatively affected me at all.

Anyways, I think children are more resilient than they're given credit for. So long as it's by their own volition, I feel like adult topics are perfectly natural.