Image Credit: Everett CollectionMy parents did not want me to watch R movies. When my big brother watched Friday the 13th Part VI, I was forcefully ejected from the room and had to interpret the death scenes by listening through a closed door. My mother still hasn’t forgiven me for conning her into chaperoning my friends and I into a screening of Go, Doug Liman’s drugs-n’-sex youth opera. (I convinced her it was a quality film with a little help from EW’s rave review; thanks, Owen!) Turns out, my parents might have had the right idea – a new study of 3,600 middle schoolers concludes that watching R-rated films leads to underage drinking.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. This proves that watching R-rated movies will make you cooler. This validates MPAA’s always-controversial rating system. Kids learn bad habits from R-rated movies; hence, kids shouldn’t watch R-rated movies. I’m a little bit skeptical. For one thing, the study doesn’t seem to take into account the fact that not all R-rated movies are created equal. Just a shot in the dark, but I’m guessing that children will react differently to Van Wilder than they will to In the Bedroom.
Far more troubling, I think, is the concept which seems to hover over this study: that kids should not be subjected to adult themes. Dr. James D. Sargent, one of the authors of the study, notes, “We think seeing the adult content actually changes their personality.” Is that necessarily a bad thing? There’s plenty of drinking and smoking in Schindler’s List, but you could certainly argue that movies like that have a deeper, more worthwhile resonance. (One doubts even the most hormone-imbalanced middle schooler could walk out of Requiem for a Dream with a hankering for heroin.)
Then again, I’m a childless snark-merchant, who plans to teach my theoretical future children everything they need to know about life by playing There Will Be Blood on repeat in front of their crib. What do you think, PopWatchers? Does this study prove that kids shouldn’t watch R-rated movies, or that parents should just be more judicious in what kind of R movies they let kids see?
I think that’s true. The first R rated movie I saw was Color Purple and I was only 7. I can still remember asking my mother for a shot of tequila after watching that.
i thought the color purple was pg-13
Yup its PG13
Requiem for a dream should be taught in schools- i dare anyone want to try heroin after seeing That movie.
I agree. At the very least, certain scenes from that film should be watched in Health class. Even if it’s not all accurate (i.e. the amputation scene), it will scare the living daylights out of anyone.
That movie actually was shown at my high school in a drugs & alcohol class- which was not a required class they put troublemakers in or anything, it was an elective. It was a really good class, & watching that movie & other documentaries on heroin definitely left an impression.
Forget heroin.
“Requiem” is so harrowing, I didn’t even want to go to orgies anymore after watching it.
hahahha! lucky for me- the a-to-a scene made me join!
Ah, yes…
“A-to-A” guy is in the Hall of Fame of movie characters who only have one line in a movie and yet have made a lasting impression on cinema. (Rob Reiner’s mom in “When Harry Met Sally” went in on the first ballot, in case you’re wondering.)
I feel like Requiem would be a lot more effective than the Scott Baio- starring anti-drinking video we had to watch.
Wow. What was that video called? “Scott Baio is 17 and Buzzed”?
The better question is: would it be less traumatic than the tv movie about date rape where Zack Morris plays the rapist?
“The Basketball Diaries” with Leonardo DiCaprio is what did it for me…. that movie kept my a** away from coke and heroin.
My older brother made me watch Requiem the summer before high school. I’ve never been more terrified by a movie, but I do have to say I’m 24 now and have never tried drugs. That movie is why.
Its a shame to see the lack of parenting i work at a movie theatre n small children young as 5 and teens watching “R” without any regard is a shame. especially when their guardians are infuriated by theatre n mpaa policy enforcement its not films responsibility to parent but “R” films are extremely influential its called common sense
Isn’t already common sense that repeated exposure to certain things leads to desensitization.
For the record, I think there are certain R rated movies that no one should watch.
I looked it up on imdb and La Vie en Rose is rated PG-13, not R.
I do not know how old I was when I watched my first R rated movie, but I never want to drink an alcohol in my life. I love watching James Bond movies and I have seen them so many times, and in each movie he drinks A LOT, but never do I want to have a vodka martini. I do make my own fake martinis with 7-Up, but watching movies with alcohol do not make me want to drink. So I don’t agree with this statistic, but that might be because I am not like a normal person that wants to drink.
