should HMV have let my son buy an album marked "parental advisory" ?

easy

DS is 13, and went Christmas shopping with a friend on Saturday.

He has bought a present for his 'girlfriend' (favourite girl in his year), which is an album by Deadmau5 - No, I'm not familiar with this genre of music.

Anyway, the album is marked "Parental Advisory - Explicit Content", so obviously I'm a bit concerned about him giving it to a 13 y.o. girl - what might her parents think ??

But should HMV have sold this product to a 13 y.o. on his own?

He hasn't broken the seal on it yet, I'm thinking of checking if he still has the receipt and returning it.

fluffnutter

A parental advisory label isn't the same as an age-restricted item so HMV have done nothing wrong in selling it to him.

Is there any way you can get hold of this girl's parents to ask them whether it will be OK? You need to balance doing the right thing with being overly sensitive. I'm guessing the lyrics are a bit sweary. Whether or not this will upset the girl's parents (I doubt it will upset the girl!) is something you can either a) not worry about or b) try to find out about, preferably without your son knowing. The last thing you want to do is embarrass him.

BTW, unless HMV has a returns policy allowing for the returning of unwanted items, you have no legal right to a refund or replacement, receipt or otherwise.

custardy

easy wrote: »

DS is 13, and went Christmas shopping with a friend on Saturday.

He has bought a present for his 'girlfriend' (favourite girl in his year), which is an album by Deadmau5 - No, I'm not familiar with this genre of music.

Anyway, the album is marked "Parental Advisory - Explicit Content", so obviously I'm a bit concerned about him giving it to a 13 y.o. girl - what might her parents think ??

But should HMV have sold this product to a 13 y.o. on his own?

He hasn't broken the seal on it yet, I'm thinking of checking if he still has the receipt and returning it.

should you let your 13 year old into a shop that sells explicit content items?
Explicit content covers a massive section of what can be in the music

Gillyx

I'm not aware of any of DeadMau5 music that should be labelled parental advisory. Must be if the sticker is on it though.. Weird.

go_cat

Dead muh what ...god I must be getting old :rotfl::rotfl:

Gillyx

go_cat wrote: »

Dead muh what ...god I must be getting old :rotfl::rotfl:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7ArUgxtlJs

fluffnutter

If it helps, if I'd have been given an album (are they still called that? ) like this when I was younger, my parents wouldn't have even noticed.

easy

fluffnutter wrote: »

A parental advisory label isn't the same as an age-restricted item so HMV have done nothing wrong in selling it to him.

Is there any way you can get hold of this girl's parents to ask them whether it will be OK? You need to balance doing the right thing with being overly sensitive. I'm guessing the lyrics are a bit sweary. Whether or not this will upset the girl's parents (I doubt it will upset the girl!) is something you can either a) not worry about or b) try to find out about, preferably without your son knowing. The last thing you want to do is embarrass him.

Absolutely right, I don't want to embarrass him, nor do I want him to embarrass himself.
I don't think I can ask her parents, I have never met them, and wouldn't have a way of contacting them without going via DS and the girl herself - which seems like making a huge fuss and bother for something which MIGHT not be any issue at all

fluffnutter wrote: »

BTW, unless HMV has a returns policy allowing for the returning of unwanted items, you have no legal right to a refund or replacement, receipt or otherwise.

Sorry yes I do know that, I should have typed "try to return it" . However in my experience most high street chains will allow a return of items which are still sealed with a receipt - I call it the M&S effect

fluffnutter wrote: »

If it helps, if I'd have been given an album (are they still called that? ) like this when I was younger, my parents wouldn't have even noticed.

No mine probably wouldn't either.

I'm probably over-worrying, I just like to feel that other people think we're "upstanding respectable" people, and responsible parents

moomoomama27

I would have said no they shouldn't have let him, but I don't know the legalitys of it! I would have thought it would be treated much like a PG film, otherwise what's the point of putting parental advisory on it?

Tropez

It's a relatively meaningless, often ill-applied warning label that some artists purposely add to their album covers because they believe it boosts sales. I have a few albums with the logo on that do not feature any bad language or iffy themes, whereas no Guns N' Roses album I have features the logo, despite featuring regular profanities.

The BPI do not have a minimum age to sell an album to. They believe that it is enough to simply advise parents that there could be inappropriate content on an album.

jackyann

I would just see if you can check out some of their music (how kind of someone to post the link above!). If it's all a bit weird & a bit sweary I wouldn't worry.
If it's unpleasant about women or violent (like some rap) then I would check with your son if he's quite aware of the message he's giving!

As someone whose brain is more geared to words than music, I am astonished by how little some people listen to lyrics. I did some work this summer with a really nice bloke expecting his first baby, so we talked about names "maybe Lola" he said "I love that song". So me and the other person present looked at each other & wondered what to say. Fortunately the other person knew this bloke rather better than I, and said "have you actually listed to that song?". So he sang the music "la-la" fashion and the "L-O-L-A-Lola" bit and so then I (sixties girl) carried it on. He was completely shocked (not by the tranvestism of course, but because he had the track, had been to concerts etc. and never listened to the lyrics!)