Subject matter can defy film classifications

They serve a good purpose in preventing youngsters from sneaking into the cinema to see something they shouldn’t, but I’m not convinced that those who make these decisions have a great deal of contact with children.

They seem to rate them solely on issues of sex, violence, language and nudity.

But it seems to me that these are criteria that are more geared towards satisfying adult sensibilities than really examining what has a negative impact on a child.

Not long back, my son and I watched a DVD together that had been rated as a 15 by censors. My son’s not quite 11, but I’d watched the film first and I had no problem with him seeing it.

It was rated for a couple instances of violence, but it was a cartoony violence that was stylised, comically portrayed and clearly unrealistic.

I had no fears that it would scare him, be something he’d copy or that he would view is as anything other than TV make believe.

This weekend, I watched another film – this time without him – that was rated PG.

Its rating was because it contained no sex, violence or nudity at all, and the language got no worse than Emma Thompson saying ‘good gracious’ in a snooty tone of voice.

However, it did contain scenes in which a little girl watched her desperate mother driven to the brink of suicide and her father die horribly due to alcoholism.

The only reason I hadn’t blithely put on the DVD trusting that, as a PG, it would be fine for a child my son’s age was that I thought it would probably bore him. I’m very glad he didn’t see it.

It’s only a couple of years since I settled down with him to watch a film adaptation of Pinocchio that had been rated U, only for him end up inconsolable when Pinocchio’s father rejected him for not being a ‘real boy’.

As a parent you do tend to assume a U or PG rating means it will be suitable for little eyes and ears without you needing to watch it first – and by the time you realise your mistake it can be too late to stop the tears.

I know ratings are meant to be a helpful guide but, surely, it’s only common sense that most children are going to be far more traumatised by being faced with a parent’s mortality than they are by a staged fight scene or a swearword that, let’s face it, they’ve already heard in the playground countless times before they get to the grand old age of 15.

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