Are parents too uptight today about children's shows?

[Rydia]

This was just something I noticed when hanging out with my older brother and some of his friends as well as other people.

My brother and pretty much all his friends have children. One of his friends will not let their child watch Spongebob Square Pants because of the cartoonish violence and some of the "language" spongebob uses. (I didn't know that banacles and idiot were such terrible words D

Back when most of us were kids, cartoons were relatively violent. We had animaniacs, Tiny Toons, various loony toon cartoons and many more. No one thought anything of it and I don't think it's made any of us crazy mass murderers.

Also, as far as I know, childrens shows are not allowed to show any character drinking or smoking and guns are not allowed not even by adult characters. If you look at some older cartoons, it was quite common to have characters drink or smoke and the villians would sometimes have guns and shoot at the main characters.

I've also noticed that many older cartoons, those that might be classified as "violent" are on a completely different network now (Boomerang), which I think you have to pay for.


Should violence (even cartoonish), smoking, and drinking be allowed in children's shows? Or should they be left out?

 

[Bambi]

i think people molly coddle children FAR too much these days, in every aspect ever. A bit of dirt never hurt and a few cartoons with a bit of violence never harmed us or our parents etc. It's just funny

I just think people are getting to soft, the next generation are gunna be a bunch of whiny cunts

 

[Abstract Debauchery]

The kids today are already a bunch of whiny little cunts. Bambi

Yes, parents are being too uptight in general. It doesn't stop at just TV shows. It's about everything now. I know there are exceptions to the rule, but in general, parents spoil their kids to death and their kids end up growing up to be spoiled, whining, little shitsniffing turdburglers.

 

[Bambi]

fair point, imagine how much worse they are gunna get though, everything is offensive in some way to some fucker, political correctness is just stupid.....ah we might as well just nuke ourselves if the wor;d dont end next year, we're fucked anyway. A bunch of snively soft twats running the show is all we have to look forward too

 

[Soulcorruptor]

This is a very deep subject to get into. Also one that has been on going for quite some time. Ultimately it does not boil down to if it should be aloud or not, it comes down to the parenting. I remember watching the old animated batman and superman, both of which were heavy in violence. Both had people smoking and drinking, I mean there isn't an episode in either of those series where violence isn't portrayed.

Now going to my point of the parenting its up to the parents to tell their kids right from wrong. Watch the shows with them and explain its only fantasy with whats happening in the TV. Also tell them its an act whats happening, that behavior like this isn't acceptable.

Though with all the laws now and how easy someone can cry child abuse, this may sound irrelevant but does have a slight point. When in the end we can't tell our kids right from wrong because of how misinterpreted it can get now, we go to blame TV. TV is what is causing our kids bad behavior, and its also teaching them bad habits. The answer is no, TV is not to blame, it's the parents who are to lazy now to teach appropriate behavior to their children.

 

[der Astronom]

Ha, and I watched Terminator 2 when I was only 6. I'm not scarred for life.

I've often not understood why characters in cartoons can't drink or smoke. I mean, kids can probably be in public with their parents, and see other people drinking or smoking, and if they occur in public so frequently, why can't they appear in cartoons as well? I mean it's not even like porn, which is specifically done under the table so that kids can't see it, and that's why they never show them in kiddy cartoons either, but if it's all around in public, I don't see why that's a problem. I understand they're trying to discourage kids from smoking or drinking, which is why schools have programs that discourage smoking or drinking, and they have those smoking posters, but I just happen to think you can't discourage smoking or drinking in a cartoon without including it (otherwise, how else would you know they're doing it?) And a lot of arcade machines have a screen that says "Winners don't do drugs". As if that weren't enough to dissuade people from doing it.

I don't think there's anything wrong with cartoon violence either because violence does occur in life, even if unintentionally, and even if parents have a problem with it, it's their job to make sure their kids are being monitored; not the people that make the cartoons. If the cartoon is violent, and enough parents care, they will simply not allow their children to watch the cartoon, it will lose ratings, and might eventually be pulled off the air.

 

[Eight]

You're right, it is political correctness gone too far. Probably why kids shows are so crap now.

I see these cases in newspapers and on the internet about some mum getting all hot and bothered about a Tom and Jerry cartoon, it's like, sure, they're showing acts of violence and smoking and drinking and all that, but if you've raised the kid right yourself, then he/she's gonna know that all is wrong. Just let the kid be a kid and enjoy themselves, and don't make them suffer with shittier entertainment.

 

[Rydia]

I agree that kids are going to grow up to be wimps. I showed my nephew and niece an episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and they were afraid of it! (They are 4 and 6) They were afraid of Shredder? But if you see their cartoons now, most villians are very humourous.

