Game of Thrones and 16 year old boy

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slsarahlong

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My oldest son is 16 years old. He just purchased seasons 1-7 of Game of Thrones. I have never watched this show but my 2 brothers are big fans and frequently talk about it. My youngest brother is only 10 years older than my son, and I know my son looks up to him. Even though I have never seen them, I do know that they contain a lot of violence. Since I wasn’t sure what they were all about and my 9 year old son often watches with my older son, I asked my older brother, who has 2 kids, what he thought of them for my boys. He said for sure no to the 9 year old but maybe ok for the 16 year old.

Well last night my son and his friend started season 1. I walked down to tell him his friend needed to go home and caught glimpse of a pretty objectionable sex scene. We have already had to install Covenant Eyes when we found out he was looking at porn. So after stewing on this and talking with my husband, we decided we would reimburse him the cost but that he would have to give the dvds to us.

He was disappointed and then pointed out to me the ratings on the dvds. Seasons 1 and 6 are 16+. I saw a bit of season 1. But seasons 2-5 are 13+, and we do usually allow PG-13 movies. I know you cannot go by ratings alone as apparently the sex scene that I saw was ok for a 16 year old!! But would seasons 2-5 be ok or should I just nix the whole show?
 
Nix the whole show and just get him all the lord of the rings extended editions instead
 
Nix the show. I have heard nothing but negative things from a Catholic morality perspective.
Buy him the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit if he likes fantasy- Good movies, with strong, orthodox undertones.
 
Band of brothers is a good show. There’s only one sex scene in the last episode. As far as violence is concerned I think historical violence is okay. People ought to see the reality of war
 
It only gets worse! If only that one (yes, there’s more) incident of incest was the worst of it! 😫 😱 🔥

Seriously, it’s best to nix it now.
 
I would like to thank you for caring so much for the soul of your son. I agree with your decision. I’d say nix the whole show, but if he reeeeeaaaaalllly is against it, perhaps view the seasons in question and if anything sexual or otherwise objectionable, then tell him the ratings are too loose and just go with nixing the whole show.
 
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I viewed about two seasons of the series, because my best friend insisted on watching it with me.
Fauken is right. The incest is not the worst of it.

Stand your ground. You do not want your children watching this show.
 
It is definitely not appropriate for younger children. There is definitely unnecessary and overt sexual material (in later seasons they seem to be front heavy on the nudity/sex to hook viewers and then mostly taper off in later episodes). The show is more than just sex and nudity, but there are higher levels of explicit material because the producers were literally pushing the writers to add more in to keep T&A watchers going. Hearing the writers talk about the T&A quota was painful…

Sixteen or seventeen is still beneath the age of majority and I think you’d be justified to withhold the material, whether buying it off him or telling him he can have it back when he’s older. That said, he may just find it elsewhere. It depends on how mature you think he is, why he’s watching it, etc…

IMO the serious narrative parts of the show drop in quality in the later seasons anyway.
 
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I agree with the rest. The sex scenes seem to lessen slightly after the first couple seasons, but there are still plenty. The violence and foul language are in every episode. I am a fan of the overall story, the quest for the crown, the history of the great houses, banding together to face a common enemy, everyone having different motives, etc. and have been reading the books as well, but I will not show it to my kids ever.
 
Uhhh, it is about fictional places/times, none of them are Vikings.
 
I’m a huge fan of the show, and not a parent, but at 16 that shows probably inappropriate.
 
My husband and I have watched it using VidAngel to filter out explicit content and actually really enjoyed it. It’s a shame because the gratuitous stuff really detracts from a very compelling, interesting story and characters, although it’s still bleak and I think it’s entirely appropriate to tell a minor no, even once you take away the sex scenes and the worst of the violence. It’s a rough and dark story.
 
Your son is 16. He knows all about sex, as most kids his age do. By restricting the movie, you are just going to instill in him a greater desire to watch it. He will find away around your restrictions, and watch it without you weighing in on the objectionable parts. It is considered a mainstream piece of entertainment by today’s standards, so I will offer a suggestion. Let him watch it but only if you watch with him. The last thing a 16 year old wants is to watch sex scenes with his parents. That may put a stop to it right there. But if not, then you can weigh in on what you watched and have some good dialog about what he thinks about it and what you think about it. He is past the age of you preventing him from seeing the world and all of the objectionable things in it. I used to watch Teen Mom with my daughter when she was about 15. Talk about trash tv. But we had the best conversations about what the show portrayed and what our value system was related to issues presented in the show. We never would have had such good discussions by reading about morals from a book or based on a homily in church. Be there for your son.
 
Lord of the Rings is very violent, albeit mostly against non-human evil beings. Human beings do die violently, though.
 
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Good point, if this kid has $150 disposable income to drop on DVDs, he likely has a way to watch these without mom and dad ever knowing.
 
TheLittleLady said:
Good point, if this kid has $150 disposable income to drop on DVDs, he likely has a way to watch these without mom and dad ever knowing.
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Yep. Even without the disposable income, they always find another way.
 
Take them away but find a way to redirect his attention, otherwise sure he will find a way to watch them.
 
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