violence in kids shows

by BlackSwan of Memphis 3 Replies latest social entertainment

• 

  BlackSwan of Memphis

  Ok so after I started the other thread I got to thinking about how the shows can sometimes be Too adult themed.

  Going back to (as Clam sort of reminded me) Tom and Jerry and Popeye, even Bugs Bunny. Have these toons, which teach our kids various lessons of life, also taught them violence? Is it a big deal, to the point where we should not let our kids watch them?

  I tend to think that we just need to be balanced with it. We need to be the one's to say, Yeah, I know Bugs dropped the piano on Daffy, but it's still not ok.

  Hmmmm I think I've been watching too much Spongebob and Timmy.
• 

  avidbiblereader

  Tom and Jerry and Popeye, even Bugs Bunny

  I grew up in a time that this was the norm of cartoons and yet I did not see or feel violence toward others and when I went to school, we had gun clubs and other activities that would be condemned or not even thought of being allowed today. I think that we have all seen our share of "violence" but the media and entertainment monitored it or didn't allow it as it was too graphic or not socially acceptable.

  However today the world seems saturated in violence on TV, movies, the news is way too graphic on some points, the internet, video games which I feel has done so much to callous the minds of many. The norm today is acceptable violence, this is not for the benefit of mankind, whether on a local level, national and certainly not on a world wide scale.

  I think that all of it has very slowly allowed our minds to see things as acceptable that would not even had a chance to be shown not to many years back. This is not progress, the scary thing is mankind is armed to the teeth, the possibilities that lie on the horizon is truly frightening and especially for the younger generation.

  abr
• 

  Abaddon

  I think any idea that 'we' old people could 'get' cartoon violence when we were kids, and realise that it was not meant to be enacted in real life, but young people todaycan't is a straw hamper short of a picnic.

  Most ideas about 'it was so good then' are based on fond but rather inaccurate memories.

  Is LA violent today? Yes. But now it is only as violent as it was in 1956 (I heard the mayor say so on BBC World Service today).

  What we have is

  • Greater visability of bad things happening due to pervasive reach of media
  • Less censorship and self-censorship; child abuse happened in the past but reportage was very low, TV shows now cover topics considered 'unsuitable' years ago, but those topics still happened back when TV coverage of them was considered unsuitable
  • Modern families are different to families fifty years ago
• 

  Madame Quixote

  Not that this answers your question definitively, but, I think this 8-year-old girl (and whomever wrote her script) turns the question of violence and the media upside down (as perhaps ought to be done).

  It might offer some insight as to whether or not modern media itself is the culprit; and suggests that there some larger, more historical social issues to address:

  http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=8-year-old+girl

  'Violence in society has been around for a lot longer than rap. . .religion and violence and music have gone hand in hand . . . how about "onward christian soldiers and 10 Little Indians, for example" . . . we don't need to be taught religion . . . we need to be taught empathy . . . 'etc.

  bastardfairies.com