Are fairy tales too scary for today's children?

One in five British parents has stopped reading fairy tales to their young children because they're too scary, a recent survey suggests.

This engraving from Little Red Riding Hood is from 1870. Are the stories still appropriate for kids? (iStock)The survey, by a U.K. TV network, suggests some parents are giving up the likes of Rapunzel and Jack and the Beanstalk for more modern books such as The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

The most common reason given for sparing the kids these older stories was that they were too scary, but some parents also said they were "outdated" or too "unrealistic."

Almost half the parents in the survey said they refused to read Rumpelstiltskin or Rapunzel because the stories included kidnapping and bargaining with children.  

About one third of the mothers and fathers said that the story of Little Red Riding Hood left their children in tears because the Big Bad Wolf ate the little girl's grandmother.

Some of the parents in the survey said that Goldilocks and the Three Bears wasn't appropriate because it condoned stealing.

But it wasn't just violence and crime some parents objected to. Many of the parents considered Jack and the Beanstalk to be "too unrealistic."

More than half of the survey's respondents wouldn't read Cinderella because of its portrayal of a young woman doing all the housework. Similarly, some parents wouldn't read Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs because they thought the word "dwarfs" was inappropriate.

Overall, about 25 per cent of the survey's 2,000 parents said they wouldn't read fairy tales to their children until they reached the age of five.

Are there stories you won't read your children? What are they and what are your reasons? Let us know what you think.


(This survey is not scientific. Results are based on readers' responses.)