Look at kids movies, how often does the villian die? Though I am happy with the two recent Disney movies the villians do meet their demise. Previous Disney villians got quite violent deaths even if they were off screen. (Scar eaten by hyneas, Maleficent and Ursula were stabbed to death)

 

[blakstang98]

I witnessed this happen to my best friend when growing up. Well, it wasn't necessarily about children's shows, but other things, like MTV. He wasn't allowed to watch certain things on TV or play certain video games because they were too violent/evil. And what I saw was nothing but rebellion. He would come to my house to watch these stations and play these video games. So a parent can restrict a child from watching something as harmless as Spongebob Square Pants, but the truth of the matter is, the kid will find a way to watch it anyways. And if the kid has even the slightest bit of rebellion in their genetic makeup, then the idea that they aren't allowed to watch something will only make them more curious as to what it's about. If you let them watch it and they see there's nothing controversial about it, then it ceases to be a rebellious act.

It's probably something that pertains to most things in a childs upbringing and not necessarily just about childrens shows, but you have to let a kid have some freedom to make their own choices. Naturally some things are going to be an automatic no anyways (like a movie with nudity or graphic violence), but the other things that are deemed harmless by society's norms like animated violence should be left to the childs own discretion.

 

[L]

I don't think it's necessary to moderate that kind of content, but at least someone is doing something. The last thing the world needs is another S& Hero.

As hilarious as it is, it was a very tragic event. These kids were watching Naruto Shippuden at ages 7 and 8, I believe it is a TV14 Program here in America, the child's friends buried him in the sandbox in his backyard so he could perform Gaara's Sand Tomb.

There is also speculation of one the Naruto episodes where Itachi told Sasuke he had to kill his best friend to obtain the Mangekou Sharingan.

I'm honestly just at a loss for words when I know there's parents out there who don't have the capacity to raise their children properly.

 

[Ichigo]

Actually it's the fact that there's very little moderation between two extremes. Parents are either too uptight or not observant enough over their children. The former is due to a myriad amount of reasons such as over protection, religious values etc. but the latter is much more serious.

And the reason for that is because people are having children at very young ages and most do not have the mental capacity to understand the magnitude of raising a child. Most aren't mature enough to step up to the plate and they let their children run rampant.

In short, not only is up-tightness an issue, but neglect as well. What both parties fail to realize is that a child doesn't need a shield around them or videogames and tv. It's the guidance to recognize what is right and wrong to later on become functioning members of society.

tl;dr: Some parents restrict too much and some parents don't restrict enough.

 

[SaShman]

The issue about showing alcohol and smoking in cartoons is ridiculous. Even if little kids did think it was cool, how would they be able to access these things?

I think that restricting what kids watch (to a certain degree) is pointless, because to put it simply; they will learn about it eventually. It's for this reason that I don't think we have to worry about the next generation being a generation of wimps. If anything, the generation of wimps is already here in the parents who cry about these shows being a bad influence.

 

[Rydia]

I agree Ichigo. I think there is very little moderation. I do not at all think that children should be exposed to realistic graphical violence or porn, or even strong language. But minor stuff that appears in Spongebob square pants or any other cartoon pre 2000? This stuff is harmless. I never had the need to drop an anvil on someones head because even when I was young, I knew that would kill someone. Kids aren't as stupid as many people think. Kids will imitate some things, but parents should step in and correct them. If they continue to imitate after several corrections, then take the show away as punishment.

The funny thing is, many parents complaining came from a generation with cartoonish violent cartoons and cartoons with mature themes. (animaniacs, Ren and Stimpy, Loony Toons) And I'm sure they enjoyed these cartoons as children.

And random, but there was a kid in my elementary school class that was not allowed to watch Rugrats because Angelica was a brat. Really? If your kid starts imitating Angelica, punish him/her! It's not that hard.

 

[coffeecup]

I feel sorry for the kid who looks at Spongebob as his role model rather than the older sibling/mother/father/uncle/etc.... :/

But it is understandable from the parent's point of view of wanting to shield the innocent kid from violence on the tube. And there is a rational connection to this "shielding" so it's not just some arbitrary, defective behavior on the part of the parent. I mean, most parents wouldn't be open to showing their 5-year old kids "pulp fiction." Some might see spongebob as vulgar while others don't. It's just a matter of degree.

Well with that said and despite my personal opinion that disallowing kids from watching violent kiddy cartoons won't have a very negative impact on his/her future behavior, I don't think there's anything wrong with parents protecting their young kids from watching these types of shows. It's not like the kid's missing out or learning any valuable life lessons from this violence anyway.

