How young is too young for your kid to see ‘It’?
Sep 14, 2017, 5:03 AM | Updated: 11:30 am
Stephen King’s “It” is back and better than ever, with the most recent revival picking up more than $123 million on opening weekend alone.
This success means your kid may be begging you to see it — no pun intended — but how young is too young to allow your child to watch the R-rated horror film?
Sarah VanHolland, a a licensed professional counselor at Doorways in Phoenix, said it depends whether the parent thinks the child could handle the film or not.
“I think really what it comes down to is once we see something, we can’t really unsee it,” she said. “You expose a child that young to horror content, and their brains really can’t at this age, differentiate between real life and fantasy.”
But, she added, kids these days are “exposed to a significant amount of adult content that seems like it’s outside of what would be developmentally appropriate.”
The material can cause nightmares, sleep issues, anxiety and even stress for some younger children, so VanHolland said parents should ask themselves: Is it worth it?
“Really, it is an R-rated movie, and it has an R rating for a reason,” she said.
