Are Super Hero Movies Too Violent for Kids?
by Reg Seeton

While dredging the web, I tripped over an interesting response to a letter about how excessively real violence in super hero movies might be having a negative affect on young kids. In it the editor responded to woman who was horrified to see a man and his three young kids at The Dark Knight, followed by his own distress at the number of parents who are taking children to see films that might be beyond their scope. While I don’t spend my days wasting valuable brain space on the sociological impact of super heroes on society, this one did catch my attention. Although the topical question alone made me stop and think for a second, it also made me wonder whether underneath it all is a reflection of our own evolution as a society. Are today’s super heroes bad role models for kids? Have we become even more desensitized to on-screen violence in super hero movies over the years? Or does it say something deeper about us as a collective and what we deem acceptable for children to see with parental guidance? Even with a PG-13 rating, is it okay to take a young kid to see the likes of The Dark Knight? Trust me, if I had the so-called "right" answers I’d have my own daytime talk show.

Given the evolution of film throughout the years within our continuously shape-shifting society, it’s clear that heroes and villains have grown in many different ways. Is Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne the same as the Michael Keaton Bruce Wayne? Of course not, characters and stories change with the times and their writers. It’s not rocket science. Have our tolerance levels evolved? Sure. It’s an organic process. How about fortitude for on-screen violence? Is it for the better, or worse? It’s an interesting question that raises even more.

Now that we’ve seen The Dark Knight and Iron Man, should parents be taking their young kids to guide them through the imagery? After reading the response to the letter, it’s clear that some parents don’t think so despite the film’s PG-13 rating. Are they justified? That’s not for me to say; they’re not my kids. And that’s the high wire juggling act of being a parent. The thing is, though, not all parents juggle the same way. Hell, some don’t even know how to juggle. If you let your kid watch the nightly news yet won’t take them to a movie, how do you explain to them that real aftermath footage of a gangland murder in your own town isn’t worse than a fake murder in a movie? Some parents supervise their children when their kids take to the Internet while others don’t... and we all know what lurks on the open, plains of the web. In that context, what kids can find on the internet makes The Dark Knight look like Sesame Street.

What’s even more interesting is that today’s generation of young kids (13 and under) haven’t known a world without the internet, so the web, and its dark side, are commonplace, easily accessible, and an average component of daily life. That’s unlike the movie theater where the only thing standing in the way of cinematic violence is a ticket girl, a window, and a mic that makes her sound like a sample from a Beck album. I’m not saying what’s right or wrong either. Just think about it for a second.

Let’s be excessively real here, this isn’t anything new. The debate over how on-screen violence might be affecting young kids is currently raging like wildfire in the video game universe, too. Given the amount games, their concepts and storylines, and whopping revenue being generated (even more than the movie industry), parents might have a better case on that side of the fence. But that’s a completely different ballgame with unique dynamics.

But how is any of this different than the violence depicted in comic books? With regard to tolerance levels, I’d bet my entire comic collection (what’s left of it anyway) that most parents give comic books a free pass just because they’re comics. When I was a kid, my father used to bring home three or four comic books every Friday. Since he was small-town old school, he called them "funny books" while I called them comics. That’s what he called them when he was a kid. The “funny” thing was; he didn’t really know what was in the modern comics, which made them even cooler. Comics were for kids and that was the end of it. But none of them turned me into an aggressive ball of gun-toting fury looking to exact my own violent form of justice on my classmates. I can count the number of street fights I’ve been in on one hand. In fact, I took up boxing on my own when I was 16. If anything, since I can’t draw worth crap, comics made me want to become a writer. As for movies, they helped me explore other sides of writing. But that’s just me.

So, are super heroes movies too violent for kids? If a parent won’t take their kid to see The Dark Knight or Iron Man yet they let their boy or girl read the comic book equivalent, how do you separate the good violence from the bad violence? Can you? The answers is, is that there’s no good answer. There’s only the high wire juggling act of being a parent, and not all juggle the same way. Like I mentioned, some don’t even know how to juggle and that’s a bigger problem. What’s acceptable to one parent might not be the same for another. What violence is to one might not be to another. I can almost guarantee that for every two parents who agree, two won’t. Try getting four strong-willed people on the same page and let me know how it turns out when you’re done. I’m not a parent, and in this day and age I’m not sure if I want to be one. If I was a dad, maybe I’d tell the kid to go read a comic book or two while I go check out The Dark Knight... again.