At the risk of sounding like an ultra conservative nut job who wants to impede on people rights, let me start by saying I am absolutely not some ultra conservative nut job. I support the average American’s right to be as deranged or psychotic as they see fit, well within the confines of the law of course. I don’t think that violent video games cause teenagers to go mental and while I don’t think that my children’s shows should sound like open night at the raunchy show, I don’t think one or two curse words will cause their delicate little ears to melt and/or fall off. I think that censorship should be at the discretion of the parents, not the government.
However… I do think that the course of the media has taken a very dangerous turn. I’m a big kid at heart, I love cartoons and will willingly watch programs aimed at juveniles and teens with my children, but adult themes are everywhere, and this isn’t something that has been lost on me. I particularly love Spongebob, but, and forgive me if I sound prudish, Spongebob’s butt should not be visible at all, even if it is yellow and spongy. One of my children have a certain fondness for a show called Super Dumo Sumos that features three sumo wrestlers who traipse around throughout the show in sumo diapers and instead of high fives, they opt for a bare butt cheek slap, all three of them. At the same time. It’s slightly disturbing to say the least.
It amazes me when I hear parents complain about how advanced their children are for their age when they watch shows like “iCarly” that showcase teenage love affairs and for all intents and purposes, no real parental guidance. How can we be shocked that our kids are acting out when they emulate Disney stars that are caught on camera in bars?
And its not just the cartoons. How can we expect our young women to grow up with healthy opinions of and love for themselves with shows like “America’s Next Top Model” on the air? As if being a teenage girl isn’t enough, they get to watch a panel of people judge women all day long based on their looks. Aren’t we supposed to teach them that outside appearances matter very little in the grand scheme of things?
They even have a show dedicated to celebrating the antics of young women who can’t follow rules. Can the networks agree that shows like Bad Girls Club is destructive? Is this what I want my 10 year old thinking? That its okay to live a life with loose or non existent morals, going out every night to a bar or club and getting hammered, on someone else’s dime?
I mean seriously, its hard enough raising children in the economic climate in which we have to without turning it into a proverbial dead man’s walk complete with landmines. Television is the lesser of two evils. I mean, if they aren’t watching a lot of cleavage or cartoon tush, they can climb online and find a complete sex act.
And I know, I know…there’s parental locks on televisions, but have you actually locked any channels that show any offensive material? I kid you not, if you ever decided to, all you’re left with is PBS and a bunch home shopping channels.
I hate sounding like an anal over-obsessive psycho, stuck in the golden years of TV where everything was in black and white and the most risque was Alfred Hitchcock, but I don’t think my 10, 7 or 2-year-old should be seeing bare butt, cartoon or not. They shouldn’t see young girls hanging around a bar, drinking and talking like sailors while screaming, “I run L.A.!” They shouldn’t have to see young women, competing in a long-shot competition while being objectified.
Maybe it’s just me. Maybe I’m ‘old-fashioned’ and arcane in my beliefs. I do think that children are more intelligent with each generation. I see my younger sister and brother and know this to be a fact. Both they and my children are 10 times smarter than I was when I was that age, but intelligence and maturity and the ability to handle adult situations are all very different things. I know it may seem like a harmless, innocent fun alternative for our children, but the fact is that TV is like a surrogate parent nowadays, and what we’re subjecting them to in their favorite programs can be a bit more harmful than we know, so, at the risk of acting like an ultra conservative nut job who wants to impede on their personal little rights, sometimes you have to be an ultra conservative nut job.
But hey, what do I know? This is all just in my opinion.