Television Cartoons: No Longer for Children Consumption?

“Honey, I think it’s about time we begin showing cartoon movies to our children,” said my husband one day.

“Uh-uhm,” I nodded accordingly.

“Let’s buy some Tom & Jerry videos for them to watch,” he suggested.

“Tom & Jerry?” I suddenly exclaimed. “No way!”

Octavian lifted an eyebrow. “Why not?”

I explained to him that the movie is not for children’s consumption.

Not for children’s consumption? But… it’s a cartoon!

Alright… We adults think it’s funny when we see Tom and Jerry chase each other and do crazy things to one another. We laugh when Jerry lets go an anvil on Tom’s head, or Tom slams a door on Jerry to nail him down. We giggle as Tom screams when Jerry burns his butts or Jerry gets caught in a mouse-trap set by Tom.

But will we find it funny when our son slams a door on his sister’s face to give her a bruise? Will we laugh when our daughter throws a heavy object at her brother and gives him a bleeding head?

Children learn by imitating actions they see. And they haven’t got the ability to discern which actions should be imitated and which should not. They simply imitate everything they find!

That’s the danger about letting children watch television programs – even when they are cartoons – without filtering them first. Some cartoon movies “for kids” these days do not seem to educate the children of positive values. On the contrary, they tend to promote destructive values: violence, ignorance, indifference and materialism are simply some of the negative things they teach our children under our noses – without our realizing the impact they bring on our children’s future character.

We’ve got Tom & Jerry with its violence-filled scenes.

We’ve got Barbie that shapes our children’s image of adulthood: becoming an adult would mean luxurious house, beautiful face, gorgeous body and financial success. When they eventually grow up into adults, they find themselves not having a pretty face, or well-shaped body, or a big house, or fancy cars, or much money in deposit. Then they get discouraged of life, disappointed at the failed self-expectations, and single themselves out as losers.

One of my professors taught me one important lesson when I was attending her class. The subject she taught at that moment was Children Literature. And I found out so many wrong things parents teach their children through fairy tales and bedtime stories – which resulted in the children’s wrong perceptions on life. There are too much violence and wrong values conveyed through these stories that eventually mar the children’s innocence:

• How will children justify the bad guys from the good guys when the triumphant hero of the story is a thief and murderer (Jack and the Bean Stalk)?
• How will children learn of pity and compassion when the hero and heroine of the story end up throwing the antagonist into a fiery stove (Hanzel and Gretel)?
• How will children understand the process of gaining success through failures and learning over if the idol of their childhood is a character who achieves his success by the instant help of a genie (Aladdin)?

These are simply bedtime stories, which we tell our children without realizing the false contents or messages they might have. Television programs are worse: they tell our children even the things we should never tell or show them!

Therefore, we as parents ought to be wary about selecting the visual consumption of our children. When allowing them to watch television:

• We must make sure that the program their watching is beneficial for their mental and character development.
• We should accompany them while watching programs under PG title.
• We need to explain to our children things they might not understand.

Also, when buying videos for the little ones, be certain that the movies we are about to show our younglings do not contain violence or immoral scenes. And, when telling the children bedtime stories, try altering the violent actions described in them without changing the course of the story.

How we filter the visual consumption of our children determines what sort of persons they one day turn out to be.