This article aims at helping parents to make sound choices when looking for movies to show to their children.
What makes a movie "suitable" or "appropriate" for children?
The same that makes your actions in every-day life acceptable or unacceptable. Every story comes with a conflict. In a good story this conflict is heightened until the audience bursts with curiousity on how the hero might resolve the many challenges brought upon her / him. It is the resolution of this conflict, which makes a movie suitablefor children more than anything.
Brute force vs. constructive resolution
In many movies it is simply the stronger wins. It makes us happy to see the hero win and if the cause is just, almost anything goes: cars exploding everywhere and the bigger parts of the city laid to waste. Of course these scenarios have not a lot to do with reality, but the number of people who think they need to teach their children to be strong (or more essentially stronger than others) is frightening. Only in a constructive resolution both involved parties can come out as winners. Otherwise there might be resentment, which may lead to an even more severe conflict and more violent responses (and this is what we don't get to see often in movies when heroes respond with force).
Criteria for
- Constructive resolution of conflict
- Positive message
- No profanities or coarse language
- Feel-good atmosphere
- Age-appropriate content
- Creatively stimulating
- Sexuality and nudity
Positive message: A movie, which comes with a positive message will have an influence on your child's values and conduct. It is essential that you talk to your children about the message of a movie and emphasize on its importance if you want to make sure it understood the meaning.
No profanities and coarse language: Children playfully learn or to say it in different words: children's way to learn is by playing. They observe and imitate, which is a very powerful way of learning and let's be honest here: is there a more enjoyable way of learning? By imitating what they hear and say, children also adopt language and make it their own long before they fully understand what everything means. Hearing coarse language will make healthy children adopt, because that is what they do: they learn!
Feel-good atmosphere: Like with grown-ups the impression of a movie sticks with children for quite a while. Make sure they get to see things, which make them feel good about what they see and also about the way they feel about themselves.
Age-appropriate content: Children may see totally different things watching a movie than parents and it is thrilling and enchanting to see what they detect and what their conclusions are of things when they laugh. However, everything they experience and learn should be at an age where they can follow your explanations, because one thing is for sure: Children will ask! Unless you want to find yourself in a situation where you are forced to lie (which good parents won't do), you will want to show your children movies with content you feel comfortable talking about when they try to understand what they saw.
Creatively stimulating: Children sit on a treasure, which most of them lose over time: their creativity. Our academic education system does not work with children's creativity enough or like Ser Ken Robinson (professor of the arts, knighted by the British queen for his services to education) puts it:
"Education is not a linear process of preparation for the future: it is about cultivating the talents and sensibilities through which we can live our best lives in the present and create the future for ourselves."
Show your children movies, which make them want to draw pictures or tell sequel stories they made up themselves before they go to bed or invite them to do so: you might be surprised about the outcome!
Sexuality and nudity: Allow me to remark that I am not entirely sure whether a young child will take damage seeing nudity (e.g. naked legs) in a movie. While it will probably simply see them for what they really are: body parts, which allow us to go places.
On the other hand I firmly believe that a child will always recognize violence and always be disturbed by it. However, I recognize that nudity and sexuality and its impact on children is perceived differently and therefore will not recommend children's movies containing such.
Movie research
The IMDB (International Movie Database) makes a fantastic place to research for movies with all the information about a movie in place a parent could wish for (Even for Movies in production there is basic information already available)
http://www.imdb.com
Take your time to pick a movie for your children. You don't go to see just anything in the Movie Theaters either.
Author: René de Senarclens
For further information please visit my website:
http://www.shrewdfrog.com
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