So...in conclusion...it doesn't matter. Let the parents do the parenting however they want on this matter.

Edit: Just saw that the OP asked a totally different question. About whether or not cartoons should have violence rather than a parent restricting the kid from watching violent cartoons. Oh well, that's a bit of a tougher question. I'm not going to answer it! Too much effort, and I need to study.

 

[Kandy-Sugar]

Back when most of us were kids, cartoons were relatively violent. We had animaniacs, Tiny Toons, various loony toon cartoons and many more. No one thought anything of it and I don't think it's made any of us crazy mass murderers.

I remember watching those shows and neither I or my brothers and sisters ever got into fights or anything at school. We all turned out fine.

It really all depends on the kids personality and how they're brought up. I don't know too many people who watch T.V. shows and then right after say, 'I'm gonna go behave exactly how the characters in that show did.' and then go shoot a whole bunch of people or whatever.

Also, as far as I know, childrens shows are not allowed to show any character drinking or smoking and guns are not allowed not even by adult characters. If you look at some older cartoons, it was quite common to have characters drink or smoke and the villians would sometimes have guns and shoot at the main characters.

Should violence (even cartoonish), smoking, and drinking be allowed in children's shows? Or should they be left out?

I think the drinking and smoking thing should be left out of those sort of shows for kids.

There's enough peer pressure at school to do those things, without them wanting to copy their favourite cartoon character who smokes and drinks as well. >.<

It's so hard to figure out what's appropriate and what isn't these days. Some kids turn out normal and wouldn't ever consider doing anything they watch on the T.V.

Then there are some who think it'd be awesome to try and smoke a few cigarettes.

The parent needs to figure out what sort of child their kid is and whether it's wise to let them watch such shows, and just go from there. Every kid is different. =/

 

[Tyler Breeze]

Yes! When I grew up, there was something called the "Attitude Era" in pro wrestling which I watched all my life. Now, on Monday nights I would sit down with my parents to watch WWF Raw, and what did I see?...

Pimps, Vampires, Satanist, Stone Cold drinking beer and cursing all night, Undertaker "Sacrificing" people, Mankind being a psycho in the boiler room, DX telling people to... Erm yeah.

The point is, I saw these things as a small kid and for years. I'm fine. I'm not trying to be a vampire, it was entertainment and I knew that at a very young age. All those things I mentioned above gave me memories I cherish from childhood. I can't say Dora The Explorer did the same.

I feel bad for these kids. They will never get to have a childhood story if parents keep this up. I'm not saying they have to watch violent madness all the time, but give them a little more free range after they reach a certain age. If they have friends and are doing good in school, why can't a kid watch Spongebob?

 

[Starships]

Most of the parents these days are pretty selfish. They don't let their child watch a show because they don't like it.

I just don't let her watch things that annoy me. Yo Gabba Gabba is a huge no in my house.]

SB is banned, Barney was banned before I had kids as it drove me nuts when my 22 yr old nephew was a baby

Only thing that I have told her she can't watch so far is Bratz. That shit makes me wanna barf.

But they also ban them for the most dumbest reasons ever. It's just so stupid.

I don't allow the tween shows on Disney.. my 4 year old repeats everything. She picked up "stupid-head" from Lilo & Stitch]

Oh no ! Not Stupid- Head. Omg, she's going to grow up to be a criminal now ! Oh no. Oh dear. [sarcasm]

I never let my daughter watch Beauty and the Beast. Too many women think that if they are good and sweet and kind, that total douchebag is going to turn into a prince. I blame these stupid princess movies.

Um no the moral of Beauty and the Beast is to not judge by appearances.

Tv for kids is such disgusting BS nowadays I'm sticking to outside and movies. The crap they are teaching them - name calling, defiance, hitting, bullying, disobedience... It's blatant, the main part of the show, not a lesson learned.

What a load of PC Bullshit.

​

Oh you're going to take them outside where they are going to go to school or the playground and pick up on bullying and name calling, hitting and other crap anyways. Niiiice.
You can't block somebody from the real world. Plus the place where I picked up the PC nonsense is the most hypercritical place ever. They ban shows because they don't like it, and then they rant about how their children most be good, perfect and must not watch single ounce of violence or anything wrong when they go around being selfish and saying things " I hate Dora, that bitch ". I can't... The next generation of kids is going to be the worst...

I grew up with games like Mortal Kombat II on the Sega. Have I killed anybody ? No. Has it been a bad influence ? No. Has it made me want to bully or be racist or name-call anybody ? No. ​

​

 

[The Welsh Paddy]

You do realise all this is just parents finding someone else to blame for their own shortcomings?

