Exposing children to B5.

[NotKosh]

At what age do you think a child would have to be, to watch B5?

The things I would find distressing would be

Torture of G'kar/G'kar's eye removal, the keepers and the Inquisition of Delenn and Sheridan.

Any thoughts?

[Spoo Junky]

I guess it would depend on the kid. I used to watch the original Star Trek and took it at face value. It wasn't until later that I clued into some of the deeper meanings. With G'Kar and his eye, you hear him screaming, but you don't see it happen, just the after-effects (bandage). As an adult, it freaks me out more because I can visualize what you don't see better than a young kid could.

For me as a kid, though, blood was the thing that made me toss cookies in the air. My parents told me it was just ketchup, which is why I didn't like the stuff for many years. I would probably be most upset when Franklin got stabbed at the end of his walkabout.

Of course, kids are much more sophisticated than in years past, with stuff on tv and in movies.

Since I don't have kids, I can just go by what I would take it as back then.

[spikey thing]

Fortunately my Son who has just turned 12 years old has grown up with B5 - and loves it. He is just fascinated by the story.

He still likes to grab a season on dvd from my collection and watch it. In fact he probably knows as much about B5 as I do.

[Dr Maturin]

I've been watching B5 with my son present since he was born.

I'm not one to hide reality from my own kids. You mentioned the Franklin stabbing. My son happened to see it once and he asked me, "What happened to him?" I responded that there are bad people in this world and they'll do that kind of thing to you if you're not careful.

I won't watch The Shield with my son present, though...

[Jan]

I'm childless, too but that's never kept me from having an opinion. As Spoo Junky said, it would depend on the child but my parent's philosophy was that if something was beyond my understanding, I'd get bored quickly and simply not read or watch any more of whatever the thing was. Thanks to that philosophy, I was allowed to try to read *anything* I wanted from the library. As for TV, I had to watch whatever my Dad was watching whether I wanted to or not.

I think it must be a fine line that parents have to find between being protective to the point children have an unrealistic impression of the world and being so realistic that the poor kid's traumatized. I don't envy them the decisions they have to make.

Jan

[Towelmaster]

Exposing children to B5?

Yes please!

[Citizen Vantu]

At what age do you think a child would have to be, to watch B5?

The things I would find distressing would be

Torture of G'kar/G'kar's eye removal, the keepers and the Inquisition of Delenn and Sheridan.

Any thoughts?

Evertying with murder dead kill, should be avoided; oh you should give your childeren fly-swatters so when the see the Shadows for the first time; you can shout; "oh my that is a nasty bug; KILL IT"

Victor

[The_One]

Well, I was a child myself when B5 first aired. I loved it, and essentially grew up on it. I never had any problems as far as I can recall - although Acts of Sacrifice proved to be rather conflicting with my sex education!

[Vickster]

Well, I was a child myself when B5 first aired. I loved it, and essentially grew up on it. I never had any problems as far as I can recall - although Acts of Sacrifice proved to be rather conflicting with my sex education!

As was I... I was around six years old when it first aired... granted, I didn't take away as much of the meaning when I was that age, heh he.. But it was fun, and I never had a problem with violence or anything like that.

Of course, it wasn't until I was older that I really began to appreciate the characters and the wonderful story arc.

[Andrew_Swallow]

Many Babylon 5 episodes were given a "12" classification by the British film censor. (12 = US PG-13)

As well as violence there is a lot of off scene sex. Practically every episode has a bed in it, frequently with 2 unmarried people in the bed. Some of the themes are very grown up, for instance Talia's second personality was used as a way of talking about madness.

[Arconin]

I don't have any children yet but plan on it within a couple years. I would say that it really really depends on the maturity of the child. Some could probably handle some of the material by ten years old perhaps skipping some of the more violent episodes or sexual innuendo and focusing on the major arc episodes. Though I would not really consider showing an average child the whole series until they were at least twelve or older.

That being said, I remember I used to watch a lot of what I would now consider strong material when I was 8 or 9 even, stuff stronger than B5...so maybe im just a little overly cautious as I get closer to fatherhood.

[Dr Maturin]

Heh, my son just asked me to put on B5 while we eat pizza. He's four.

[Jan]

Who's his favorite character, ZD? Or does he just like space battles?

Jan

[Towelmaster]

Let's face it : as long as you can still see the most gruesome crimes on the news, as long as the images of people dying around the world are still available to anyone, even to very young people, I don't see the necessity to hide B5 from view. It is - at the most - a weak reflection of what goes on in this world.

But of course I have to fully admit that I do not have kids...

[Dr Maturin]

Who's his favorite character, ZD? Or does he just like space battles?

I actually asked him in the car tonight and he answered, "The guy with one eye." I knew it couldn't have been G'Kar, so I asked him for more information. He said that the character looks like Darth Vader.

Apparently, my son's favorite character is Kosh.