Remember when you were little, like 5-12, and you would run around with hardly a care in the world, watch cartoons, play silly little games with the neighborhood kids, get all excited when you got a brand new toy? What ever happened to that? I don’t know if this is just me being cynical or what, but it seems to me that children are growing up a hell of a lot faster in comparison to when i was a little kid. And that wasn’t even that long ago. I remember being a rosy-cheeked little squirt running around playing power rangers or dinosaurs with the local kids, waking up early on Saturday mornings to watch the cartoon line up, and just generally being a care free little kid. But, i look at children just a few years behind me and it seems like their being forced to grow up a lot faster than i ever did. I simply look at my little sister. Shes never really run around and played out side, never been one for playing with toys, and never been that carefree. Some might say that that’s just who she is, but i think that’s who shes been forced to be. As i have stated in a previous article the media has changed dramatically over the years. But in this sense the change is not from witty to dumb, now its from childhood to “grow up already”. I say this as i first look at the shows children are commonly watching. When i was little, (not that long ago mind you)what tv shows did kid like me frequent? Rugrats, Transformers, Pokemon, Animaniacs, Doug. Simple cartoons with simple child like premises that were fun for kids. What do i see kids commonly watching today? I Carly, Hannah Montana, Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Zoe 101, Drake and Josh and all other sorts of live action kid shows. I’m not arguing that live action is the problem here, it’s the premise of the shows. Whats are common topics on these shows? Young kids acting older than they are. Young kids constantly worrying about a multiple levels of problems that get them stresses, striving to get a cute bf/gf, and teaching life lessons that most of the children watching are probably too young to get. I’m not saying topics like these are taboo or shouldn’t be shown to kids, children should be aware of them, but it seems like the topics are being thrown at the kids. As a result kids seem to be worrying about problems of all sorts at the age of ten, that me and my friends didn’t worry about ill we were 15. Children are stressing out over school work, money, relationships, friendships, and all sorts of things. I don’t remember giving a rats ass about those things when i was ten. Whats more children now a days are also being further exposed to far more serious adult issues through tv. When i was little there were always certain shows that i wasnt allowed to watch, of course being a kid i tried my hardest to watch them anyway and i dont think i was adversely affected by that. But there doesnt seem to be anything a child isnt allowed to watch these days. Today it isnt uncommon to hear that a 9-year-old is watching South Park, Family Guy, or one of the various MTV celebrity dating shows(Rock of Love or that Flavor Flav show). Now im not saying that shows like South Park or Family Guy are bad shows, i love them, but who can honestly say that these shows are appropriate for children? All you really need to do is watch them and think about it. Yeah there funny too us, but we are age appropriate. Who out there would want there 10-year-old sister and her little friends to watch a “money shot” joke and then see them try and figure out what just happened. They, like the rest of us will figure it out when their older, and they, like us, will laugh at it. But for now i think kids should be allowed to just be kids.
