FIFTY SHADES OF Grey, SEX AND THE CITY, THE BLACK SWAN, 365 DAYS……………close the kids eyes! turn off the TV!
It is always good as a parent to know who, what you child/children interact with. As peers have a lot of influence on people, children most especially. There’s a biblical saying which goes thus “show me your friends and I will tell you who you are” it just goes to say whoever you hang around tends to influence you a lot.
It is the same thing with programs we watch and those we let our kids watch. More often than not most cartoons are family friendly, hence they have no age restrictions. But with non animated movies and even some animated movies which center on themes like marriage, responsibility, romantic love, war, etc. Some scenes of the movie tend to be rated for kids. Popular ratings include – 7, – 10, – 12, PG 13, – 16, – 18. With Parental Guidance ratings, parents are advices to watch a program with their kids, and clarify any doubts which may come up. With ratings like – 7, – 10, – 12 there exists milder contents which is not suitable for kids beneath those ages, mostly because they may be ideologies which are incomprehensible to them hence they may misinterpret, they might get traumatized by certain images or actions. With ratings from -13 come more complex concepts which take greater maturity to understand. While R16 and R18 movies have even stronger content, for instance Violence, Strong Language, Nudity. Strangely in most homes in our typical Cameroonian society you would find children glued to R16 movies, sometimes with their parents in the same room.
Many people who are ignorant seem to have no problem with it, but get apprehensive when a sexual scene comes up. Some distract the children by yelling at them for an action done earlier in the day, turn off the TV, and funny enough some parents and adults cover the kids eyes.
It just goes to say that no one likes to see their kids watch what is not good for them at a particular age. But no one also takes the right decision to bar kids from watching movies which are Rated above their ages. Sometimes, children are left alone at home and no one knows what they view in the absence of adults. But just because a parent has no idea what happened in their absence does not mean that the child or children did not watch and ingest what was shown. And what they viewed must work on them either positively or negatively.
We are aware that sometimes due to parents busy schedules it is impossible to control what children view, and sometimes when they return from their various work spaces they are exhausted and can barely control TV programs while trying to make meals available for the family. While seeing eye to eye with parents and sympathizing with them, they could restrict children from watching what is inappropriate for them by blocking the channels which have “matured” content. Parents could also get children engaged in other activities like playing card games, hop-scotch, jump rope games, chess, checkers, etc. To make them view the TV less thereby reducing the risk of them watching what is not good for them when adults are not with them.
It would be good to let kids know that they can always have other activities to engage in. That will make kids more open to new experiences, by playing games and sports a child might develop special love for a particular game or sport which might just become a source of income.
On most modern Televisions, there are options in the Settings which allow people to block, delete, channels they don’t want. And even for less modern televisions, there is also a way to block channels you don’t want to have. While it is will not be 100% effective, it will be easier to monitor what shows children watch when they have little to no time on the Television in parents absence. Some parents who are away through out the day, go the extra mile to control what their kids view by keeping the remote control out of the children’s reach for as long as they will be out. While it seems like a fine measure it is a bit too drastic. Unless such children are restricted from visiting other people the neighbors then it is in high doubt that those children will still not eventually find a way to watch Television.
It is true that some channels which are usually not for children show educational programs which tend to enlighten children on certain topics. For example, a popular movie station African Magic Epic shows movies which are mostly rated 16, and tagged down with VL (Violence, and Language). Most movies they publicize are centered on love, marriage, or simply moral lessons, such as the consequences of living a lie, and self aggrandizement. Though there are positive lessons taught, certain happenings in rated movies are just not for children’s eyes and minds.
It is very necessary for parents to follow up their children to know what they’re consuming, because the saying “you are what you eat” stands true. Whatever gets into kids minds is information which influences them one way or another.
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