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INLSA<\/p>\n
Brothers Stuart, 13, and David Campbell, 8, were among the hordes who watched The Amazing Spider-Man on Friday.
\nPicture: Jacques Naud\ufffd<\/p>\n
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Parents who let their children see age-inappropriate movies are causing more harm than they know, a Ballito clinical psychologist has warned. <\/p>\n
Sumayyah Khan, a child, adolescent and family therapy specialist, says she has seen nightmares and bedwetting in traumatised little children for whom it is not \u201cjust a movie\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is my issue. Many parents don\u2019t take responsibility, and don\u2019t pay attention to the age restriction when it\u2019s a DC or Marvel comics story,\u201d Khan said. <\/p>\n
On Friday, the last day of the winter school holidays, The Amazing Spider-Man opened in theatres. <\/p>\n
Despite the age restriction of 13 for violence, Khan spotted children who could not have been older than five, dressed in Spider-Man costumes, going into cinemas. <\/p>\n
She said that despite the Spider-Man games and toys aimed at children well below 13, the onus still rested on parents to ensure that the film was age-appropriate. <\/p>\n
Khan cited research that showed that, in most cases, |parents allowed their children access to films when they were three years below the age restriction. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo a PG 10 movie will be seen by kids from seven plus, a PG13 from 10 years old and up, etc,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
While she believed that |The Amazing Spider-Man was tame enough for 10-year-olds, there were certain scenes too scary for younger children \u2013 even if they were science fiction-like. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen your child watches and is fearful, don\u2019t say \u2018it\u2019s just a movie\u2019. The reality of the situation is that the way your child experiences these moments is different. They internalise it, and it\u2019s then that they might then want a night light or to sleep in your bed.\u201d <\/p>\n
Despite the scientific jargon in The Amazing Spider-Man, Stuart Campbell, 13, was able to explain most of it when quizzed. <\/p>\n
\u201cTeens today have a much better understanding of biology and science. Kids who are now in Grade 4 are doing what we did in high school,\u201d Khan affirmed. <\/p>\n
Stuart added that the amount of blood \u201cwasn\u2019t too bad\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s worse on Law and Order. The kissing was sort of high school, it was more cute. I didn\u2019t think of it as a kid\u2019s movie, but for teens.\u201d <\/p>\n
Stuart\u2019s brother, David, 8, found certain parts of the film \u201cweird\u201d rather than \u201cscary\u201d, but admitted he covered his eyes during his older sibling\u2019s favourite television crime drama. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn Law and Order they (the victims) have cuts. When they beat people up (in the show) they die. In Spider-Man they just get injured,\u201d David explained. <\/p>\n
Khan agreed that the violence and romance in the |film were at a \u201cbasic\u201d enough level, but added that the relationship dynamics and sub-themes would have been better picked up by viewers 16 and older. <\/p>\n
Worryingly, Khan believes, age restrictions for big screen versions of comic book tales are on occasion too lenient to begin with. <\/p>\n
\u201cMen In Black III was rated PG. However, some of the |monsters and scenes were quite frightening and I feel that children under eight should not be exposed to this movie,\u201d Khan explained. <\/p>\n
As for 2008\u2019s The Dark Knight, Khan argued that it was not suitable for audiences younger than 16, because of the explicit violence and \u201cintimate behaviour\u201d. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
INLSA Brothers Stuart, 13, and David Campbell, 8, were among the hordes who watched The Amazing Spider-Man on Friday. Picture: Jacques Naud\ufffd Parents who let their children see age-inappropriate movies are causing more harm than they know, a Ballito clinical psychologist has warned. Sumayyah Khan, a child, adolescent and family therapy specialist, says she has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-12457","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12457\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}