Impact of Cartoons on Children

Television has a widespread influence on everyone, especially children. Children are impacted so much by the things they have seen and watched on TV. They learn many things from TV, but their social skills and other learning abilities slow down. Watching TV numbs the mind of children and keeps them inactive from daily exercise. Furthermore, speech delays can occur in children who watch excessive amounts of television. Television programming such as MTV, Adult Swim, and Family Guy exposes and promotes negative

“Television has changed the American child from an irresistable force to an immovable object.” (Peter). There was a time when all children wanted to do was to run, play, explore, and be adventurous. As time evolved, children have found more interest in television. Statistics show that a child spends 900 hours per year in school,and they spend 1,200 hours per year watching television. When asked to choose between watching T.V. and spending time with their families fifty-four percent of four to six year olds voted they would prefer to watch television. Television has changed the mindset of children over the years it has been proven that the more programs they watch, the more harmful it is to their brain development. T.V.

* Forty-six percent of all television violence identified by the study took place in children's cartoons. Children's programs were least likely to depict the long-term consequences of violence (5%) and they portray violence in a humorous fashion 67% of the time. (14)

A study indicates that what the children see on television is something that becomes imbedded within them, “…when a child sees violence used as a means to solve a problem (in cartoons), this lesson becomes hard-wired in the central nervous system,” (Drinka, 2013). Based on the information provided we can conclude that with this much of an impact on children internally, it can be very hard to change their way of thinking later on in life.

In the article “TV’s Negative Influence on Kids Reaffirmed” by Jeffrey M. McCall, he addresses the issue of how TV has a negative influence on children. McCall states that young children and toddler’s cognitive ability do not develop as well when they have a television in the background while they are playing and interacting. McCall also argues that TV has a very influential role in the teenage pregnancy rate and how early teens become sexually active. To further prove his point, McCall proclaims that children and teens that are exposed to large amounts of television and video games become socially awkward and have issues interacting in society. McCall also says that the networks are rating their own programs carelessly, which is leading to shows that should be restricted by a V-chip being watched by children, rendering the restricting system null and void.

Television can affect learning and school performance if it exceeds the time kids need for their crucial for healthy physical and mental development. Most of children's free time, especially during the early development years, should be spent in activities such as playing, reading, exploring nature, learning about music or participating in sports. Research has shown that children's exposure to television during the preschool years is predictive of academic outcomes during adolescence. The most notable lesson about this

Over the past two decades, hundreds of studies have examined how violent programming on TV affects children and young people. While a direct "cause and effect" link is difficult to establish, there is a growing consensus that some children may be vulnerable to violent images and messages.

Technology throughout the past 30-40 years has become more advanced and accessible than ever. The television specifically has developed extremely since its beginning. What started off as a single camera caption, has developed into a full fledge worldwide availability. Within the United States, the TV is a normal everyday object common in households, hotels, schools, and even restaurants. There are approximately 118.4 million household in the United States that own a television set ( The Number of TV Households in the United States from season 2000-2001 to season 2016-2017 (in millions)).However, the increased amount of time spent watching TV has had a tremendous impact on people, especially kids. The differences in generations throughout the development of the TV has led to many questions, all revolving around whether or not the televisions has had a good or negative impact pertaining to children. Time spent watching television affects the brain, ability to learn, and skill levels in different areas (source. In the book “Last Child in The Woods,” Richard Louv discusses how children in the 1940’s would watch out the window at the scenery and have conversations, while children now sit and watch a movie on a flip-down video screen without knowledge to the outside world (Louv 16-17).

The purpose of the argument is to raise the awareness about cartoon violence and come up with some solutions to lessen its negative impact on the children that are watching them.

Cartoon violence also leaves a negative impact on children. After the Columbine School shooting, attention shifted from television to other media, such as cartoons. Cartoons in America, generally for children, also form a surprisingly large source of violence. (Clark, 2009) stated “HIGH levels of violence in cartoons such as Scooby-Doo can make children more aggressive.” This behavior includes verbal and psychical aggression. (Clark, 2009) Also found “that children copied at school the verbal aggression they had seen on T.V.” (p. 2) (2nd ed). Watching cartoon increase real- life aggression in children. Children become aggressive toward their classmates by causing

“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’”. In the article “Violent Media Is Good for Children”, the author Jones Gerard suggests that the violent stories in comic books and other media have a developmental functioning the lives of young children. I support the discussion by the author of the article based on the fact that though children should not be encouraged to express openly emotions such as fear, greed and range, they should have a way to let out such emotions in a non-confrontational way. Further, comic books will help the children learn to embrace the emotions of rage and fear and channel them for better use other than resorting to conflict. Violent media can also be important to help children to take control over their feelings and emotions.

According to Stevie Hossler, “Too many children are watching too much television and the shows that they are watching (even if they are cartoons) have become violent and addictive.” (ethos) Prime time animated cartoons give young children a false sense of what real life is about. Unless networks are willing to readdress their social responsibilities as providers of entertainment for young society, television should boycott these types of shows. Television channels that used to show good family values like “Full House” or “Parenthood”, networks now have replaced them with shows like “The Simpsons”, “Family Guy”, and “American Dad”. Cartoons on television glorify violence, influence children to have no respect for

Moving away from education, even entertainment is a serious purpose displayed in cartoons. Just like Family Guy, People can watch it to relieve stress and take their minds off of their busy schedule for a little while. Many people have a lot to balance and think about in what they do on a daily basis which is not easy for anyone to handle regardless of their expertise in what they do. Therefore, cartoons provide the serious purpose of entertainment as an outlet to the all the stress.

Today’s society is heavily influenced by television. The violence disrupts a child’s learning process and can alter the moral beliefs that an older person has. Children view more violence on Saturday mornings than any other time. The cartoons aimed at little children influence youngsters to mimic violent acts because their parents do not fully explain the effects of the stunts. It is pathetic that in such a technology based society, such a simple thing as television can have a negative effect on people.

In a study by Iman Sharif and James D. Sargent, 4508 students participated to find out whether or not certain television content affected the grades of young children. In many analyses they found that,