Every “what age” guide rests on a systematic reading of the whole work, scene by scene, with the same criteria for every title. Not the trailer, not the press, not other parents' opinions. Here is what we look at, how the age is decided, and what we refuse to do.
What we look at
A work is read in full, every episode included. For each fact we note whether it is shown or only said, how long it lasts and how insistently it returns. Facts fall into six families, plus a seventh for what the work brings.
- What frightens: frightening imagery, jump scares, darkness and tense sound, creatures, the supernatural.
- What hurts: danger, chases, fights, weapons, blood and injuries, deaths, cruelty, disasters, sexual violence.
- Intimacy: kissing, nudity, sex scenes suggested or shown, innuendo. Consent draws the line: a scene endured is not intimacy, it is sexual violence, filed with what hurts, and a person always makes that call.
- Words: swearing, insults, discriminatory remarks, toilet humor.
- Substances: alcohol, smoking, drugs, gambling.
- What weighs: abandonment, grief, parents separating, illness, mockery, injustice, and how it ends; and what matters in the teenage years: suicidal thoughts, self-harm, eating disorders, mental distress, online harassment and exposure.
- What the work brings: humor, wonder, a role model, something learned, a discovery, and the question a family talks about afterwards.
The guide shows these facts, with their intensity, without telling the story.
How the age is decided
- The official rating first: in the US, the MPAA rating of a movie or the TV rating of a series; in France, the visa granted by the CNC for a theatrical release. We never go below it. A platform's own label is not an official rating: there, our reading decides alone.
- Above it, only with a written reason: when the reading gives a higher age than the rating, the guide says why, and names the scene without telling it.
- One age per work: for a series, the guide also gives a reading per season, because seasons differ; it is a reading, the age stays the work's.
- Two ages: the US and France do not have the same rules; the guide gives both, and yours first.
- Alone, or with a parent: each guide separates the age at which a child can watch alone from the age at which an adult beside them, or a conversation afterwards, changes everything.
What we do not do
- No spoilers: scenes are named, never told.
- No copying: we take neither the ratings nor the texts of any other reference.
- No opinion on quality: the guide says what is in the work, not whether it is good.
- No guide written after a screening: a viewer's memory is too subjective; we wait until we can read the whole work.
- No half guides: a work is read in full, or has no guide.
The sweet spot
The “from” age says when a child can watch without being harmed. The sweet spot says something else: the age at which the film gives the most. It is often higher, sometimes by a lot, and it shows on the guide's age strip. Three things decide it:
- Understanding: the story can be followed without explanation. Jumps in time land around 7-9, hidden intentions around 9-11, irony and dilemmas around 11-13, heroes who are not good around 13-15, films that refuse to console after 15.
- Carrying: what the film makes you feel can be held and talked about afterwards, not merely endured. Fear changes nature with age: monsters before 7, what could really happen from 8 to 12, ideas in adolescence; sadness follows the same path.
- Meeting: the question the film asks meets the one the child is asking: friendship around 8-11, justice around 9-12, who I am around 11-14, love around 13-16, freedom against rules around 14-17, meaning and death after 15.
Some films have two sweet spots, because you do not see the same thing at 7 and at 15: the guide says so, and it is a good reason to watch them again, or to discover them as a grown-up. The sweet spot is neither a maximum nor an instruction to wait: a child who asks for a film can watch it from the “from” age, and an older viewer can find plenty in a film for little ones.
Who validates, and how to correct
A person reads every guide before publication. They can raise the age when a scene calls for it, never lower it, and their reason is written on the guide.
If an age looks wrong to you, or you know a scene the guide leaves out, write to us: we read again, and the guide is corrected if you are right.
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