See No Evil (3/3) By Bekki Stephenson

(1/3), (2/3), (3/3).

So with children in Britain watching on average four hours of television a day, is it any wonder society is becoming increasingly more violent? Cartoon characters can suffer many violent accidents without a scrape and get many laughs from the violence they inflict. Children may not only learn violence from these programs, but they may also believe that there are not consequences for their actions. They may think they can violate one another without being punished, or without inflicting any pain, because cartoon characters do not suffer realistically.

Blue Stephenson, 10 years old agrees that there are some violent cartoons, however when it comes to imitating the violent behaviour he argues I am not that stupid but I can see some younger people doing that because they don't know why it is so dangerous. Perhaps then, the way that children interpret cartoons relies heavily on factors such as age and intelligence. If this is the case then guidelines protecting more vulnerable children from viewing violence must be put into practice. As well as ever-increasing amounts of violence, drug-abuse is a growing problem among today's youth. If it is our early exposure to cartoon characters that appear to profoundly influence behaviour, than it may not be unreasonable to assume that our childhood favourites are guilty themselves of supporting drug abuse.

Droopy Dog, released in 1943 by MGM, may be a suspect in cannabis use. While sagging eyes and a relaxed, if not somewhat semi-conscious state may not be the direct result of drug abuse, he certainly endorses the effects of cannabis. Similarly, Shaggy from Scooby Doo; his clothes, his hair, not too mention the goatee. Anybody who converses with dogs and can manage all those scooby snacks (long rumoured to be munchies) is surely not a suitable role model for young children.

While this may be just harmless fun, children will and do imitate what they see on television, add this to peer pressure and it may not be too far from the truth.

The underlying factor when it comes to the influence of cartoons is the distinguishing between fantasy and fiction. Shows that engender negative emotions should perhaps be avoided, as this may, in some individuals, validate and strengthen any predisposition to negative emotions that they already have. Professor Robert J Edelmann suggests as with all forms of entertainment there should be a duty on those producing the material to 'rate' it - as they do now with video games - and for parents/carers to be watchful. It is better to be over restrictive than permissive.

Parents should encourage discussion with their children about what they watch so that they can learn to form healthy opinions of their own. George Bush once declared that the nation's families should be more like The Waltons than The Simpsons.

Later Matt Groening, the shows creator recorded a full show in which the Bush family moves to Springfield, right opposite the Simpson's. All out war is soon declared between the two families: Bart shreds Bush's freshly completed memoirs in an outboard motor, Bush spanks Bart, Bart complains to Homer: I begged him to stop but he said it was for the good of the nation. If a yellow, animated, 10 year-old can do that to the world's most powerful leader, just what cartoons can do to the rest of us only remains to be seen.

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