The Negative Effects Of Cartoons On Children

In today’s society, cartoons are playing a vital role in the changing behavior of children. We accept television as supervision for our children, it has virtually become a built in baby-sitter. Children’s Saturday morning cartoons have an average of 20 - 25 aggressive acts per hour. Children that watch an abundance of television have been found to be more restless and have less self-restraint than children that watch minimal amounts of television. More research needs to be done to gain a better understanding of the long-lasting effects that can be carried over from childhood to adulthood. Children entertain themselves by watching cartoons instead of playing physical games. This has led to our children getting lazier in their daily routines.

E. Siegel in 1956, on the impact of violent cartoons on aggressive behavior on children. The study involved showing a comedic and violent Woody Woodpecker cartoon to young children. He paired the children with one another and exposed them to either a violent or non-violent cartoon. “Results of the study indicated that the amount of aggressive behavior displayed did not vary by the level of cartoon violence observed the children” (Siegel, 1056). In contrast, other laboratory experiments have found that violent cartoons do in fact negatively influence children. “In 1961, children viewing animation involving human-like figures that hit and bite one another chose to play with an aggressive toy (like hitting a doll) as opposed to a non aggressive toy (like a ball), in a greater percentage than children seeing a non violent cartoon” (Lovass, 1961). There are two reasons to explain the contradictory finding of the experiments. First, studies that failed to find significant effects of cartoon violence on aggression used animation depicting comedic violence, but lacking in comedy. Second, revolves around the object of aggression assessed during the experiments. “It may be that comedic elements in cartoons camouflage animated violence, thereby reducing the negative effects of violent imagery on aggressive behavior” (Kirsh,