Movie theaters have created procedures or "rules", if you will, throughout the years that are intended to protect young children from watching inappropriate and restricted films. However, I questioned this regulation this weekend after my experience at the movie theater while watching Deadpool 2. This past Friday, as I waited in line to purchase my ticket, I overheard and saw some commotion between the ticket saleswoman and a few male teenagers. The issue, from what I understood and heard, was that most of the boys were 17 years or older, but two of them were only 15 years old. Granted, Deadpool 2 is a Rated R movie, which by definition means only 17 years old are allowed to purchase their individual tickets without the accompaniment of a parent or guardian. This being said, the two 15-year-old boys were forced to sit and wait outside of the theater while their friends went to watch the virally spoken of and popular movie of the month.

I found this situation pretty unfair since they were just boys trying to enjoy a good movie on a Friday night with their friends. But I found the situation absolutely ridiculous after I entered the theater; seats loaded with children that looked younger than seven years old were seated next to their parents simply munching away on the huge bags of buttered popcorn. I was honestly shocked and feeling pretty bad for the two boys outside. I began to question the regulation because thinking about it, the regulation stands there in hopes to protect young kids from gruesome, fictional realities of the world. But how is it that a 15-year-old cannot enter the theater but a 7-year-old can simply because of the permission of an adult? Better yet, how is it that a 7-year-old is even allowed to watch scenes consisted of outbursts of blood, men getting run over by trucks, cabinets falling and decapitating heads, and a man getting ripped in half with someone's own hands?

These young children just sat there and watched the movie with no need to look away from the repulsiveness. Now don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of Deadpool, but even I find that some of the scenes can be a bit exaggerated and gross (although I guess that's the whole point to it). My point though is that clearly, violence has become so sensitized in our society today that young children don't get uncomfortable from these images on the screen. In fact, they find that violence and the horrors of it all, is indeed normal but in reality, it is not. If children at the age of seven think that these movies are entertaining and do not understand the fictional aspect of it, can you imagine how they are going to grow up to think? I know, I may be sounding a bit overdramatic but I don't think the regulation is right in this case. Plus, the humor that accompanies the film is completely inappropriate for these children. I don't even think children at the age of seven would even understand half of the perverted jokes that are made in the film. All in all, I do think the regulation needs to be adjusted; either 15 years old should be permitted to enter the theater and watch Rated R movies without the needs of their parent's presence OR no child under 17 should watch these movies at all.