# Content Creep & the Invisible Influence of What Kids Watch

An episode of [Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1082244480), 29 Mar 2026, 15 min.

Audio: https://mgln.ai/e/187/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/fa326977-3de5-4283-9b8b-af3500c58607/b69b2795-5503-4de1-ac91-af460017906e/a321c1bb-2d6d-4eda-9473-b41500bdc0fc/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=a05f1702-0c0e-4b0f-8014-af460017907c

What your child is watching matters more than you think. From movies to games to social feeds, today’s kids are exposed to more violence and sexual content than ever before - and most parents don’t realise just how much it’s shaping their behaviour, beliefs, and even empathy. In this episode, we unpack eye-opening research on how repeated exposure changes what kids see as “normal”… and why even well-meaning parents slowly lower their guard. If you’ve ever thought, “It’s probably fine” - this conversation might change your mind. KEY POINTS • Why parents gradually become more lenient with screen content • How repeated exposure leads to desensitisation • The powerful truth: seeing is believing for kids • How violent and explicit content reshapes behaviour and empathy • The difference between passive TV and algorithm-driven content • Why ages 6–12 are a critical window for screen habits • The simple safeguards that make the biggest difference QUOTE OF THE EPISODE “Seeing is believing - and what kids see becomes what they believe is normal.” RESOURCES MENTIONED • Common Sense Media (for age-based content reviews) • Parent chat groups / “village” support systems • Happy Families resources & Parenting ADHD course ACTION STEPS FOR PARENTS • Check before you say yes - Look up content before allowing it • Co-watch when you can - Context matters more than control • Delay exposure - Younger brains aren’t ready for adult themes • Avoid algorithm-driven platforms for younger kids • Find your village - Lean on like-minded parents for guidance • Hold your standards - Don’t let gradual desensitisation lower your boundaries See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:05] Speaker 1: Hello, Welcome to the Happy Families Podcast.
[0:08] Speaker 2: What are your children seeing?
[0:09] Speaker 1: What are they watching regardless of their age, Where are
[0:12] Speaker 1: they seeing it? What is showing up in their lives
[0:15] Speaker 1: on their screens? Sex and violence are an all time
[0:19] Speaker 1: high in the movies that our children are watching, the
[0:21] Speaker 1: music that they're hearing, the games that they're playing, and
[0:24] Speaker 1: of course.
[0:25] Speaker 2: Their social media feeds.
[0:26] Speaker 1: If they're over sixteen, and the social media minimum age
[0:28] Speaker 1: legislation is working in your household, things cross it is
[0:32] Speaker 1: and in bad news for moms and dads. A study
[0:34] Speaker 1: published in Pediatrics suggests that it is parents who are
[0:39] Speaker 1: often unknowingly dropping the ball. We're going to talk about
[0:42] Speaker 1: that study, what our children are watching and how we
[0:45] Speaker 1: can make sure that they are seeing age appropriate content
[0:49] Speaker 1: next on the Happy Families Podcast.
[0:51] Speaker 2: Stay with us.
[0:54] Speaker 1: Gooday, Welcome back to the Happy Families Podcast. Real parenting
[0:57] Speaker 1: solutions every single day. This is Australia's mode downloaded parenting podcast.
[1:01] Speaker 1: We are Justin and Kylie Colson and we are so
[1:03] Speaker 1: glad that you have joined us. If you'reknew to the pod, welcome,
[1:06] Speaker 1: thanks for coming along and having a listen. Today Kylie
[1:10] Speaker 1: chat about what the kids are seeing on screens as
[1:13] Speaker 1: they get older, which is kind of where we are
[1:15] Speaker 1: with our teens. It gets so hard to have any
[1:18] Speaker 1: idea at all what's going on.
[1:20] Speaker 3: Well, they're no longer living in our little bubble, the
[1:22] Speaker 3: place where we controlled everything.
[1:24] Speaker 2: I know.
[1:25] Speaker 3: They get to do, They get to see things and
[1:27] Speaker 3: hear things that we would otherwise have never let them. Yeah,
[1:34] Speaker 3: all the time.
