Ok, I have a question for all of you loyal readers: How old do you have to be for it to be ok to watch an R rated movie?
I ask this because my aunt and my 12 year old cousin are coming up to visit us this weekend. Of course the new movie for me to see this weekend is Bad Boys II. My dad is up for it and told my mom that we would take my cousin Matthew to see it this weekend while the girls went out shopping. My mom told my aunt this on the phone and apparently she wasn’t too happy about that.
My aunt keeps my cousin pretty sheltered from “bad” movies like that. He mostly still sees Disney movies and the like. My aunt, and then my mom when she brought it up with me started to use the whole “violent movies and video games can’t be good for young kids” argument.
I of course think this is all bull. I must have seen Robocop in the 3rd grade. The Terminator movies in 4th and 5th. I’ve seen more gore and violence in movies and on the internet, played more violent video games, and read more disturbing literature than most people will in their entire lives, and yet I wouldn’t hit anyone, much less kill someone because of something I saw (this does not necessarily pertain also to clowns, since they are not of this world: see below). I’m not stupid enough to assume that everyone is just like me, and yet most people see this stuff at a young age and are fine.
The question is, when is it ok for a kid to see an R rated movie? Obviously six is way too young. Sometime in the teen years is when I assume this is ok, but when for the average joe, I don’t know. Something to think about.
C'est Non Un Blog 
Well, MY parents allowed me to see all kinds of crap when I was little. Like “1900.” Have you ever seen that movie? Donald Sutherland headbutts a cat to death. Anyway, they didn’t allow me to see things like “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” which is ironic, because years later when I actually saw it at the age of like 14 or something, my mom was all, “Oh, this doesn’t have anything bad in it after all! In fact, it’s mildly educational! Look at that, Genghis Khan likes Twinkies! I never knew that…” And I was never really fucked up by either the denial of tame claptrap or the crazy ass foreign movies my parents deemed ok. So let’s just say that I’m not even sure I know what I’m talking about, and it’s also 2:39 AM.
2:40 AM.
Anyway, it all depends. I would say 13 is the right age, since that’s the cutoff point for most things involving development. What really has to stop is people taking their like 5 year old kids to things like the South Park Movie. Do you know how many kids were in the theater when I saw that, when it came out? “But it’s a cartoon!” Fuck That Noise.
So I’m saying 13. With supervision. It’s against the law anyway, but 13 without supervision = bad idea. You need someone next to the kid to cover their eyes or kick them.
I just realized, after spending the entire night watching Strong Bad emails on Home Star Runner, that I am reading my every word as if Strong Bad were saying it. I’m alarmed.
i recall being made to watch the temple of doom around the tender age of ten or so. my dad did not care at all. in fact, my mom had to make him not let my brother watch casualties of war (you know, the vietnam war movie with the extensive gang rape scene) when my brother was twelvish, i think. regardless, i had nightmares of having my heart stolen in the night for years afterwards.
also, i watched silence of the lambs for the first time senior year at bard. i was prostrated for about 3 weeks, and was checking under my bed and in my closet for buffalo bill for about six months. i still get chills writing out buffalo bill. so my answer is, like every other answer to every other question, it entirely depends. for me, 40 may be about the right age. i hope.
i too watched way too much ‘bad’ stuff when i was younger, but i turned out ok, right? right? fuck yer mom!
anyway…setting ages for R-rated movies is weird. for example, some people are too immature to begin driving at 16, and some aren’t. it’s almost a situational thing, i guess. personally, i just never enjoyed watching a movie with my parents or sisters if the people in the movie started taking their clothes off. very uncomforable. otherwise, blood-spilling, head-exploding, puke-your-guts violence was always an easy watch.