The Negative Impacts Of Cartoons On Children

Cartoons play a key role in every child's life, but are they good for you? The answer is most likely not. A motion picture using animation techniques to photograph a sequence of drawings rather than real people or objects, is the definition of cartoons. Every day cartoons play a huge role in children’s lives throughout the world, which can be negative, “Cartoons are becoming more sexualized, condoning violence, and no longer not requiring children to think and walk away with some type of lesson. As a result, Cartoons are negatively impacting children. Cartoons are expanding the minds of children but also limiting their sense of morality”. Cartoons portray many different lifestyles many of which portray negative lifestyles. When cartoons are brought up many people go right to thinking about the old cartoons they used to watch when they were children. Many years ago the cartoons people watched were very educational or for laughing entertainment in a positive way.

Although there was still negative ones, such as Disney and racism in Looney Toons. Nowadays times have changed and cartoons are changing and becoming more toxic to the developing brain. In today's time and even in 2000s cartoons have taken a turn for the worse and people do not see or understand the underlying reasons for this. Tom and Jerry for example is one that portrays competition and violence in every episode. Barbie is a show where the main character shows negative body image. Many of the shows that have aired in the past have many different aspects to them. In other words, each cartoon is different and often shows negativity in some way. Cartoon creators are the main source of the negative images that they create, for the sole purpose of just creating entertainment and money.

Over the years, children have been becoming more and more attracted to screens. With that comes their attention span significantly decreasing at an alarming rate. Incredibily, recent studies have found that watching just a short nine minuets of spongebob can cause short-term attention for children, “This issue of Pediatrics features the results of a small experimental study that found that children who watched 9 minutes of a fast-paced cartoon had impairment in their executive function compared with children who were assigned a drawing task and those who watched educational televisionЭ. Most times, it's not the children who choose to plop themselves in front of the Tv, it tends the be the parents who work from home or are busy cleaning and working around the house. The best option for them in their minds would be to put their child in front of a Tv to keep them busy. With this comes watching cartoons that are either negative or not age appropriate for a child. When children watch cartoons they observe and see what their favorite characters do. From here, their brains naturally pick up every small detail and this usually results in the child copying them or reenacting. A great example of a negative cartoon that children continue to watch is Calliou.

Calliou is a young boy who has a major attitude issue in every episode, in fact each episode follows a new issue that Calliou is facing and not getting his way with. This is a cartoon that will potentially teach children to act just like him, because they see him get his way each episode, “His constant whining, temper tantrums and general spoiled behaviour is appalling yet his parents seem to always let him get away with everything. He refuses to share with his friends or little sister, his eating skills are worrying for someone his age, he has no manners, he talks back to his parents, and thinks that the world revolves around him. Children watching this show may be able to relate to the character, but it can also make them imitate him and make them feel that it is fine to treat others around them poorly or be rude to everyone”. Cartoons show many different things to children ranging from violence, drug use, racism, and even bad character personality. Have you ever heard of, or been told of the drug theories surrounded by cartoons? Well there are many, ranging from Spongebob and all of his underwater friends being on different drugs, to Scooby Doo and all of his crime fighting gang suffering mental disorders. Another is Pooh and his wilderness friends all fighting some kind of unfortunate mental illness.

Although these theories have not all been proven, many have been supported and show clear evidence that this might be what occuring in the show. For example, in Scooby Doo each character is said to be dealing with a slight mental illness of some sort. Daphne is labeled as having Dependent Personality Disorder, “Being 'the pretty one,' Daphne comes from a wealthy background. She is accident prone and almost nearly always finds herself being kidnapped or accidentally breaking something, therefore remaining the center of attention which, similar to narcissism, was based more on dependence. She always needed to be rescued from said kidnappings, and usually it was Fred to her rescue”. As a child, this is going to teach them and show them that she is the weak one who always depends on her boyfriend and is just the pretty one of the group. On the other hand, her group member Velma, is awkward, shy, smart, and not the prettiest. This will also show children that in order to be smart you have to act and look a certain way. Although this issue can be seen at large, the violence displayed in cartoons is most likely worse. Tom and Jerry is a classical cartoon that is based around comedic violence, however the underlying effects of this show, along with the other violent cartoons are concerning at the least. Some of the effects are described as, increased aggression, desensitization, and an increase in stubbornness, “Research proves that children who are exposed to violence become unsympathetic towards victims of violence and felt very little to no psychological need to respond when caught between violent acts of someone else. They become unsympathetic, silent spectators to violence”. There are many children that begin to identify themselves with their favorite characters and try to act like them, this could cause them to display violence. Lastly, although racism in cartoons has become an issue that people are trying to fight against, it still exists.

