Kid TV shows fall from school bullies to hook-up woes

issue 5, Korrine Hilgeman, Entertainment - By Katie Jenkins-Moses on Thursday, October 7, 2010 - 03:07

Sleeping in on Saturday morning was never an option for my elementary school self; nobody wanted to miss the barrage of cartoons that started early weekend mornings.
Even directly after school, it was a rush to the television to watch shows like Recess, The Wild Thornberries, Hey Arnold! and more that portrayed children the age of the viewers in vastly different worlds.

The problems addressed, such as playground bullies, not having money to buy desired toys or puppy love crushes, were relevant to their audience.

The same cannot necessarily be said for the television shows created for our youngest generation today. Networks such as Disney and Nickelodeon seem to be focusing on plot lines centered on much older characters. Early examples of this, such as Disney’s Lizzie McGuire, did not present much of a problem. The themes were not too adult for younger elementary school aged viewers to handle but were relevant enough to the “tween” group to interest a wide group of children.

It can be said that today’s television programs lack innocence compared to those from the 90s. Characters in Recess had little more to trouble them than rogue kindergartners, mean teachers and school cliques, and how they handled these situations made them good role models for their viewers.

Television today is seriously lacking in cartoons relevant to children in the elementary and early teenage groups. All animated shows are made for either very young preschool children or late adolescents and adults. There is definitely still a market for that group and it is odd that it is so widely open. This leaves children at an easily impressionable age with few options to shape their moral character.

Shows now are mostly live action which, when coupled with very mature issues, can be harsh on young viewers. The network ABC Family has traditionally been geared towards families as its name implies, but new shows such as The Secret Life of the American Teenager and Pretty Little Liars feature more mature themes such as how to deal with relationship issues, drug and alcohol abuse and teen pregnancy.

These topics are included with the good intention to educate the audience but could have a negative effect on very young viewers, especially considering that these shows are aired early in the evening when young children are watching.

This raises the question of how sheltered should children be? Of course the answer to this varies based on all sorts of different things, from religion to ethnicity to the city a family lives in. It would be hard to decide on a national level. One thing for certain though, is that the cartoons of decades past are sorely missed and the hole they left in children television line-ups needs to be filled.