Preteens Love The Romance In `Titanic,' But Are They Ready For The Steamier Stuff?

Yes, "Titanic" is popular with teens and preteens. But is it appropriate viewing for kids 13 and under?

The movie is rated PG-13, meaning parents are "strongly cautioned" about taking their kids to see it.

The scenes that are most troublesome for parents include one in which the young female lead, played by actress Kate Winslet, poses nude for Jack, the struggling artist played by Leonardo DiCaprio.

"Would you believe that, in my son's second-grade class, two of the kids in the class said they saw the movie? Those are 7- and 8-year-olds," said Melanie Helm, a Winter Park, Fla., mother of three. "I'm not a prude, but this movie is rated PG-13. There is frontal nudity. She's posing nude as a model. Sure, it's artsy, but it's still a bare body."

Another scene parents have qualms about is one in which the two young lovers make love inside a car that's being transported on the ship.

"I wasn't bothered as much by the nude scene as the hot scene in the car," said psychologist Ann Caron, author of "Don't Stop Loving Me: A Reassuring Guide for Mothers of Adolescent Daughters" (Harper Collins; 1992). "They aren't shown nude, but you don't have to see anything to know what's going on. I would have preferred that the scene not be there if this movie was going to be shown to teenagers. Besides, I'm not sure whether that would really have occurred in that era, anyway."

What should parents do? First, see the movie yourself and determine whether your kids can handle the movie. Then discuss the questionable scenes with them.

For younger girls, the nudity itself may make them shy away from the film.

"What I find for girls, particularly younger girls who are 11, 12, even 13 years old, is they say they don't feel comfortable with nudity, and they say they don't look," said psychologist Lauren Ayers, author of "Teenage Girls: A Parents' Survival Manual" (Crossroad Publishing; 1994). "The younger girls self-censor. They shut out what they feel they don't feel comfortable with."

But Ayers suggests that talking about the scenes is the best strategy.

"You want to warn your girls because they're uncomfortable with it. They'll say, `Oooh, I didn't know that was in there.' They'll say that's disgusting."