It must be so complex trying to decide how to rate a film. I would love to know what percentage of families take note of the ratings when it comes to seeing movies at home. In our case we tried, but sometimes it was like swimming up a waterfall, the higher ratings only making the film more tempting to any youngsters we thought we might have had a chance of influencing.
Was I grateful for the ratings? Yes, although some of them left me completely baffled, especially when our children were younger and without a television in the house. Like teddy bears at a picnic they’d be looking forward to the movie treat, when suddenly some gory, or tragic, universal ‘U’-rated film, would put them through a whole shock level of trauma that most of their ‘sophisticated’ contemporaries didn’t even register. Makes me laugh now looking back, but I remember the stress then. I think it was probably far worse for me imagining how bad it might be for them, than it actually was for them!
Our parental life had not begun in 1978, but it seems viewing trauma still lingers for those parenting then, and, as if in recognition of the stress suffered, either by parents from that time or by their children, and just in case it happens again, the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has, after 45 years, raised the rating of Watership Down from ‘U’ (suitable for all) to parental guidance (PG).
In the United Kingdom the recently released film Barbie is rated as 12A meaning anyone under twelve should be accompanied by an adult.
Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023
The Phraser 
It is a very interesting subject Georgie. We are all at different levels of maturity as children. I remember first seeing Watership Down at 15 and still remember the sad parts! It was only Disney films in the 70’s for me, but any wicked witch is still quite a scary memory, or the original Cruella Deville. However, the child catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang still lingers!
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It is all so individual. My situation as a child was that the country I grew up in had only one television channel – black and white – between the hours of 6pm and 10pm if I remember right. I remember cinema as a rare treat in my teens, and little else. We had no access to anything fictional that was scary or traumatic, other than word of mouth, as our reality was the problem. Makes me think now that my childhood experience, or lack of experience, probably resulted in my concern for what my own children were exposed to, as my only reference was the straight forward little lives we led dealing with what we actually came across.
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Have to add we did have books, and film nights once a week at my primary school, which was a boarding school. Can’t remember what we watched, apart from the heartache of The Incredible Journey. Our focus then was on any sweets!
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