[1:35] Speaker 1: So today we're going to talk about primarily our six
[1:37] Speaker 1: to twelve year olds. We're not going to talk about teenagers.
[1:39] Speaker 1: We're talking about our children and our tweins. Ideally kids
[1:45] Speaker 1: that aren't getting too much screen access, and ideally they're
[1:50] Speaker 1: at an age where we have some say in what's
[1:53] Speaker 1: going on, we have some level of interaction. I want
[1:56] Speaker 1: to tell you about a study, this one that was
[1:58] Speaker 1: published in Pediatrics.
[1:59] Speaker 2: It's fascina.
[2:00] Speaker 1: The researchers asked a thousand parents of children between six
[2:05] Speaker 1: and seventeen. Okay, so we're going right up until adulthood
[2:09] Speaker 1: to watch eight movie clips that were randomized in terms
[2:12] Speaker 1: of their order, and each clip contained either sexual content
[2:17] Speaker 1: or violence, and parents were asked what age their children
[2:21] Speaker 1: would have to be before being allowed to watch those scenes.
[2:25] Speaker 1: So this is kind of like when the kids ask
[2:27] Speaker 1: us if they can watch something, and we've only got
[2:30] Speaker 1: a couple of kids that are still doing that because
[2:31] Speaker 1: all of our other children are older. Now we have
[2:33] Speaker 1: four children who are eighteen and above. They don't ask
[2:36] Speaker 1: us very much at all anymore. But this is over
[2:39] Speaker 1: the years when they've said, can I watch this?
[2:40] Speaker 2: Can I watch that?
[2:41] Speaker 1: And we've consistently said, since we don't know what these
[2:44] Speaker 1: shows are, go and check common sense media. There's websites
[2:49] Speaker 1: online where we can find out what's in them.
[2:50] Speaker 3: Well, the great thing is now we have four adult
[2:53] Speaker 3: children who have done all of the market research necessary,
[2:58] Speaker 3: and they actually police the younger siblings. No, no, you
[3:01] Speaker 3: can't watch that to you're at least fourteen.
[3:03] Speaker 1: I wasn't allowed to watch that one until I fifteen.
[3:07] Speaker 3: Yeah, they've kind of made us a bit redundant, to
[3:09] Speaker 3: be honest, they had they they're really big on making
[3:11] Speaker 3: sure that the younger siblings don't get to do anything
[3:13] Speaker 3: too early.
[3:14] Speaker 1: I had a funny experience just before I go back
[3:16] Speaker 1: to this study.
[3:17] Speaker 2: In the last couple of weeks, we.
[3:20] Speaker 1: Were looking for a movie to watch on a quiet
[3:22] Speaker 1: Friday night Saturday night. We were just all exhausted. Everyone, everyone
[3:26] Speaker 1: was like, can we please just watch a movie? And
[3:27] Speaker 1: the kids spent I reckon forty minutes arguing about a
[3:31] Speaker 1: movie to watch.
[3:32] Speaker 3: Well, we need to put this in perspective. We have
[3:35] Speaker 3: an eleven year old sitting on the couch next to
[3:38] Speaker 3: a twenty four year old, like, we're trying to we're
[3:41] Speaker 3: trying to find something that's going to meet a very
[3:45] Speaker 3: varied age span.
[3:48] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[3:48] Speaker 1: So they're going through and then this started to say,
[3:50] Speaker 1: well what about this one? We liked that, And so
[3:52] Speaker 1: they're talking about all the repeats that they could see,
[3:55] Speaker 1: and finally, I don't know who it was, but one
[3:57] Speaker 1: of the kids said, oh, Emily, it's such a shame
[3:59] Speaker 1: that you're.
[3:59] Speaker 2: Not twelve yet.
[4:00] Speaker 1: Like she's a couple of weeks off being twelve. It's
[4:03] Speaker 1: such a shame you're not twelve yet, because we could
[4:04] Speaker 1: watch Pirates of the Caribbean. The rule has always been
[4:07] Speaker 1: if you're Pirates of the Caribbean, it's like a it's
[4:10] Speaker 1: like a rite of passage. You turn twelve, you get
[4:12] Speaker 1: to watch Pirates. What's that other one?
