Looking down on children.

[thejboy88]

Hey guys.

Over the last few years I have heard a number of online video reviews of various children's TV shows and films from the past. What caught my eye in particular was the comments regarding how the reviewers consider certain examples as superior to the rest because "they did not look down on children".

In other words, they considered childrens entertainment to be better when the kids are treated like adults, when they are not just given mindless sugary nonsense. I have to say that I agree with them. Kids shows and films with a deeper element to them are clearly better than the rest.

However, this does bring me to a problem. Where exaclty do you draw the line between suitable for kids, and outright inappropriate? For example, we would all probably agree that showing slasher films to an 8-year-old is crossing the line. But what about kids films and shows dealing with more mature subjects like war, prejudice or serious philosophical subjects.

How much can kids take as a whole, or should we consider each child as an individual case, each capable of varying levels of accepting this stuff?

So what do you think? How do we keep the truly inappropriate stuff from kids without looking down on them and underestimating them?

 

[SimuLord]

I grew up on Screwy Squirrel cartoons (sadism and violence in the highest degree), Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner (ditto), Tom and Jerry (you see a pattern developing here), Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck (all of the above plus firearms discharged in blatantly unsafe ways)...

This tells me that child psychologists don't know what they're talking about any more than anyone else does.

 

[The Salty Vulcan]

Quite simply there are no lines. They simply don't exist. It all depends on the execution. Take The Lion King. Its basically Bambi meets Hamlet in Africa. It practically screams unsuitable for children and yet its done in such a way that it still manages to be get the story across without making a child confront the harsher realities.
Take the relationship between Scar and Simba's mother after Scar becomes King. I don't know about you but I saw some pretty disturbing undertones and who could forget the imagery from "Be Prepared".
But perhaps more shocking is how the story presents the ideas of Life and Death. For a kid, these a pretty big deals.