I try to intentionally not limit the kids movies. My parents were clueless about what all we watched growing up and we turned out just fine. Figure they'll do the same.

I think it just depends on the kid, gore/scary stuff like saw stuff I care more. If it's just R because they say duck, whatever

When my kids were in early middle school we went to San Antonio. Somewhere near the riverwalk or something there was a booth called "Cornhub" with the same color scheme, font, and everything. My son let out a giggle. Then I realized, he has seen way more than I thought he had.

I watched Aliens and Lethal Weapon when I was 5. So I grew up from a young age with an appreciation of good movies.

AgTrip said:

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I have watched some of the movies I saw as a kid and it cracks me up how I missed references or bad stuff.

As a kid, you don't think about the inuendos and naughty stuff. I watched shows like smokey and the bandit or Blazing Saddles and didn't get half the references. Now I see these shows and I'm like HOLY SMOKES..how did I miss that???

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I was in my mid-30s before I really got the joke about "Long Duck Dong's" name in 16 Candles.

There were a lot more gratuitous boob scenes in the 80s, so I saw plenty of that growing up. We've been pretty open with what our kids watch, but there's just not as many scenes like that in the movies we watch now.

Our kids have had iPhones and internet since they stopped wearing diapers, and I'd like to think they're smart enough to find whatever they want on the internet, so they've probably seen a lot more than I ever did. Actually, they may have seen more than I've ever seen, period.

Our brains evolved over hundreds of thousands of years to be hard-wired to see and process and react to sex and violence. Your 20th great grandfather grew up seeing neighbors clubbing each other and lovemaking in the mud hut.

But if you care about your kid's wellbeing you might want to show them movies and shows that promote traditional virtues and discourage backwardness. I'd rather my 8 year old see Braveheart than half of the movies marketed to kids.

Yeah, the media young people consume absolutely helps them internalize, normalize, and accept certain behaviors and ways of thinking. So views on language, sexuality, violence, etc are all going to be sponged up by kids. Having conversations with kids about what they are seeing is critical to countering some of these internalizations, but some kids are going to be more influenced than others.

Yeah, and I think that is a larger part of the problem. A lot of kids are watching pretty complicated things that probably confuse them with no close adult figure to talk to about it. Part of the reason I'm ok with my girls watching things that are a bit graphic or scary is because it turns into good conversations. I feel bad for kids glued to their devices taking in so much content and don't have an elder to help then process it.

My dad took me to the theater on opening day to see Terminator 2: Judgement Day.

I was 6 years old.

His judgement wasnt so good. He also took me to the theater to see Natural Born Killers when I was 9, but to his credit we left about 30 minutes in because he said it was too violent. Hmmm...imagine that. A movie named Natural Born Killers is violent.

When I was a kid there were 3 network channels and a PBS station. Pretty sanitary so my parents really didnt keep tabs on TV watching.

Bruce Almighty said:

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My kids are 5 and 8 and I'm more protective over what they watch than my parents did with me, especially when it comes to sex. I think it's the realization that eventually, they'll be exposed to way more stuff than I was, and I want to preserve their innocence as long as I can.

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This. Screen time on phones. Ratings in all tv providers. Wifi control of laptops. 70's parents were just plain stupid. And tv programming was a lot more coarse in regular programming than it is now.