by Tarqness
In recent years, violence inflicted by children has been
on the rise. Children are killing other children, or
their parents. Children are doing stupid things like
setting each other on fire. Children are allegedly
playing "WWF" and beating each other to death.
They are even killing themselves in increasing numbers.
Many people have the notion that television shows, movies
or even rock-and-roll music is to blame. That's a pretty
simple explanation and a convenient scapegoat. Wouldn't
you say?
I, however, beg to differ with those people. Actually,
that's a bit of an understatement. I think those people
should check themselves in somewhere until they get in
touch with reality again. That's not to say that the
entertainment industry doesn't have an influence on
children. It most certainly does. It's just that most
kids over the age of four can discern between fantasy and
reality. I remember watching Bugs Bunny and Road Runner
cartoons as a tyke. Talk about some serious violence.
Daffy Duck was constantly getting a shotgun blast to the
face. Wile E. Coyote fell from many a cliff (or was
crushed by one on occasion) and lived to tell the tale.
I don't remember ever thinking that, if I fell from a
cliff or was shot in the face, I would survive. I do
remember falling victim to what I like to call
"cartoon physics" once and only once, however.
I was about 5 years old. For some reason, I thought that
if I rode my bicycle as fast as I could into our cement
porch, the rubber on the tires would bounce and I would
begin to travel backwards. I actually attempted it and
got three stitches on my chin for my efforts. In my five
year old brain, I'd had a very plausible theory about the
power of the rubber on the tires. I don't recall thinking
anything as ridiculous as, say, if I was run over by a
steam-roller, I would just be flattened but could still
walk around. And I was no child genius by any means. I
was just your average American kid.
Today, television and film are becoming less repressed in
subject matter. In many ways, that's excellent.
Stimulating the imagination and injecting some hard
reality into adults and children alike has its place. Of
course there is material on the tube that even I feel is
just stupid or gratuitously violent/lusty. I don't deny
that there is a great deal of needless smut (think Jenny
Jones) that is available for my children to view. But
this is where I, as an even semi-responsible parent, step
in.
I don't let my kids watch Jenny Jones, Ricki Lake or any
other garbage like that. There are plenty of teen
slutbags in their school for them to look at. They have
no need to gape at the ones who get national attention
for an hour. There is nothing in those shows that I feel
would benefit them in any way. So, they aren't allowed to
watch it if I can at all help it. I don't think they are
dumb enough to go out and rob liquor stores or try to
kill me or get pregnant for the welfare checks if they
watched those shows. I simply don't relish the idea of
hearing "don't go there, girlfriend" or
"talk to the hand" at the dinner table every
evening.
These people who blame television shows like MTV's
"Jackass" when their kids douse each other with
gasoline and set each other on fire have their heads in
the sand, or crammed somewhere else. It's easier and far
less painful to blame television when you are simply a
crappy excuse for a parent. What 14 year old not raised
by wolves doesn't understand that if you set your friend
on fire, they will likely get hurt and even more likely
die? These stupid kids are the exception, not the rule.
Yeah, I have seen "Jackass" once. I think it's
inane at best. My kids don't watch it mostly because I
don't have cable. I probably wouldn't let them watch it
anyway because there are better quality shows on many
other channels that they could watch. However, if one of
my kids set the other one on fire, I wouldn't blame a
television show. I would blame myself for one, allowing
them to even have access to a can of gasoline and two,
raising them to be idiotic or psychotic enough to torch
someone and not have a clue about the consequences.
What ever happened to parents taking responsiblity for
the actions of their children? There is an alarming
increase in recent years of lazy parenting. Compare that
to the increase in violence committed by children and
just see if the numbers match up. So my suggestion in
solving this problem is for all of you slacker parents
out there to actually pay attention to your children.
Don't babysit them with TV and the internet and then just
see what a difference that makes in the world. And above
all else, stop blaming the rest of the world for your own
negligence.
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