Should children be debarred from watching horror movies?

[petrushka.googol]

Children are generally prohibited from watching horror flicks.

Is this prudent in the light of current scientific analysis?

 

Please refer :

 

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/oct/23/headquarters-delight-fright

 

As an illustrative excerpt from this article :

 

The frontal lobes of the brain that deal with the rationalization of scary situations are also less developed in very young children. This means they may struggle to make sense of their automatic fear responses. Cortisol released during flight-or-fight responses reinforces memories of the event and, without appropriate frontal lobe controls, this can result in the feeling of fear recurring long afterwards. This might explain why children will often have recurring nightmares after watching a scary movie.

 

Please advise.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

 

 

[Ringer]

I've never really seen a problem with children watching horror movies as long as the parent is willing to put up with the child being scared afterwards.

[Greg H.]

I've never really stopped my kids from watching horror movies. I watched them when I was young. It's how you handle the event that makes it a big deal. If they kid is obviously too scared to continue, then be the parent and turn it off.

[Moontanman]

I think there is a limit to what a child can watch depending on the maturity of the child, blood and gore IMHO should be limited, I was always more concerned with blood and gore than nudity. It depends on the child but I didn't let my boys watch horror flicks until the were teenagers and then i limited them depending on how bad the movie was. It's process and difficult to really quantify...

[Marshalscienceguy]

Children are generally prohibited from watching horror flicks.

Is this prudent in the light of current scientific analysis?

 

Please refer :

 

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/oct/23/headquarters-delight-fright

 

As an illustrative excerpt from this article :

 

The frontal lobes of the brain that deal with the rationalization of scary situations are also less developed in very young children. This means they may struggle to make sense of their automatic fear responses. Cortisol released during flight-or-fight responses reinforces memories of the event and, without appropriate frontal lobe controls, this can result in the feeling of fear recurring long afterwards. This might explain why children will often have recurring nightmares after watching a scary movie.

 

Please advise.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

 

 

I think horror films are often educational and we should not be trying to hide our children from violence or the fact it exists. They are going to experience fear, and might possibly be stuck in situations that are stressful/scary/dangerous in their life. We are not helping them by telling them to ignore it.

 

The reason I enjoy horror movies is I enjoyed watching how people react and think in stressful situations. If a person acted abnormally I had to know why. If something did not have an obvious reason I had to figure out why they did it. Children are naturally very curious so they could learn something from it. I use to love horror movies as a child.

 

When I was in school from the age of 10 I would get bullied very badly. I had anger issues but I knew I must control my stress and not hit anyone. Pretending violence does not exist does not make it not mean its gone. Telling a child to not feel angry does not make it better. Telling them that anger is an abnormal emotion will not make it go away. Hostility will always exist. People will always argue, always fight and always have disagreements. Its not like everyone is always going to be on the same page as you. Violence will always be here so why lie and say it doesn't?

Edited February 18, 2014 by Marshalscienceguy

[Moontanman]

I think horror films are often educational and we should not be trying to hide our children from violence or the fact it exists. They are going to experience fear, and might possibly be stuck in situations that are stressful/scary/dangerous in their life. We are not helping them by telling them to ignore it.

 

The reason I enjoy horror movies is I enjoyed watching how people react and think in stressful situations. If a person acted abnormally I had to know why. If something did not have an obvious reason I had to figure out why they did it. Children are naturally very curious so they could learn something from it. I use to love horror movies as a child.

 

When I was in school from the age of 10 I would get bullied very badly. I had anger issues but I knew I must control my stress and not hit anyone. Pretending violence does not exist does not make it not mean its gone. Telling a child to not feel angry does not make it better. Telling them that anger is an abnormal emotion will not make it go away. Hostility will always exist. People will always argue, always fight and always have disagreements. Its not like everyone is always going to be on the same page as you. Violence will always be here so why lie and say it doesn't?

 

 

Are you seriously asserting that horror movies portray how real people react to real danger?

[iNow]

I think perhaps he means these movies inspire fear within the audience and hence the audience learns to deal with that fear, but I obviously have no special insights into his intended message.