I agree with this completely. I never understood the penchant for restricting films to people 17 or 18 and over.  20 years ago, when I was merely 12, I saw every movie I wanted to see, regardless of rating.  Either someone took me, I snuck in or I watched them on HBO, and later videotape.

Nothing has changed.  In fact with cable modems and other broadband connections and good video compression, one can download a film in a matter of an hour or so, and watch it on a laptop, or even one of those bad-ass Multimedia Jukeboxes on the way to school (or *in* school...).

You can’t stop it.  You cannot prevent kids from seeing films they want to see, even shitty ones like “Bowling.” At least if you let them see the film, you can discuss it with them afterwards.  If you prohibit them from seeing it, they’ll never tell you they saw it, and then you can’t help them understand it.