Tonight, I'm off the see the new Harry Potter movie with my oldest daughter. I'll either report on this tomorrow or, if energetic enough at 10:30 p.m., tonight. One interesting thing about this is that I have heard this is a more intense film than previous Potter outings. I was worried that Brittany might not be allowed in, so I checked the ratings. According to Famous Players' website, the film is rated PG. A website called Media Awareness Network (www.media-awareness.ca) has a section reviewing what the ratings mean in each province, and it was an eye-opener. In Ontario, PG means one or more of the following:
Language: Limited use of stronger expletives and/or slurs and/or mild sexual references.
Violence: Restrained portrayals of non-graphic violence, integral to the plot. The portrayals are not prolonged; there are no close-ups; bloodletting and/or tissue damage is limited.
Nudity: Brief nudity in a non-sexual context, non-exploitative close-up.
Sexual Activity: Embracing, kissing in a loving context; mild sexual innuendo.
Horror: Exciting horror scenes and some grotesque images may be allowed in a fantasy or comedic context, but there will be no detailed and/or prolonged focus on gory images or suffering.
Psychological Impact: Sensitive to treatments of scenes and situations that may cause adverse psychological impact on children. May include frightening or emotionally upsetting situations involving threats, injury, illness, family problems, or death to young people, family member and animals (particularly pets).
Now, some of those restrictions are to me just common sense, although every parent views these things through their own unique sensibility. I don't really want my girls seeing anything sexual just yet (mainly because neither my wife nor I are ready for the ensuing conversation), but mildly foul language doesn't overly concern me. (Frankly, sometimes they hear worse from me than any PG-rated movie.) We definitely do not allow them to watch horror, though that may be because we have no interest in watching those films and thus have never formed an opinion on the appropriateness or lack thereof of a particular film or films. And violence at the PG level is, while I would prefer they not see it, tolerable.
(On further consideration, the reason I don't want them seeing anything sexual at this point is that they just aren't mature enough to discuss it rationally. For this I am grateful, reassuring as it is that my 10- and 7-year-old daughters have no interest in sex. There'll be ample enough time in their teen years to go crazy over that development.)
I'm not a prude in any sense, and I think many parents would consider me just a little too liberal in the way I talk with my children. My basic approach is that my children are intelligent aware creatures who can't be lied to. If they ask me about something, I'm going to be honest with them to the best of my ability and to the extent that their psyches can handle that honesty. But I still have that innate need to protect them, if only for a little longer, and that's why Brittany and I won't be sitting down to a Tarentino film festival any time soon. But thank God we still have a world in which Harry Potter appears, based on the film rating system, safe for a properly supervised 10-year-old.
Let's hope I still feel that way when the movie ends at 9:40 tonight.
Language: Limited use of stronger expletives and/or slurs and/or mild sexual references.
Violence: Restrained portrayals of non-graphic violence, integral to the plot. The portrayals are not prolonged; there are no close-ups; bloodletting and/or tissue damage is limited.
Nudity: Brief nudity in a non-sexual context, non-exploitative close-up.
Sexual Activity: Embracing, kissing in a loving context; mild sexual innuendo.
Horror: Exciting horror scenes and some grotesque images may be allowed in a fantasy or comedic context, but there will be no detailed and/or prolonged focus on gory images or suffering.
Psychological Impact: Sensitive to treatments of scenes and situations that may cause adverse psychological impact on children. May include frightening or emotionally upsetting situations involving threats, injury, illness, family problems, or death to young people, family member and animals (particularly pets).
Now, some of those restrictions are to me just common sense, although every parent views these things through their own unique sensibility. I don't really want my girls seeing anything sexual just yet (mainly because neither my wife nor I are ready for the ensuing conversation), but mildly foul language doesn't overly concern me. (Frankly, sometimes they hear worse from me than any PG-rated movie.) We definitely do not allow them to watch horror, though that may be because we have no interest in watching those films and thus have never formed an opinion on the appropriateness or lack thereof of a particular film or films. And violence at the PG level is, while I would prefer they not see it, tolerable.
(On further consideration, the reason I don't want them seeing anything sexual at this point is that they just aren't mature enough to discuss it rationally. For this I am grateful, reassuring as it is that my 10- and 7-year-old daughters have no interest in sex. There'll be ample enough time in their teen years to go crazy over that development.)
I'm not a prude in any sense, and I think many parents would consider me just a little too liberal in the way I talk with my children. My basic approach is that my children are intelligent aware creatures who can't be lied to. If they ask me about something, I'm going to be honest with them to the best of my ability and to the extent that their psyches can handle that honesty. But I still have that innate need to protect them, if only for a little longer, and that's why Brittany and I won't be sitting down to a Tarentino film festival any time soon. But thank God we still have a world in which Harry Potter appears, based on the film rating system, safe for a properly supervised 10-year-old.
Let's hope I still feel that way when the movie ends at 9:40 tonight.
posted by George @ 12:33 p.m.
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