Not allowed to watch certain TV shows as a child

[SciFiSam]

@Staggerlee

[UK, 1980s] My parents considered ITV (commercial TV) children’s programming to be too lowbrow, so only the BBC was really allowed.

My GF, my ex-GF and another ex-GF were all banned from watching ITV too, so it seems to be a middle-class thing. Though going on what parenting friends of my own age have said it’s more to do with avoiding adverts than avoiding the TV shows themselves.

I banned my daughter from watching Family Guy even though some of her friends watched it. She was old enough for me to explain that I didn’t actually like watching it myself (I watched it for work) because even though it was sometimes funny there’d be the occasional rape or sexual assault that was supposed to be funny. She came to me a couple of years later, having watched the show in streaming on her computer at the age of fifteen or so, and said yeah, that show’s pretty horrible.

I also banned her from watching season 3 (I think - could be 4) of Buffy or above because there was too much sex in it. I know some people disagree, but a certain amount of violence in shows I can accept with kids, especially if the violence is somewhat realistic, because violence happens in real life for all kids (even just pushing over in the playground), but sex should be saved for later - much later.

Also, we watched Buffy together and for certain sex scenes in Buffy I’d feel uncomfortable watching them with my kid.

[TheFaerie]

@Broomstick

During the Vietnam war my parents would not let me watch the evening news. They thought a child as young as I was should not be seeing that level of violence, especially not violence done to real people.

They were correct, I think.

They let me watch almost anything else, (snip)

This. Mom didn’t let us watch Love, American Style or Benny Hill either because they were too grown-up for us (plus they were on past our bedtime). Otherwise, there wasn’t much she wouldn’t let us watch. She even let us watch Saturday Night Live. We didn’t get cable until 1980 or so and I was a pre-teen by then.

[WhyNot]

@SciFiSam

I also banned her from watching season 3 (I think - could be 4) of Buffy or above because there was too much sex in it. I know some people disagree, but a certain amount of violence in shows I can accept with kids, especially if the violence is somewhat realistic, because violence happens in real life for all kids (even just pushing over in the playground), but sex should be saved for later - much later.

Also, we watched Buffy together and for certain sex scenes in Buffy I’d feel uncomfortable watching them with my kid.

Funny, I similarly banned - or rather, time delayed and made an episode by episode decision - about Buffy Season 6; the one with the mutually destructive relationship between Buffy and Spike.

I’m okay with the cartoonish violence that marked most of the show. I’m okay with depictions of sex in the context of loving, if angsty, relationships. I’m not okay with the disturbing crossover of sex and violence with a hefty dose of self-loathing that marked that season. Not for kids.