The obvious rejoinder to this inquire is, of course, yes it is certainly imperative. All children will switch on a television and watch it regardless of content. Selectivity is something they learn in their teens but many younger children tend to gravitate to the screen and watch whatever happens to be on at the time, especially if they happen to be snacking on potato chips at the time.
The after school hours are the most popular times for watching Tv; that hour of rest in the middle of getting home from school and eating dinner is the time when many children are drawn to the Tv like a magnet, and sit there until they are physically swept up to do their homework.
Television
I have only one child and in fact started a house quite late in life, so it was a shock to me when I turned on children’s television and found that, in my twenties and thirties Watch With mum had been substituted by Grange Hill and The Snotbags. Shock was substituted with bad dream when I certainly watched ten minutes of these programs and found the article full of bad language, slang and offensive behaviour.
There was no way I was going to allow my three year old to watch such gratuitous garbage, so the television was instantly turned off until I could procure some favorable material for her to watch on tape.
There followed a estimate of years when my child watched pre-selected movies and recorded programs only. She watched children’s Tv at friend’s homes only and by the time she was eight years old she had been sufficiently primed with respectability to be shocked at what passed for entertainment in other people’s houses.
Not that one would wish to be a prude about such things, and certainly when kids start approaching their teens they need to be aware of what is going on in the world. I do believe, however, that obvious programming ethics are geared to boosting viewing figures only, and are in no way implicated with the improvement of children’s cultural welfare.
Program article is designed to shock and appal the viewer, because, let us face it, children love a bit of scary stuff or blood and guts to spice up an afternoon spent in the dreary confines of a classroom. Of policy they do – it is what kids do. There is no need to provide them with a surfeit of the stuff, though, and we must remember that we, as adults, are supposedly in payment of what our children see and when.
At the very least we must strive to be aware of what is being consumed by our children in the way of entertainment, and remember that children hanger-on up not only data but impressions, language and styles of dressing, walking and speaking.
Children and Television – Is Censorship unmistakably Necessary?
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