For example, there is only one African American Disney princess. She was created in 2009. However, even then Disney and cartoon fans were still disapointed due to the fact that she ends up with a white prince. Viewers were upset that they did not take this oppertunity to make the first Aferican American prince and princess in the Disney World. Throughout the cartoon world, drug theories, racism, violence, and lastly character personality is all being treated as a joke to the young growing minds. These topics are showing up more and more and children continue to absorb everything they are watching. Have you ever wondered if children have body image issues? Unfortunately, studies have begun to show that children as young as preschool years are dealing with a low self esteem directed towards their bodies. In fact eighty percent of ten year old American girls have been on a diet before. Many of your child's favorite cartoons characters are portraying an unrealistic body. Disney, was shamed for slimming down Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck as time went on giving them a smaller body shape and size. However, Barbie is the most unrealistic of all, and if she was a real person she would not be able to support her own legs due to how small they are compared to her upper body, “If the traditional Barbie doll was a real woman, she would be 5’9” and weigh 120 pounds. Her body fat percentage would be so low that she would not be able to menstruate. Her measurements would be 38-18-34. The average woman’s measurements, on the other hand, are about 41-34-43”. These numbers about Barbie’s bodies are scary to even imagine. This is what is being shown to today's children on a regular basis. As they watch, they begin to think this is normal and what they should be looking like in the future, “One study showed that girls who played with Barbie reported lower body image and a greater desire to be thinner than the girls who played with a curvier doll or no doll at all”. Barbie is showing children to be thin and blonde in order to achieve a popular lifestyle. However, Barbie is not the only character causing weight issues. Disney has received backlash for how their characters are created, “Buzzfeed wrote an article in which members of the team dressed up in costume as a Disney Princess and had their bodies digitally altered to fit the frame that is represented in the animations. They clearly are able to reveal the unrealistic, and harmful, alterations that Walt Disney has created”. Again, between Disney and Barbie there has never been a plus sized character.

Disney has been known to create large unrealistic eyes for their princesses. In fact, more than half of the Disney princesses have larger eyes than a waist. Both of these lead to a unrealistic image of life for children. However there is more. Stereotypes are everywhere, whether you notice them or not. Have you ever noticed how almost every Disney movie, the princess is either fighting for her prince or he is saving her? Or, with your favorite cartoons characters the show is based around a male oriented group. For example, Mickey and his friends are almost all male. The only girls that are regularly shown in the series are Minnie and Daisy. Unfortunately, even when women are in the shows, they are depending on the male either romantically, weakly, or by expressing low self esteem, “The classic examples of the stereotypical weak Disney princesses are Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty. Their lives were horrible and then they found men to fix their problems. This kind of message tells girls that they are not strong enough to overcome obstacles and they need men to solve life’s issues”. With that said, the negativity this is teaching our children is immense and saddening. Cartoons can be life changing and can also change brain development in children. Cartoons change how children can behave, from being violent to not listening and being aggressive toward parents and others. These cartoons cause brain development issues, negative attitude, and overweight struggles that also lead to many different types of health issues, including diabetes and eating problems, such as over eating.

In today’s society, the overweight and obessity population continues to rise. People are constantly trying to find ways to combat these issues. Unfornetly, cartoons is adding to that group of people around the world. Children are choosing to sit inside all day and watch cartoons instead of go outside to play and be active. On the other hand, children tend to pick up very small detail and often times they will try to act like or reanact their favorite character. Often times, characters are not using correct vocabulary. Due to the children listening and observing such a great amount, they are more than likely to start speaking with incorrect grammar. However, one of the bigger issues is the violence, “Experts conclude that kids who watch cartoons full of violence tend to be nervous, agressive and belligerent. Moreover, these children are impatient and disobedient. There are three main effects of cartoons that concern violence on children: a) they become insensitive to others' pains and sorrow, b) children do not feel discomfort from any elements of violence around them in real life, c) children are prone to agressive reactions and violent behavior”. Almost every cartoon has some sort of violence in it, some cartoons have just fighting back and forth, others have actual violence that is showing blood and hurting others. With this comes the issue that some children may think there is no consquence to getting hurt, “Watching cartoons which depict violence can encourage children to become violent in real life. Also, children may believe that no one gets hurt or feels pain since cartoons escape unscathed after experiencing violence or an accident”.

Knowing that your children could so closely be feeling these and acting on these effects from cartoons is scary, why should we allow this to be happening? Growing up, I would have never thought to myself that cartoons were a bad influence for children. As a child, I watched a lot of cartoons and never saw an issue with them. Problems with cartoons are usually very well hidden and paying attention to detail is what is needed to understand it. When we were younger, cartoons was a time used to relax, learn, and laugh, but now these cartoons are being abused in an unexcusable way. Children and parents see cartoons in different ways. For parents it's to get your children to be focused on something so they can get things done. While doing this, after awhile parents forget that the only reason they are putting that cartoon on is to feed their children, get work done, or just be left alone. For children it's watching and observing how their favorite character acts, and trying to copy or be just like that character. As I have discussed most times this is in a negative way. After time, these cartoons grow to be very addictive for children and they often rely on being able to watch their favorite cartoons. So, you might be done reading this wondering what we can do as a society to help? Experts suggest waiting to introduce TV to children until their second birthday.

However, if that is not possible limit screen time to about thirty minutes per day and always view what your child is watching before you do. Additionally, always provide your child with educational programing, this would include sesame street, or most programming shown on PBS. Lastly, always explain to your children the difference between cartoons and relality. Between these tips and pointers, the goal is to make parents more aware of how to help and make our children better people.