[Erax]

No Geo, you missed the point entirely. The point is that children understand the difference between fact and fiction. Or, in other words, the inability to distinguish fact from fiction does not depend on age.

'Real-life' magic, whether actuallly 'real' or not, is not like the fantasy-book variety. I knew that when I read Tolkien (at age 10) and I believe a 10-year-old reading Harry Potter today does too (excepting, of course, the occasional individual who can't distinguish fact from fiction).

To be fair, there aren't many 'creepy occult types' in my country, although they are starting to show up as our religious demographic slowly shifts from Catholic to Catholic/Protestant. The way I see it, it is mostly a teen rebellion / forbidden fruit issue.

Protestant teen wants to shock parents : gets into the occult.
Catholic teen wants to shock parents : becomes an atheist.

Edit : I took too long to answer, so you've already covered some of this ground yourself. Helping your children understand the difference between fact and fiction is certainly a very good start.

[ September 12, 2003, 14:25: Message edited by: Erax ]