[4:15] Speaker 2: She's the man? How long have they decided you've got
[4:16] Speaker 2: to be for that?
[4:17] Speaker 3: She's twelve? But there's no breaking that rule. She has
[4:20] Speaker 3: to be twelve. The girls are so excited. Birthday night
[4:24] Speaker 3: she will watch it and the whole family will come together.
[4:28] Speaker 2: They are militant about this.
[4:30] Speaker 1: Anyway, they came to me and they said, Dad, Emily
[4:33] Speaker 1: turns two in a couple of weeks, do you think
[4:36] Speaker 1: that we could watch Pirates of the Caribbean.
[4:38] Speaker 2: And I was like, yeah, of course, easy, no problem.
[4:40] Speaker 1: Like once upon a time I cared so much about
[4:42] Speaker 1: this and I'm so much more relaxed about it now,
[4:44] Speaker 1: which is kind of where this study is going. They
[4:46] Speaker 1: watch Pirates of the Caribbean. Emily at the end of
[4:49] Speaker 1: the night.
[4:50] Speaker 3: She's like, this was the best movie ever.
[4:54] Speaker 1: Just going crazy, absolutely loved it. Anyway, I digress. So
[4:58] Speaker 1: the kids are really big on policing what they're simply
[5:00] Speaker 1: can watch. We've used common sense media a lot, but
[5:01] Speaker 1: that's become redundant because the kids have taken over that job.
[5:05] Speaker 2: Here's what happened in the study.
[5:09] Speaker 1: In pediatrics, the first clip of these eight was always
[5:13] Speaker 1: rated as being suitable only for older children. The final
[5:16] Speaker 1: clip was always rated as being appropriate for younger children.
[5:19] Speaker 1: So they kept those two things as sort of anchors.
[5:23] Speaker 1: But then regardless of the order of viewing, parents consistently
[5:30] Speaker 1: reduced their age recommendations as they watched more clips.
[5:34] Speaker 3: So I find this curious because I think that I
[5:38] Speaker 3: would be the same.
[5:39] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think just in.
[5:42] Speaker 3: The small anecdote that we've already shared. Once upon a time,
[5:47] Speaker 3: the thought of my twelve year old watching a whole
[5:50] Speaker 3: heap of skeleton pirates.
[5:53] Speaker 1: Sword fighting, sword fighting, helping people in half and would.
[5:56] Speaker 3: Have been mortifying to me, whereas now, six children later.
[6:03] Speaker 2: Just like, this is fun.
[6:06] Speaker 3: And here's the here's the big question, though, is this
[6:11] Speaker 3: more about temperament of children? Because I'm looking at the
[6:15] Speaker 3: way our almost twelve year old has responded to this movie.
[6:19] Speaker 2: She's cracked up.
[6:20] Speaker 3: I was sitting in my seat and the kids were
[6:24] Speaker 3: in hysterics because I jumped out of my skin a
[6:26] Speaker 3: couple of times. Yeah yeah, And Emily just laughed the
[6:30] Speaker 3: whole way through it. It didn't it didn't impact her.
[6:34] Speaker 3: And it's not because she watches ridiculously violent things like this.
[6:38] Speaker 3: Was this was an extreme case of.
[6:40] Speaker 1: What she would have It was quite an extension on
[6:42] Speaker 1: anything that we've ever leard to watch before. I just
[6:44] Speaker 1: think this is that classic situation where there's a desensitization
[6:47] Speaker 1: process that occurs. First of all, I'm going to talk
[6:49] Speaker 1: about that in a sec but this is the classic
[6:52] Speaker 1: gripe that every oldest child, you and I, both eldest children,
[6:56] Speaker 1: will complain about to their parents, like.
[6:57] Speaker 2: Hang on, hang on.
