Age Appropriate Content

[InbetweenDreams]

I wish more people talked to me about being gay as a kid. Would have made things a lot easier and for me to feel comfortable with being so a lot earlier in life than I ended up doing. I like Bernd's sentiment, if they are old enough to be asking the question then we shouldn't be "shielding" them from the answer. 

Exactly. Unfortunately, I learned quite a bit watching "There's Something About Mary." I mean I wish that was a lie. Sex in general is a taboo subject and I think it explains much of the sentiment towards LGBTQ+ from straight people. Because sex is already taboo in nature (shhh, we don't talk about that in public), I think it becomes even more so when we're talking about gay sex.

But getting back to if kids are ready to have answers to the questions they ask. I think that is probably true in most instances, you can answer questions now, or they can find out from friends, the internet, watching "There's Something About Mary" or whatever. In the case for say a 3 year old asking tough questions, such as questions about war and nukes, well that is interesting. In one hand we don't want to turn a 3 year old into cynic, but also don't want to lie telling them everything is sunshine and rainbows either. You can get away with things like the tooth fairy or Santa Claus (Father Christmas in the UK, I just learned that not long ago) probably.

The other thing is should TV programs do the work of the parents, if so, to what extent? Since some people are all shook up about Blues Clues and some of the programming on YouTube.