Cartoon Violence

Animation Violence

Children from the ages 6-11 spend more time watching television than they do in the classroom. The "renaissance of TV animation" has undoubtedly led to more violent cartoons then ever before. But to talk about cartoon violence, it must first be defined. Webster's Dictionary defines violence "as the act (or threat) of injuring or killing someone." (Webster) And although the violence is not real, a child does not know the difference. Throughout the essay an understanding that the new wave of television animation is becoming more violent, and is effecting children in more ways then one.

As a child sits in front of a television, there eyes are glued to the viewing of shoot em' up rip em' up kind of entertainment. Dr. Wendy Josephson, a reporter for Media Awareness Network believes that violence is easily soaked up by children at a younger age by stating "The viewing patterns children establish as toddlers will influence their viewing habits throughout their lives. Since toddlers have a strong preference for cartoons and other programs that have characters who move fast, there is considerable likelihood that they will be exposed to large amounts of violence."(Josephson) Television cartoons often feature dehumanized characters, such as Transformers and the Ninja Turtles, who engage in the destructive acts of violence by fighting our real life social problems. With acts of violence, kids learn to think that's how they should solve their problems. For example, Iaian M. Gulin a writer for Media Studies states "The cartoon "Zipping Along," featuring Warner Brothers' Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner, is a cartoon which contains 22 separate acts of violence, and is a mere 7 minutes in length. This amount of violence is quite considerable when one knows that a child will witness and average of 25-30 acts of violence in an hour of children's programming. (Gulin) People also believe that TV animation amongst children will effect there futures down the road.

This is not the time that people should be watching violence. Gulin says "At this time in their lives, children take an "exploration" approach to television. They try to establish meaning with cartoons and are attracted to vivid production features.." (Gulin) He is absolutely correct, a child's mind is not like the mind of any adult. It is a growing mind and it is a learing mind which needs information. When a child sits down to watch Saturday morning cartoons the information should be educational not violent.

Society doesn't need to sink to the level of cartoon violence to sell their shows. A very shocking statistic that is awesome in its own right is from the Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, about Sesame Street. "About 4,100 episodes of the show have been produced in 36 seasons, making it one of the longest-running shows in television