[6:58] Speaker 1: When I was that age, I was, they'vever awed to
[7:00] Speaker 1: do that stuff, and the younger siblings always get away
[7:02] Speaker 1: with so much more.
[7:03] Speaker 3: See My justification for it is there is such a
[7:06] Speaker 3: difference in the violence sheard in an extremely fantasy based
[7:11] Speaker 3: story as opposed to real life violence where real people
[7:16] Speaker 3: are being hurt and there's lots of blood and gush
[7:19] Speaker 3: and all of that. Like, that's a totally different scenario
[7:24] Speaker 3: for me.
[7:25] Speaker 2: So here's what the researchers said.
[7:26] Speaker 1: They said, the more of a particular kind of content
[7:28] Speaker 1: we watched, the greater the level of desensitization we experience.
[7:31] Speaker 1: What was once shocking eventually barely registers like a drug.
[7:35] Speaker 1: The more violence or sexual content we take in, the
[7:39] Speaker 1: more of it we need to get the same shock factor.
[7:42] Speaker 1: And I was thinking about that, and I was like, Yeah,
[7:43] Speaker 1: if you don' watch the news for a couple of
[7:44] Speaker 1: months and then you turn on the news and you
[7:46] Speaker 1: listen to what they're talking about it. So it's just shocking.
[7:48] Speaker 1: It's like, oh, my goodness, is this stuff really going
[7:50] Speaker 1: on in the world. It assaults your senses.
[7:52] Speaker 3: I want to push back on that a little bit.
[7:54] Speaker 3: When we first got married, I've always been a chick
[7:57] Speaker 3: click girl. I love nice, warm fuzzies. Happily ever After
[8:02] Speaker 3: is a good cry, and that's me done. You've always
[8:06] Speaker 3: loved real life movies that make you think, and often
[8:12] Speaker 3: they have been filled with significant real life violence.
[8:16] Speaker 2: Yeah, unfortunately.
[8:17] Speaker 1: I mean I don't like that, but I like real stories.
[8:21] Speaker 3: And I.
[8:23] Speaker 2: Back to those early days.
[8:26] Speaker 3: Braveheart and Saving Private Ryan, and there's just a few
[8:31] Speaker 3: that come to my mind. I felt physically ill watching them,
[8:35] Speaker 3: like physically ill, And to this day, regardless of how
[8:38] Speaker 3: many times I've watched a movie of that caliber or
[8:43] Speaker 3: that content, it doesn't get any easier for me to watch.
[8:46] Speaker 2: Yeah, it's funny.
[8:47] Speaker 3: I don't feel dissensitized at all in any way, shape
[8:50] Speaker 3: or form. It actually heightens my sensitivity.
[8:52] Speaker 1: A couple of years ago, having had a big break,
[8:56] Speaker 1: I went back and watched one of those films and
[8:58] Speaker 1: I couldn't watch it.
[8:58] Speaker 3: Yeah, I remember you saying that yeah, and I was.
[9:00] Speaker 1: Just like, I don't know how I used to watch
[9:02] Speaker 1: this stuff. But actually that emphasis is my point. That
[9:05] Speaker 1: doesn't disprove, that's not pushback, that's actually encouragement for what
[9:08] Speaker 1: I'm saying. When you have a big break from it
[9:10] Speaker 1: and then you see it again, it assaults you. It's like, WHOA,
[9:13] Speaker 1: what has just happened? So anyway, after the break, I
[9:15] Speaker 1: want to talk about a couple of things around what
[9:17] Speaker 1: we can do with content for our kids. Because I
[9:20] Speaker 1: speak regularly to parents. I remember a few years ago
[9:23] Speaker 1: I was talking to a parent. They had a six
[9:26] Speaker 1: year old that was watching Game of Thrones with them,
[9:30] Speaker 1: And I haven't watched Game of Thrones, but I've read
[9:32] Speaker 1: enough reviews and I've heard enough people tell me about
[9:34] Speaker 1: it to know that this is not a program for
[9:35] Speaker 1: a six year old.
[9:36] Speaker 2: In fact, I would argue that's probably not even a
[9:38] Speaker 2: program for a sixteen year old.
