Somerville Theatre bans (young) kids from entering after 6 pm. Let's discuss it here

[ron_newman]

This week's Somerville News has an article about the Somerville Theatre's policy of banning children under 12 8* from entering the theatre after 6 pm, even if they are accompanied by adults.

Is the theatre's policy a service to its customers who want a peaceful movie experience, or is it unfair discrimination against families with young children?

I'm posting this because we can have a more civilized discussion here than on the Somerville News blog comments. Ian Judge, the theatre's manager, reads this community, so we may be able to provide useful feedback to him here.

* Edited 11:55 am to add: I have a serious factual issue with this article. It says the policy applies to children under 12, but the theatre's website and exterior signs say it's for children under 8. That's a significant difference -- maybe significant enough to change people's opinions.

Second edit, 3 pm: Ian Judge has clarified that the theatre's policy is to exclude children under 8, not 12, from entering after 6 pm. He had made an erroneous statement to the News reporter which very unfortunately made it into the published article. Also, here is Ian's response to the specific incident detailed in the News article.

Comments

[kpht.livejournal.com]

That's ridiculous. I'm sorry. The only safe, semi-productive thing for us to do in middle school was see an 8PM movie that got out at 10, then our parents picked us up and we went home - or maybe we went and got ice cream if it was a real humdinger of a night. It was a precursor to real life, only under supervision.

And if I wanted to bring my 10 year old to a 7PM showing of a PG13 movie? That's pretty asinine. Let the parents make the choices, and boot them if they're being inappropriate, or at the very least if you're concerned about 3 year olds seeing the dark night, ban kids under 6 from specific movies. It seems like the theatre's just being lazy and would rather go authoritarian than dare stand up to adults and kids who are being rude and disrupting the movies for others.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

And what about the rest of us? I know you're going to be a good, responsible parent, but unfortunately there are legions of people who are lousy parents and inconsiderate bastards to boot. Besides, this IS the Somerville Theater: I don't see too many middle schoolers there, most of the year. :-)

[kpht.livejournal.com]

Assholes come in all sizes and ages. Last movie I saw an adult TOOK A GODDAMN PHONE CALL in the middle of it.

I'd prefer well-ushered theatres where any social retard gets the boot, not just social retards of a certain age.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'd rather see cell-phone blockers in theaters, but the cell-phone lobby has gotten them banned for everything but military use.

Which, come to think of it, is a little troubling, right there.

[ron_newman]

The FCC bans jammers, but nobody can ban a Faraday cage. It may be hard to build, though.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

True, it's just a LITTLE expensive.

Too bad about the jammer ban. An Israeli company makes on the size of a cinder block that'll block any cell phone for the radius of a city block.

[ron_newman]

Which is a problem, since the people who live across the street from the theatre would not appreciate losing their cell service.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm not suggesting they buy one of THOSE. Just noting that the technology is small, effective, and powerful.

[purpless77.livejournal.com]

kpht, I couldn't aree more. Well put.

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

dude, try telling a mom that her kid is being a pain and they need to gtfo.

ANY way you phrase that she's going to flip out. because the sane ones would have left already. trust me, that would cause way more of a disruption.

[thebiggestroom.livejournal.com]

We're not just talking about little children.

We're talking about kids that are 11, 12, maybe 13 or 14? It isn't like they have ID to prove they are over 12.

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

aren't they supposed to be there with a parent or guardian though? if a parent's kid is acting up and they aren't leaving, approaching them about it is going to cause a shitstorm.

i don't care if there are kids in a pg movie, that's my fault if i'm going to bitch in that case.

[kpht.livejournal.com]

I hear you, but also try telling a group of fucking idiot adults they need to GTFO, they're gonna cause the same scene. They're the same breed of goddamn entitled assholes who have no respect for other people... sometimes they leave their kids at home. Or thankfully, sometimes they haven't yet busted their condom inside their troglodyte girlfriend.

I think the bigger issue is that theaters are totally passive aggressive when it comes to booting people out. They don't want to stand up against people who are being assholes, or kids who are being assholes, so they just let it happen and be giant pussies instead of getting a manager to say "you need to leave now, if you don't, security or the police will escort you from the premesis". It's certainly an added disruption, but I'd rather lose 3 minutes of the movie watching people get owned than still be disrupted during the entire movie by people who cant stop talking, because there's no usher, because hey, if there's no kids, why do they need one?

[thebiggestroom.livejournal.com]

It was the same for me.

I started going to movies without my parents around age 11. We either took the bus or my parents would drive us and pick us up.