Effects of Cartoon on Children

Sometimes watching animated or cartoons can teach us more life lessons than our family and friends can teach us. Cartoons, in general, are synonym for entertainment, pleasure and laughter, which comes with moral and huge life lessons to follow, which make life simpler, easier and of course, more beautiful. For example, after watching the animated movie “How to Train Your Dragon” it made me think how important it is not to judge anything before getting to know it (even if it is a fire breathing dragon).

(“Are My Kids’ Favorite Cartoons Too Political?”)(pathos) Prime time animated cartoons tend to glorify violence and teach children that it is more of a game than it is serious. According to Mark Joseph Stern, “When California tried to ban the sale of violent video games to minors, the Supreme Court mocked its efforts, noting that old Looney Tunes cartoons provoked the same tendency toward violence in children as a Grand Theft Auto–style bloodbath.” (Stern)(ethos) For instance, in “The Simpsons”, when Bart and Lisa watch “Itchy and Scratchy”, Scratchy always dies and Bart and Lisa laugh, which results in teaching kids that manslaughter is alright. Cartoons these days are desensitizing kids towards violence. Researchers have proven that, “Today's animation and games are so realistic it can be hard for kids to tell the difference between ‘pretend' violence and live action, making some animation just as disturbing as the real thing.” (“Does Cartoon Violence Make Kids More Aggressive?”)(ethos) Take “Tom and Jerry” for instance, this animated cartoon is designed for five year olds. “Tom and Jerry” was reviewed as three out of five stars for violence and scariness, as well as two out of five stars for drinking, drugs, and smoking from Common Sense Media. (Sheppard)(logos) Although these shows are remembered as ‘classic’, there is no educational value behind

comics to children based on the author’s clinical evidence of the format’s detrimental links to

“In 1956, kids in a study who watched a violent episode of Woody Woodpecker were more likely to hit other children and break toys than kids who watched a nonviolent cartoon” (Hermes 2). All of these things made parents wonder what was happening to their children.

Secondly, television has made children more violent. Television not only makes children more violent, but it also makes children more fearful to the world around them. Cyndy Scheibe describes how parents are concerned about violence on television. A big problem is that not only does adult crime dramas include violence, but so do cartoons and slapstick comedies. Scheibe explains some other effects of violence on television are that children may become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others in reality and television. She also states that children may behave in aggressive and harmful ways to others. Scheibe says the reason for this is, “The impact of TV violence on aggression seems to be partly due to imitation of the aggressive actions that children see (particularly if they are done by the “good guys”) and partly due to the message that aggression works to get what you want and it’s okay to use aggression it you are justified in doing so.” (Scheibe p1) Agreeing with Scheibe, Talia Trigilio also says violence in television makes kids more aggressive. Cartoons carry a lot of violent content, 46% of violence is found in cartoons. Trigilio said, “I was shocked to stumble across the statistic that there were more violent acts in an hour of Saturday morning television than during prime time.” (Trigilio p4) A Common show like the “Power Rangers” is interpreting “violence is fantasy” but sometimes your viewers can’t tell

At the intersection of communication and psychology, at the junction of media effects and cognitive development, lies a growing body of research concerned with the impact cartoons have had and continue to have on children. Research theory provides direction in this matter.

“Children aged five to sixteen spend an average of six and a half hours a day in front of a screen… ”(Wakefield). But unfortunately, much of the television today is full of violence. Scientists believe that the effects of TV violence can cause children and teenagers to become immune to the consequence of violence, unable to handle their problems in a healthy form, and cause them to copy the violent behavior they see on the television. Therefore, there needs to be a removal of violence from cartoons such as the ones on Boomerang, as it is negatively affecting children.

More than 98% of households in the United States have at least one television set. Two-thirds of the children in the United States have a television in their room. Children watch approximately twenty-eight hours of television a week. Children watching violent broadcast TV shows are exposed to guns or bladed weapons every three minutes. By the age of eighteen, a U.S. youth will have seen 16,000 simulated murders and 200,000 acts of violence (2015).

Even family oriented cartoons such as the Looney Tunes starring household names such as Bugs Bunny, Wildie Coyote, and the Road-Runner portray a lot of violence. Unfortunately, these types of violence are often rewarded with a laugh. While it may be comedic to adults, children are witnessing acts of violence that happen without punishment. Many of these acts of violence would leave a person greatly injured or dead, but in the cartoons the character on the screen is unaffected and ready to try again in the next scene or segment. This clearly is not reality. Children do not have the ability and understanding to grasp fictional television and reality.

Violent television shows lead to violence in children between the ages of two and five. A study conducted by Albert Bandura concludes that violence in the media can lead to aggressive behavior. In this study, the experimental group was shown a cartoon where the characters

I have grown up with cartoons and absolutely loved them. I never imagined what they could do to someone's mental state I never questioned this until the day I was at an autistic boy’s house. He was watching SpongeBob in this episode SpongeBob gave Patrick (SpongeBob's best friend) a haircut. not soon after this the autistic boy had a pair of scissors in his hands and tried to cut my hair. At the time I was shocked by this and thought, does this mean cartoons can have adverse effects on people? So that’s why I decided on this topic to find out the negative and positive effects of cartoons on people.

We always thought cartoons were harmless, animated figures are purely entertainment. However, kids begin with cartoons that easily socialize and next thing you know, "Americas young minds are spending two to four hours a day viewing… (t.v.)." (Spicher & Hudak,1997) Studies show that children recall more information if it's presented verbally and visually- such as a t.v. screen.(Walma van der Molen & Van der Voort,1997) In a society where we use the boob tube as both entertainment and baby-sitter, an average 20 hours a week could be fatal. In these harmless cartoons, studies show that male characters outnumber female characters by about 4:1 and that only a small number of females are shown in

Not only does this extreme involvement with cartoons limit the social interaction of children, it has an adverse effect on their mental, emotional, psychological as well physical health. Their behaviour becomes characterised by varied maladies. Many a

that children imitate televised words and actions from an early age. We are all familiar with

In a blog by Althea Thompson entitled “Pros & Cons of Cartoons on Kids” : A child watches approximately 18,000 hours of television from kindergarten to high school graduation, according to a research by psychologist Steve Hossler of Bowling Green State University. Specifically, watching cartoons has a negative effect on the way children view violence. Cartoons often depict violent acts like explosions, gunshots and death. However, these acts of violence occur in extreme situations with no consequences. A child's brain, emotions and sense of pain are negatively affected because they become desensitized to violence. In 2000, the U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher created a report on adolescent violence where he stated that aggressive behavior in young children is caused by frequently watching entertainment with violence in it.( www.ehow.com)(n.d.)