Children and Television - Is Censorship Really Necessary?

The obvious answer to this question is, of course, yes it is absolutely 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 between getting home from school and eating supper 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.

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I have only one child and in fact started a family 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a shock to me when I turned on children's television and found that, in my twenties and thirties Watch With Mother had been replaced by Grange Hill and The Snotbags. Shock was replaced with horror when I actually watched ten minutes of these programs and found the content full of bad language, slang and offensive behaviour.

Children and Television - Is Censorship Really Necessary?

There was no way I was going to allow my three year old to watch such gratuitous garbage, so the television was promptly turned off until I could collect some suitable material for her to watch on tape.

There followed a number 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 certain programming ethics are geared to boosting viewing figures only, and are in no way concerned with the development of children's cultural welfare.

Program content 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 course they do - it is what kids do. There is no need to supply them with a surfeit of the stuff, though, and we must remember that we, as adults, are supposedly in charge 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 sponge up not only information but impressions, language and styles of dressing, walking and speaking.

Children and Television - Is Censorship Really Necessary?

Jan Gamm writes reflections on life with an emphasis on world travel. She has lived in many countries and traveled extensively in the Far East, the Middle East, America, South America and throughout the South Pacific. She writes for fun and for money whenever she can manage it.

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