I am 20 years old, I have seen many R rated movies and I have never had a drink of alcohol and I don’t plan on having any alcohol in the future.
Not me. When I re-watch Dazed & Confused, I need me some beer. Sideways? A glass of wine is a must. Gotta have my White Russian when Lebowski is on. And Avatar makes me crave pretty much anything and everything (but that’s just to make the experience tolerable).
I agree with you Rebecca. i love movies, watch just about anything regardless of rating and have never had alcohol.
Where do live ,on the prarie there’s nothing wrong with alcohol as long as you use it responsibly!!!
I did watch R-rated movies way before I turned 18, I also drank before I turned 21 however they don’t go hand in hand. The reason for underage drinking was the fact that I grew up in a small country town where there was literally nothing else to do besides find a little bit of trouble…
I disagree – I think it starts earlier w/ viewing some of the (PG-13) video game-based movies.
Try making it to the credits of Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li without a beer buzz. Can’t be done.
Maybe it’s the “breaking the rules” factor that links them, not that one leads to the other.
This just demonstrates how as always there are kids who will be interested in breaking rules and doing things they’re not allowed. Just because this rule-breaking category includes drinking and watching adult movies does not mean they’re directly correlated in one behavior causing the other. The connection is uncorrelated, and flimsy science.
Perhaps the concern is more to “shock” people or validate an subjective, arcane system than bring about any true enlightenment.
Correlation doesn’t necessarily equal causation- just because kids who watch rated-R movies are more prevalent to underage drinking doesn’t mean that watching those movies is causing the drinking; there could be some sort of underlying factor related to both, like lack of parental supervision or involvement in the kid’s life.
Thank you! Only a couple people have noticed that the scientists involved are confusing correlation and causation, which is probably THE most basic concept in statistics. Okay, so more kids who were allowed to see R-rated movies drank. That doesn’t mean that the act of seeing R-rated movies will MAKE your children any more likely to drink. It seems more likely to me that the same thing leading kids to see R-rated movies is what’s also leading them to drink: lax parenting, the kids being spoiled, a more aggressive personality that can wheedle things out of parents and gravitate towards risky behaviors like drinking….there’s so many confounding variables. My assessment of what the take-home message ought to be is NOT “don’t let your kids see R-rated movies” but should in fact be more along the lines of “Don’t try to be a friend to your kids; be a somewhat strict parent.”
Every kid is different. It is up to PARENTS to do the PARENTING!!
Shocker, huh?
Amen! As a kid, anything that my mother deemed above my head (and in some cases, this included soap operas) was strictly forbidden. And boy, did she enforce this!
But Darren’s point is correct — not all R-rated films are built the same way. For every Saw, there’s a Schindler’s List. When my mother finally decided that I was ready to see R-rated films, it was always the latter rather than the former.
I know that given the demands on today’s parents it’s certainly easier said than done, but if there are certain things you don’t want your kid exposed to, you have to do everything you possibly can to shield them and educate them.
I think it’s up to the parents to step up to the plate and be judicious about what their kids are watching, and talk things over with their kids afterward. It’s so easy to blame the media all the time, when really a little less lazy parenting can go a long wayl
I drink your milkshake!
Interesting study. I watched my first R-rated film when I was 13, it was Goodfellas by the way, and yet I didn’t have an alcoholic drink until I was 17, coincidentally the age that one is allowed to watch restricted films without a guardian. So how would scientists explain that?
Anthony 17 is underrage. You just prooved the scientists point. I watched my first rated R movie when I was 6 or 7 (Commando!) and I waited til I was 21, everyone talking about parenting is right. That’s the difference.
Oh please, in Europe the minimum drinking age is 18, and we’re certainly not doing any better than them. Perhaps parents should also educate their kids about responsible drinking, then maybe we’d have fewer alcoholics and drunk drivers. Never having a sip of alcohol until you’re 21 won’t necessarily prevent you from abusing the stuff. Have we learned nothing from the failure of Prohibition?