When a new movie, book, app, or video game comes out, there is always a lot of hoopla about it amongst our kids wanting to see it, read it, or play it. My husband and I are not against out kids watching TV or playing video games, BUT we do care about what it is they are watching or playing. It can seem like an impossible task to preview and rate all the new raves they would like to see or play, just down right daunting because of the time it would take.
The easy thing to do would be to just give in and let them watch or play whatever, right? BUT we don’t want to! My husband decided he would do some research and figure out how to make this job easier, and he found a wonderful gem. It is a website called Common Sense Media. It is so easy to use and pretty much the most accurate website review system we’ve found for families.
They give detailed reviews on movies, books, apps, video games, TV shows, and websites. They offer great information in a lot of categories for each of these media avenues.
Just this past week, we rented Peter Rabbit on Redbox for our family to watch. (Very cute movie, by the way) I want to use this movie as an example of how Common Sense Media can help you decide what is good or not good for your family to watch. I will walk you step by step through the review process Common Sense offers so you can see how great this website is.
After you have selected the media item that you want to review, you are given an overview of what Common Sense deems as an appropriate age for the movie (in this case). They also provide a few words to summarize what type of movie they feel like it is, as well as the ratings. Parents and kids also have rated the movie and they post those for you to read.
My favorite part of the review is the category breakdown. Common Sense gives you a breakdown and rating for different “issues” that might be important factors you want to know about before allowing your children to watch the movie (or read, or play, or view).
Within these categories they give very detailed information about exactly what you will hear, see, or experience. For example, the “language” category in “Peter Rabbit” tells me exactly what hot-button words my children will hear while watching, giving me the opportunity to decide if I want them exposed to those words or not.
The next section is very beneficial to parents because Common Sense gives a review of the movie geared towards what parents will be looking for, for their kids. The parent review is a synopsis, but also hits on any potential problematic scenes that could cause an issue. It is not your typical review or overview, but rather pinpoints inappropriate or undesirable scenes and storylines. 
After the parent review, Common Sense gives a true (traditional) overview of the storyline. They summarize the story and who plays what character. This is also very helpful in case there are actors or actresses that you don’t fell comfortable allowing your children to watch. 
Everyone enjoys a good review and in the next section Common Sense gives you their two-cents on how they feel about the movie. Their reviews are a good way to see if they deem the movie worth watching (or book worth reading, etc).
This next section is something you don’t see every day. Common Sense offers “talking points” that you can share with your children before or after viewing the movie (or reading the book). I think it is a great thing to talk to your kids about what they are thinking and what they are feeling about any media they’ve encountered and this section makes it easy to do so.
The last section covers the details such as cast, when it debuted, and so on. 
My husband and I always turn to Common Sense Media before we watch a movie with our kids or before we allow them to experience other media sources. I feel like it is such a valuable resource for us and helps us make an educated decision, instead of leading our kids blindly into something that would be bad for them to encounter.
I hope this resource will be a help to you as well. I’d love to hear your experiences, will you send me a comment and share.
