Dear Parents,
It has recently come to our attention that some of our children have been allowed to watch an MA15+ horror movie called ‘IT’ while other children have been exposed to the content, via older brothers and sisters. Quite disturbingly, some of these children are as young as 8 and 9 years old.
The film is apparently about a group of bullied kids who band together, while a demon, taking the appearance of a clown, begins hunting down children.
Quite clearly this movie (and other movies with this rating) are simply inappropriate for primary aged children (and low teens) to watch.
We are deeply concerned about the lack of parent judgment in relation to this matter.
The flow on issue for us as a school, is that children are coming to class and the playground, talking about very scary and confronting aspects of the movie, which are unsettling and distressing to those children it is being shared with.
Once aware of this, we have of course shut these conversations down quickly and explained why they are inappropriate and not allowed, however for this situation to really resolve itself, we need all parents to do do some serious thinking about the choices being made at home.
Advisory categories for films and computer games
Three classification categories are advisory categories. This means there are no legal restrictions about viewing and/or playing these films and computer games with these markings.
Restricted categories for films and computer games
The following classification categories are restricted categories. This means there are legal restrictions on viewing and/or playing these films and computer games.
Please find below a very good article dealing with children and media viewing in general and we ask that you read it and consider auditing your family viewing choices with the big picture in mind.
You may recall us raising a similar issue a couple of years ago with a computer game involving a very dark character called ‘Slenderman”. Some parents supported each other by ensuring they were all ‘on the same page’ in regard to not allowing the game to be played at one another’s homes. When parents take a stand and restate their values and their desire to create and maintain a safe space for all children, it is a powerful message.
As we have said many times – ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ and the school is part of the village. We trust that you will support us in protecting children from unnecessary harm.
