How young is too young to watch Stranger Things (M with a content warning)? What do you tell a 16-year-old who wants to watch Euphoria (R18 so actually illegal for those 17 and under)? To make informed decisions about safe family viewing, parents should take into account not only ratings and content warnings but also their child's individual sensitivities, says Kate Whitaker from New Zealand's Classification Office.

How young is too young to watch Stranger Things (M with a content warning)?

What do you tell a 16-year-old who wants to watch Euphoria? (R18 so actually illegal for those 17 and under)?

To make informed decisions about safe family viewing, parents should take into account not only ratings and content warnings but also their child's individual sensitivities, says Kate Whitaker from New Zealand's Classification Office.

Listen to the interview

The Classification Office website has information about how ratings are assigned, how parents can decide whether the content is right for their child and how to use parental controls. Their Find a Rating tool has information about thousands of movies, TV shows and video games.

In New Zealand, the content classifications are G (for general audiences), PG (parental guidance recommended, M (recommended for mature audiences 16 years and over), R16 and R18 (legal only for viewing by people these ages and over) and also a unique rating RP13, RP16 and RP18 (not recommended for those under these ages unless accompanied by an adult).

Different children can have very different reactions to the same content, Whitaker says, and the breadth of content given a PG rating in particular makes this classification "a very tricky one" for parents to navigate, Whitaker says.

Recently, her office heard from a 12-year-old boy who went to see the PG-rated Kung Fu Panda 2 with his grandparents and the trailer for another PG-rated film (Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire) gave him and his younger brother nightmares.

To support a child faced with something that they find disturbing, Whitaker recommends using practical strategies. Hitting the 'mute' button on behalf of her "highly sensitive" four-year-old is her own first move.

"Or she blocks her ears when something scary happens because once you take away that sound, it takes away that 'scare factor'. We then tell her she can close her eyes. She could leave the room and or we could fast-forward."

As teenagers sometimes love to scare their younger siblings with sensitive content, it's important families have frequent conversations about appropriate viewing together, she says…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details