[9:41] Speaker 1: And a lot of people say, oh, it's not really
[9:42] Speaker 1: affecting anyone. After the break on and tell me about
[9:44] Speaker 1: what it does do, how it does affect our kids,
[9:47] Speaker 1: and why we do need to be sensitive to what
[9:49] Speaker 1: our kids are seeing on screens.
[9:50] Speaker 2: Stay with us. We're back this is the Happy Family's poble.
[10:00] Speaker 2: If you're enjoying the pod, please share it with your friends.
[10:02] Speaker 2: All you've got to do is.
[10:02] Speaker 1: Click that share button and send it to one or
[10:04] Speaker 1: two people that you think it would make a difference for.
[10:06] Speaker 1: If it could make your family happier, maybe it'll make
[10:08] Speaker 1: this happier as well. We love the podcast getting out
[10:11] Speaker 1: to more and more people. Please please share the pod. Okay, So, Kylie,
[10:15] Speaker 1: here's what happens when you watch content that is aggressive
[10:20] Speaker 1: or sexually oriented. What happens is it starts to change
[10:24] Speaker 1: your beliefs. Right, So, I've talked about this on the
[10:27] Speaker 1: pod previously. I think I might have mentioned it last
[10:29] Speaker 1: week now that I reflect on it. When you hear something,
[10:32] Speaker 1: it goes in one ear and out the other. When
[10:34] Speaker 1: you read something, that can affect the way you're thinking
[10:37] Speaker 1: about it. But you generally kind of argue with stuff
[10:39] Speaker 1: in your head when you read things. But when you
[10:41] Speaker 1: see things, all of a sudden, it becomes believable, it
[10:44] Speaker 1: becomes possible, it becomes real to you. And if it's real,
[10:47] Speaker 1: that means that that's what people are doing, and therefore that's.
[10:49] Speaker 2: What you could do as well.
[10:51] Speaker 1: And that's why there is so much noise made about
[10:55] Speaker 1: children accessing explicit content pornography because if they do see
[11:01] Speaker 1: aggression or violence or just hardcore explicit material, that shapes
[11:06] Speaker 1: their perception of what intimacy quote unquote is supposed to
[11:11] Speaker 1: be like, and therefore they're much more likely to act
[11:13] Speaker 1: in that way.
[11:14] Speaker 2: Seeing is believing.
[11:16] Speaker 1: So there was a but there's actually some research that
[11:18] Speaker 1: shows that it doesn't just affect our attitudes, which then
[11:21] Speaker 1: affects our behavior. There's some research that suggests that it
[11:25] Speaker 1: could be desensitizing. I dug this one up from the archives.
[11:28] Speaker 1: In two thousand and nine, there was a study that
[11:30] Speaker 1: demonstrated that exposure to gratuitous violence in either a game
[11:34] Speaker 1: or a movie led to reduced willingness to help somebody
[11:37] Speaker 1: who was in pain. So there were two different experiments,
[11:41] Speaker 1: and participants in these experiments took longer to come to
[11:44] Speaker 1: the aid of an injured victim, or they saw a
[11:47] Speaker 1: violent act as less serious, and they were less likely
[11:50] Speaker 1: to even hear that a fight was occurring when they
[11:53] Speaker 1: were compared with people who played a nonviolent video game
[11:55] Speaker 1: or watched a non violent movie. So if I'm watching
[11:59] Speaker 1: violent coin or playing violent content, I'm just desensitized to it,
[12:03] Speaker 1: and the American Academy of Pediatrics has argued that prolonged
[12:07] Speaker 1: exposure of violence increases agreement with the idea that violence
[12:11] Speaker 1: is an acceptable way of solving problems. Plus, it promotes
[12:15] Speaker 1: acceptance in children of what's known as the mean World syndrome,
[12:18] Speaker 1: which is a belief that the world is a dark
[12:20] Speaker 1: and sinister place.
