Almost half of parents believe costumes aimed at children are too frightening.
The survey of over 1,000 mums for parenting site, Channel Mum, found that 1 in 7 are worried that Halloween costumes are becoming more sinister year on year with a third saying costumes no longer have traditional Halloween themes but are instead designed simply to scare people.
The survey comes after a range of inappropriate and overly graphic costumes for kids were revealed in the lead-up to this year’s Halloween, including a road kill costume sold by Party Pieces, the company owned by the parents of the Duchess of Cambridge, Michael and Carole Middleton.
Other examples of controversial costumes include a Jack the Ripper costume and a dead pet. But perhaps the most concerning trend is the range of costumes based on films rated 18, such as Regan, the possessed girl from the Exorcist and Jason from Friday 13th.
The survey also found that 43% of mums were worried that many costumes are too sexualised for young children and as a result 68% now back age-appropriate ratings on the outfits. 1 in 11 even claimed that the child had a negative experience when wearing the outfits in question with 13% targeted with sexual or inappropriate comments.
The story was featured on the MailOnline, the Mirror and the Daily Star as well as landing in print in the Daily Mail. The story was accompanied by a vox pop style video, created by Channel Mum which used the findings of the survey to relate to the responses which you can watch below:
