Why is it so important to monitor what children watch or play?
Children often like to show off their interests through what they wear or toys they play with – for example, Spiderman backpacks or Disney princess dresses. But is there a limit as to what should be sold to them?
With the rise in streaming platforms and social media, children have access to more television than ever, and whilst this is exciting for them and can make life easier for parents by keeping them distracted, it is not necessarily a totally positive change in the way children are raised. For example, YouTube Kids, a popular social media for children automatically filters out most inappropriate content, but its system is by no means perfect and does not catch every inappropriate video. Netflix, another streaming service, used to watch films and series, has parental controls which can be used to restrict what a child watches.
However, a large majority of parents do not use these restrictions for children aged 12+, trusting that their children will make responsible decisions, but this is often not the case. Around 51% of 6–15-year-olds do not talk to their parents about what they are choosing to watch. This shows that clearly a lot of children are watching things that they perhaps shouldn’t be, especially shows, games or films targeted for adults that appear, at first, to be targeted for young children.
One prominent example is adult cartoons, such as Family Guy, Rick and Morty and South Park. Despite most people being aware that these are adult shows, these shows easily accessible for general streaming service accounts. There has also been a rise in people posting clips of these shows online, even on YouTube Kids. It has been clear that children are watching these sorts of shows, with South Park’s recorded female viewers most commonly being around 13 and a few even being as young as 12 when they first discovered the show.
The entertainment industry does not prioritise age restrictions over the media released, as the amount of merchandise or advertisements aimed towards children is unnerving. This has only been seen more with the release of Squid Game season 2 on Netflix, a South Korean series, rated a 15 plus in the UK. This show contains a lot of graphic death scenes and various other adult content throughout. Whilst children might not necessarily watch the show, its popularity is clear, with multiple online trends being created because of the shows release, and, after season 1 was released, resulted in some schools across the UK sending parents letters asking them not to let their children watch the show. This leads to the question - should companies use the popularity of the show to make merchandise for children, as they will be more likely to buy it than adults?
Amazon, a multinational technology company that sells products online, along with a myriad of other services, already sells the show’s most recognisable outfits, a green and white tracksuit, directly for children. Other sites, for example Ebay, are selling children’s clothes with symbols or characters from the show. This is not uncommon: many other shows, films and games also sell a large collection of kids toys, such as Family Guy, Stranger Things, Scream, Dead by Daylight and almost every piece of adult media, specifically horror themed.
Although one could argue that adults can buy toys and figurines to use as collectibles, many of these create costumes directly for kids, with some of the top Halloween costumes of 2024 being Beetlejuice, a character from the film Beetlejuice, despite the first film and the original being a horror comedy rated 15 plus.
Why is this such a big issue? A study by Albert Bandura showed that children tend to imitate what they see, and this has further proven to be true by a report from the national institute of mental health, identifying the following effects on children who are exposed to violence on the television: children may become less emotionally sensitive towards someone else’s pain and suffering, children may become fearful of the world around them, and children are more likely to behave in an aggressive or harmful manner. This is reflected in a survey from 2023 - it was revealed that 34% of all proven offences by children were violent, which is an increase of 21% from 2011. 48% of children surveyed who had admitted to committing a violent act had also said that they were, at one point, also a victim of violence.
This is a large issue, yet what can be done about it? The first major thing that can be done is parents monitoring their child’s activities on both social media and any sort of gaming console or streaming service, which isn’t as easy as it sounds, but even activating parental controls on everything possible would be a big problem solver in a myriad of homes. Another step that can be taken is if large production companies would stop making merchandise or advertisements for children, when the thing they are advertising is rated for adults or older teenagers. Finally, talking to children repeatedly from a young age and explaining what is okay and not okay to watch or play and the potential consequences of doing so is important. Whilst this probably wouldn’t change the activities of a lot of children, even just a couple less children indulging in violent content could influence others to follow suit.
Sources:
https://fanlore.org/wiki/South_Park#:~:text=presence%20on%20Tumblr.-,Age%20and%20Target%20Audience,the%20ages%20of%2013%2D25.
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/squid-game-netflix-schools-children-b1935326.html
https://marioncountynow.com/news/277772-the-12-most-wanted-halloween-costumes-for-kids-in-2024/
https://www.apa.org/topics/video-games/violence-harmful-effects
https://youthendowmentfund.org.uk/social-media-and-violence-amongst-young-people-a-growing-concern/
Image: https://pixabay.com/photos/new-year-children-tv-child-403582/