Traditional fairytales are being given up by parents because they are too scary for their young children, a study found. Research uncovered that one in five parents has got rid of old literature such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Rapunzel in favour of more modem books. One third of parents said their children have been left in tears after hearing the  _ details of Little Red Riding Hood. And nearly half of mothers and fathers refuse to read Rumplesliltshin  to their kids as the themes of the story are kidnapping and killing. Similarly, Goldilocks and the Three Bears was also a tale likely to be left on the book shelf as parents felt it forgives stealing. The survey of 2,000 adults was completed to mark the launch of the hit US drama GRIMM   , which starts tonight at 9pm on Watch, and sees six drama series based on traditional fairytales. The survey found a quarter of parents questioned wouldn't consider reading fairytales to their kids. And 52 percent of the parents said Cinderella  didn't send a good message to their children as it describes a young woman doing housework all day. Steve Hornsey, General Manager of Watch, said: "Bedtime stories are supposed to calm children down and send them off to sleep soundly.But as we see in GMMM, fairytales can be dark and dramatic so it's understandable that parents worry about reading them to young 'children.As adults we can see the innocence in fairytales, but a five - year - old child could take them too literally.Despite the dark nature of classic fairytales, as: we see in GRIMM, good will defeat evil and there is always a moral to the story." The study also found two thirds of mums and dads try to avoid Stories which might give their children nightmares. However half of parents said traditional tales are "more likely to have a strong moral message than a lot of modem kids' books, such as The Gruffato, The Hungary Caterpillar and the Mr Men books. Classical works for children are being avoided by parents they think   _
they contain unmoral themes they are terrifying they encourage stealing, kidnapping and killing they are tired of answering questions