- 1). Make sure that you know the child and the child's parents fairly well to get a good idea of their expectations in a movie. The child's age, personal interests and background are all relevant to this decision, as are the parent's rules about movie viewing.
- 2). Familiarize yourself with the Motion Picture Association of America's movie rating system. Though this rating system is not necessarily the best standard and is considered problematic for its subjective nature, it is a very good starting point. For example, if a movie is rated R, it is almost certainly not appropriate and can be ruled out. The more ambiguous PG and PG-13 ratings should be evaluated further.
- 3). Check if anyone you know and trust has seen the movie or had good or bad experiences with showing it to children. This can save you the time if the other person has had a particularly good or bad experience. Keep in mind, however, that other's standards could differ from yours, so discuss their opinion further.
- 4). View the movie for yourself. This is the best way of evaluating a movie's appropriateness for children, though it can be time consuming and can be avoided for obvious cases or if others have already seen it and can speak to its appropriateness. Viewing the movie itself may only be necessary for movies on which you could find little information.
- 5). Consider how appropriate and enjoyable the movie will be for the child or children who may be seeing it. Think about how all situations could be taken, and evaluate the example set by the various characters. Children are impressionable, and according to Articlesbase.com, children can copy characters' traits with little prompting, so take this into consideration.
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