As a parent myself, I think it is up to the parents to set an example of what's right and what's wrong, and to not shelter their child from all these things just because "it's wrong". Sure, I don't plan on letting my son go ahead and watch R-rated films with tonnes of gore, sex and nudity, etc. He's only two and a half. xD But right now, his favourite cartoon is the Batman animated series that was aired in the early ninties. If I let him, he could happily sit there and watch it on an endless loop. And some of the themes in that cartoon can be somewhat more "grown up". For example, there is an episode about some man who created this invisibility suit and sneak into his ex-wife/girlfriend's place to visit his daughter whom he was denied access to.

But the thing is... It's the sort of cartoon that treats children like they are intelligent; not some simpleton. And cartoons just never do that anymore. It's all toilet humor and insanely simple themes. Now I'm all for educational shows, but if you were to switch the tv on (and if you live in the UK) and put on... CBeebies, or CITV, all you'll get would be programs that make out that things like belching, farting and picking your nose are really funny, or some man or woman who speaks in such an annoying and condescending tone. I'm not saying that people shouldn't laugh at things like someone farting or belching, because it can be a bit funny sometimes, but the least they could do is just be decent about it for the sake of showing good manners.

My point is that most children's shows these days treat kids like their idiots. They are not idiots. They have a memory like a sponge; they learn to walk, talk, listen, understand how certain things work, basic manners... I could go on and on with this list, and these are things they develop within the space of three years.

Someone stated that they've met 4-6 year olds who are scared of Shredder from TMNT... What the hell? As I stated earlier, my two and a half year old watches the Batman animated series, and that has some pretty disturbing villains; like Scarecrow who uses a gas that makes people have hallucinations depicting horrific sights. But it's not scary in the sense that someone would feel scared watching a 15 or 18+ horror film. I'll say it again, it simply deals with themes that treat the child as an intelligent individual.

All cartoons should take an example from this. Growing up, I enjoyed the likes of Battle of The Planets, Batman, TMNT, Biker Mice From Mars, Bucky O'Hare, Thundercats, He-Man, Transformers, Flash Gordon... Okay, now the original 80's Transformers series was pretty much a rudimentary form of right and wrong, but it had so many ideas that were clever. Like Megatron and his Decipticons creating that space bridge to bring Cybertron to Earth so they can steal all Earth's resources. It's not the sort of thing that treats a child like they're stupid.

Kids need to learn for themselves what is right and wrong. Parents need to guide them, but simply removing things from their life is taking away that opportunity to learn. As for parents not allowing their kids to watch things because they find them annoying, the sollution is simple. Don't have kids!

 

[Starships]

But the thing is... It's the sort of cartoon that treats children like they are intelligent; not some simpleton. And cartoons just never do that anymore. It's all toilet humor and insanely simple themes. Now I'm all for educational shows, but if you were to switch the tv on (and if you live in the UK) and put on... CBeebies, or CITV, all you'll get would be programs that make out that things like belching, farting and picking your nose are really funny, or some man or woman who speaks in such an annoying and condescending tone. I'm not saying that people shouldn't laugh at things like someone farting or belching, because it can be a bit funny sometimes, but the least they could do is just be decent about it for the sake of showing good manners.

My point is that most children's shows these days treat kids like their idiots. They are not idiots.

Agree. It's like cartoons like Chowder these days. I did like Spongebob when I was younger, but that cartoon doesn't help matters either and getting a watch of a newer episode the other day; it's even dumber than it was before.

What happened to cartoons like Duck Tales and Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers ? Cartoons from memory didn't treat kids like they had a IQ of -30.

 

[Squid]

I can't remember if I posted here or not haha cbf checking so I am posting again.

Hell yes parents are too uptight about childrens shows these days. Show's used to be pure fun, sometimes they'd have a little hidden moral in them but usually it was just for fun like Hey Arnold or Ahhh real monsters etc. You never see anything like that anymore. Parents are worried about violence, swearing etc so now every thing's turned to piss. Mind numbing boring pish.

The other day I happened to flick over to the ABC channel and there was some animated cartoon about talking garden tools....the characters were talking to the kids like they were mentally disabled. I wanted to smack the tv in. No wonder kids are so dumb, they're being wrapped in bubble wrap by literally everything.

I watched all kinds of weird shit growing up as a kid. I watched Dragon Ball Z every morning and that was pure violence, hey it even had blood in it and I turned out ok hahaha in fact I think i was a pretty good kid whereas the kids you see today are little pathetic brats

Ugh I dunno, it's just sad. If I have a child I wont be letting them watchthe ABC channel. I'll be buying them DVDs of the great 90s cartoons I grew up with.