Questioning Fandom: Should Movie Theaters Enforce Age Minimums?

For obvious reasons, there’s a lot of talk going on about the tragedy in Aurora, Colorado with the Dark Knight Rises showing that involved a shooter, multiple dead and a whole lot more injured. As someone who goes to the theater quite often, I can certainly empathize, fear and understand what a lot have gone through and have nothing by sympathies and hopes for quick recoveries for those that survived and closure for all involved as more is understood about it. In watching the news about it this morning and following numerous sites and articles about it and plenty of discussions, there was one piece that made me cringe the most, particularly at first, as it was revealed that a three to four month old baby was involved in getting wounded and was initially listed as having died. I’m beyond happy to know that the child survived and was reunited and I believe released already as well.

But it also made me furious. Very furious.

It’s been an area of scorn for many over the years and depending on where you go the theater, you’ll either never have it happen or it seems to happen regularly. Parents that really want to see a movie that have young kids, or babies, and they bring them. I’ve already heard the caveat that “oh, my child sleeps soundly at that time so it’s fine,” but I just can’t bring myself to accept it. Even if your child sleeps fine, it’s not right. Not for the child with all the loud noise that comes from it that can be harmful to tender ears, but it’s not right for other patrons who will generally look upon you poorly. And I suspect most friends would look upon you that way as well.

And I don’t say that as a childless parent. I have two kids and I’m very careful about what movies I take them to, age appropriate and time appropriate. When seeing Prometheus and seeing a couple come in with a young child that can walk, carry his own blanket and pillow, and have them set up camp, that’s just wrong. If you can’t get a babysitter, don’t go. Putting the child in that position is just flat out wrong.

What I’d like to see happen is some real enforcement of age minimums for theaters when it comes to both the rating itself and the time. There will always be people who say their kids are ready early, and that’s probably true for many depending on how you educate and teach your kids about theaters, but there has to be some changes that go into all of this. With my eldest daughter, I started taking her to PG-13 movies at age eight, but we only did matinees where there were few people and she was able to adjust to it all. And even then it was carefully choosing the right movies for her age and understanding. At age nine, I’ve only just started taking my youngest daughter to PG-13 movies because she wasn’t ready for them yet.

But a three month old baby? A two year old child with blankets, pillows and stuffed animals? Get out. And it’s time for theaters to start putting these rules into effect and enforcing them.

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Questioning Fandom appears every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with different topics where we want to know where the fans stand on them. Check the forum for past topics and join in the conversation. You can also suggest topics in there as well!

Chris Beveridge

http://www.fandompost.com

Chris has been writing about anime, manga, movies and comics for well on twenty years now. He began AnimeOnDVD.com back in 1998 and has covered nearly every anime release that’s come out in the US ever since.

He likes to write a lot, as you can see.

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