Cartoon violence

Further information: Cartoon violence

Cartoon violence represents violent actions involving animated characters and situations. This may include violence where a character is unharmed after the action has been inflicted.

Cartoons have existed on broadcast television for about seven decades . When they first came out, they aired on weekday afternoons and Saturday mornings. Many of the cartoon characters that people are most familiar with are Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, Daffy Duck, and Popeye. These were not actually created for television, but were initially displayed in theaters. Cartoons initially developed in the teens, but their development was slowed by their unaffordable cost. Teenagers weren’t interested in the cartoons so it became more expensive to air them on television if they didn’t have an audience watching them. Steamboat Willie, in 1928, was the first significant cartoon. Cartoons had been created by small studios with limited access to theaters. But in the 1930s, major studios such as Paramount, Warners, Universal, and MGM signed deals with the cartoon studios. The Late 1930s to 1950s were a “golden era” for the cartoons. Cartoons started their emigration to television in the late 1940s when Van Beuren started to market their catalogue to early children’s programs. One of these included Movies for Small Fry. The early 1960s was when cartoons first became an established television feature. At this time there were two major controversies: commercialization/merchandising and violence. The issue of violence in cartoons and its impact on behavior has yet to be resolved.

Debates

People have different views about cartoons and the violence within them. Some researchers believe that high level of violence in cartoons can make children more aggressive. Their studies also found that young children tend to mimic the negative behavior they see on television. Output aimed at children as young as seven, which include a number of cartoons, had the highest levels of violence.

Some researches on the other hand believe that people need to consider the ways in which children process information, the amount of mental effort they invest, and their own life experience to gain an understanding of how television violence affects children. Preschoolers are being exposed to a large number of violent acts in cartoons but some believe they are unlikely to be able to put the violence in context.

Prevention

There are a number of ways parents can control their children’s exposure to violence. One of the most effective and common ways of prevention is restricting the amount and types of programs children watch. Parents do not need to be over worried about their infants being negatively influenced by cartoons on television, but they might want to decrease their children's exposure to violence because they might start to imitate the actions they see. Toddlers have a high risk for imitating what they see on cartoons, so limiting their exposure is especially wise with them. Parents can examine and regulate their own viewing behaviors because toddlers are very influenced by what their parents view on television. This prevention can be helpful with younger children but with older children it might be not as effective. With older children, parents might want to discuss, and explain television. This can help children to understand television material and overcome the effect TV violence has on their outlook and behaviors.

Effects

There is no uncertainty that cartoon violence effects children in some way. A study by television researchers was done to get out the truth about the effects of television violence on children. They split up children into two different groups. The first group watched a tape about a child acting aggressive towards her doll and the other group watched a tape with the girl having a tea party with the doll. The group that was shown the aggressive side responded by kicking and hitting the doll and the other group played nicely with it. There are studies that show that violence on television increases the likelihood that children who watch will demonstrate aggressive behavior towards others. 47% of violent cartoon television programs show the victim going unharmed, which makes children think violence doesn’t really hurt others. 73% of individuals who commit crimes in cartoons and children’s shows go unpunished in violent scenes, which gives children the image that it is okay to commit a crime because nothing bad will be done to them.