This is a list of movies compiled by myself and friends for parents to watch with their tweens and teens. Please watch the movie first and note parts to mute or forward through based on content.
Megan is Missing - available on Netflix
Language, sexual content, torture/death scene at end
Megan is Missing is one of the most disturbing movies I've seen in a long time. It centers on teens, but is accessible to a teen audience because the writers follow lingo, fashion and social trends...unlike tv shows like SVU that are adult-centered. It is a "found footage" movie, so it is bare-bones uncensored peer to peer Skype and video diaries. Megan is Missing shows the top mistakes all people make representing themselves online. Megan, the main character, is portrayed living two lives - a party girl who trades favors for drugs; she is also a loyal friend who shares her insecurities with a less popular girl in private and on video diaries. Many issues are addressed here: passive and aggressive bullying; setting yourself up for a predator; insecurity as a predators weapon; inviting strangers in to your house with a camera; showing your house, your activities, your favorite hang-outs and restaurants online; agreeing to meet someone and telling nobody else; sneaking around; using Abercrombie looking boys to lure young girls - either with a fake profile or as real bait.
My favorite part of every movie is the set-up. However, in the disturbing end to this movie, you see a second girl go missing and the details of her captivity play out. I had to mute the beginning of the movie and explain what was happening - showing the main important part (online predator claims his camera is broken and Megan thinks he's a hot high school skateboarder based on a picture and his lies), then fast forward through most of the end. The bottom line is, you can tell your kids weekly about stranger danger, abduction, social bribery, etc...but they really have no idea what it means to be abducted. This movie shows what happens afterward without the usual glamorized tv version - lightly bound girl at a seductive angle - saved just in time...this is not that story!
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