Should Children Be Allowed to Consume Horror Content?

By Ana Perez, 11th grade.

In light of the release of the highly anticipated horror movie Five Nights at Freddy’s, many parents wonder: should children be able to consume horror franchises?

In light of the release of the highly anticipated horror movie Five Nights at Freddy’s, many parents wonder at what age should their children start consuming horror franchises. For the uninformed, Five Nights at Freddy’s is an indie horror video game franchise that rose to instant popularity after the first game in 2014, quickly amassing a fan base mostly composed of 7 – 17 year olds. Yet, parents wonder if their children should be allowed to consume a horror franchise that contains child murders, possession, and walking corpses.

Whether a child should watch a horror movie or not has been a longstanding debate; some believe that this builds resilience in a child, while others believe that this overwhelms them with fear. Yet, some consider that the case with Five Nights at Freddy’s is different. The series is not outright gorey, as is the case with popular slasher films such as Halloween or Nightmare on Elm Street. But, the series does contain elements that would not typically be considered appropriate for a child audience. For example, the main plot of the first three games and the movie is centered around five children being murdered in the pizzeria and having their corpses stuffed inside animatronic suits. The virtual reality entry of the series Help Wanted has hidden tapes in which it is detailed how a man was driven to insanity by a computer virus, to the point where he cut his own face off with a knife. And, the third entry in the series features a man being slowly crushed to death while inside a springlock suit. Thus, the question arises: can children handle this? Most Five Nights at Freddy’s fans got into the series at a young age, when they were around 8 – 13 years old, and thus, have been exposed to these gorey details for years.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has conducted extensive studies on how the portrayal of violence affects children below the age of twelve. These studies have linked violent media with child aggression, desensitization to violence, nightmares, and fear of being harmed. Early exposure to violent media content has been shown to increase the risk of violent behavior. It has also been linked to sleep deprivation as a result of nightmares or spending hours of their time playing video games. This is not to say that violent video games are directly linked to violence and that they should be banned. One should not blame video games for extreme cases of violence. But, it does go to show that extreme and unregulated exposure to media violence at a young age can have harmful effects on children.

Another issue that arises is the lack of attention that parents give to the content their children are watching. Many children are left to entertain themselves with tablets, phones, or computers, and the content that they consume is not regulated by parents in the slightest. The internet is a vast place, and children can stumble upon not-safe-for-work material. A responsible parent should make sure that what their child is consuming is age-appropriate.

It is important to note that the most horrific elements in these mascot horror games such as Five Nights at Freddy’s and Bendy and the Ink Machine tend to be kept relatively well-hidden, making it so that children can have a pleasant experience. But, parents should filter the content that their children are into, so that they to not experience any harmful side effects related to inappropriate media.

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