How young is too young to watch Stranger Things (M with a content warning)?
What do you tell a 16-year-old who wants to watch Euphoria? (R18 so actually illegal for those 17 and under)?
To make informed decisions about safe family viewing, parents should take into account not only ratings and content warnings but also their child's individual sensitivities, says Kate Whitaker from New Zealand's Classification Office.
File photo Photo: 123RF
Listen to the interview
The Classification Office website has information about how ratings are assigned, how parents can decide whether the content is right for their child and how to use parental controls. Their Find a Rating tool has information about thousands of movies, TV shows and video games.
In New Zealand, the content classifications are G (for general audiences), PG (parental guidance recommended, M (recommended for mature audiences 16 years and over), R16 and R18 (legal only for viewing by people these ages and over) and also a unique rating RP13, RP16 and RP18 (not recommended for those under these ages unless accompanied by an adult).
Different children can have very different reactions to the same content, Whitaker says, and the breadth of content given a PG rating in particular makes this classification "a very tricky one" for parents to navigate, Whitaker says.
Recently, her office heard from a 12-year-old boy who went to see the PG-rated Kung Fu Panda 2 with his grandparents and the trailer for another PG-rated film (Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire) gave him and his younger brother nightmares.
To support a child faced with something that they find disturbing, Whitaker recommends using practical strategies. Hitting the 'mute' button on behalf of her "highly sensitive" four-year-old is her own first move.
"Or she blocks her ears when something scary happens because once you take away that sound, it takes away that 'scare factor'. We then tell her she can close her eyes. She could leave the room and or we could fast-forward."
As teenagers sometimes love to scare their younger siblings with sensitive content, it's important families have frequent conversations about appropriate viewing together, she says.
Parents should stay engaged with whatever teens are currently watching, she says, and viewing the same content in 'parallel' will enhance chats about potentially harmful content.
"Then we can be having those conversations and asking them questions about whether they think it's realistic and what would happen in real life if this was to happen."
In these chats, Whitaker recommends parents be as honest as possible about the potential dangers of content which comes with warnings, particularly about the depiction of self-harm and suicide.
"Get them talking with us and opening up, ask about their opinions, ask about what harm could be caused if they did watch something [with a content warning] and talk about what support services are out there."
When a child or young person wants to watch something you don't think they're ready for, Whitaker recommends sharing the reasoning behind your decision, asking for their own opinions and also mentioning that you'll revisit their request later on.
"It's not a silver bullet, they're not going to go 'Okay, great. Thank you' but instead of saying 'No, you can't' they've seen that you've actually gone through a process to inform your decision. And hopefully, as they get older, they can also do that for themselves when they're watching content."