[12:22] Speaker 3: If anything, I think this just highlights how important it
[12:26] Speaker 3: is for us to, I guess, take a little bit
[12:30] Speaker 3: more care in the things that our children watch, especially
[12:34] Speaker 3: in that six to twelve year age.
[12:37] Speaker 1: Yeah, common Sense Media and other websites like it that
[12:40] Speaker 1: give you a real clear sense of what content is
[12:42] Speaker 1: in there. I also like that website. There are Australian versions,
[12:46] Speaker 1: but I like that website. It's got a lot more reviews.
[12:49] Speaker 1: It's got reviews from kids as well as from adults
[12:51] Speaker 1: who are all saying, here's how old we think somebody
[12:53] Speaker 1: should before they're watching it. Plus the Common Sense team
[12:55] Speaker 1: as well, and the power of co watching. I know
[12:59] Speaker 1: that seeing I don't have time to sit down and
[13:01] Speaker 1: watch TV with my kids, but the power of co
[13:03] Speaker 1: watching is enormous, and I would just emphasize keep your
[13:06] Speaker 1: kids off anything that's got an algorithm. I know that
[13:08] Speaker 1: we've got legislation now that's supposed to do that quite well.
[13:10] Speaker 1: There are arguments about how well that's happening, But keep
[13:13] Speaker 1: your kids away from algorithms. I think that if your
[13:15] Speaker 1: children are under the age of twelve to fourteen, maybe
[13:18] Speaker 1: even sixteen, watching TV is going to be far less
[13:21] Speaker 1: impactful and far less detrimental than being on an algorithm
[13:26] Speaker 1: driven screen or platform. Our job is just to know
[13:30] Speaker 1: what they're watching and not to become so desensitized ourselves
[13:34] Speaker 1: that we start lowering those ages and lowering those expectations,
[13:37] Speaker 1: even if it does mean that our kids are the
[13:39] Speaker 1: only people in the world that have not seen something
[13:42] Speaker 1: that's in the Marvel universe.
[13:44] Speaker 3: My number one tip for doing this is finding your people.
[13:49] Speaker 3: When you've got a village of families are who share
[13:53] Speaker 3: the same values as you and are striving for the
[13:56] Speaker 3: same things that you are striving for. What a difference
[14:00] Speaker 3: A little chat group where you can go in and say, Hey,
[14:02] Speaker 3: my kids have been asking to watch this show. Have
[14:04] Speaker 3: any of your kids watched it? What have you noticed?
[14:07] Speaker 3: You know? What are your feelings around it? Again, you
[14:10] Speaker 3: get to make your own mind up. But it's just
[14:12] Speaker 3: nice to have other families because everybody is going through
[14:15] Speaker 3: the same thing. We're all getting pressured, peer pressured.
[14:20] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[14:21] Speaker 1: Bottom line, our digital diet is absolutely desensitizing us build
[14:24] Speaker 1: the village. The violence and sexual content that our kids
[14:28] Speaker 1: see is glamorized.
[14:30] Speaker 2: It's often consequence.
[14:31] Speaker 1: Free, but there are real world consequences if this changes
[14:35] Speaker 1: their attitudes and it changes their behaviors, and we need
[14:38] Speaker 1: to be awake and alert to that because if we
[14:41] Speaker 1: not just endure it, but actually embrace it and let
[14:43] Speaker 1: the kids endorse it for our children's entertainment, I think
[14:47] Speaker 1: that we act to their detriment. Hopefully there's some ideas
[14:49] Speaker 1: here that are useful for you.
[14:50] Speaker 2: Thank you so much for listening.
[14:51] Speaker 1: The Happy Famili's podcast is produced by Justin Ruhland from
[14:54] Speaker 1: Bridge Media. Mim Hammonds provides additional support for the pod.
[14:58] Speaker 1: If you'd like more info to make your family have
[15:00] Speaker 1: or if you're struggling with ADHD in your home, visit
[15:03] Speaker 1: Happy Families dot com dot a U and check out
[15:06] Speaker 1: our Parenting ADHD course.
[15:08] Speaker 2: It will be a game changer. See you tomorrow.

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