Children & TV Programs
By Benzir Shaon

 

[Violence shown in TV channels affects our children. How? The answer is here...]

 

Today we are living in a global village. That's why we can know about other cultures or nations or people or can gather lots of information. Television is a very strong device for the sides like this. It’s a very positive point of a television. But besides this there is a negative point too. It is violence in television programs. And here there is the most alarming is that, these kinds of television programs affects child psychology.

According to United Nations the boys or girls under 18, considered as a child. And here TV violence means something that is not for children, which makes a bad impact in a child's mind. This encourages a child to do violent acts. In a normal view, this is the definitions of child and TV violence.

Once upon a time, children used to spend their afternoon in playground both in village and city. But now-a-days, TV has become a favorite thing for children in terms of entertainment for the insufficient place of outdoor games. In urban area there is a lack of play ground. That's why child goes to a TV set to pass his or her leisure time. But TV programs haven't been developed yet for our children. The TV programs telecasted for the children in different channels are not sufficient.

Then let's have a turn to the TV violence that affects the soft corners of the children's mind. The children are affected seeing various TV programs such as:

• TV dramas
• Movies
• News

Then this is the question that, how these spoils children's soft corners of mind. TV dramas or mega serials or serials even advertisements are full of violence. While children sit in front of a TV set they watch them. This is an important point.

Another and the most important point is that today most of the movies shown not only once but also the same movies many times. Some are shown before release and some after release. They are full of violence. Scenes of murder, hijack, fighting, rape etc. influences them much.

Today, our society is unstable, every where there is a chaos, confusions. That's why the news is also full of violence; it's full of news of rape, collision, strike, war, death etc.

Here the question arises how it puts a negative impact in our social life. For these,

•  They lead their life crazily
•  They don't care of their parents or elders
•  They become drag addicted
•  They influenced adopt unfair means in their educational life
•  They influenced to do such a kind of unsocial activities

We are not totally hopeless. Because, today some of the TV programs or movies that are releasing, a warning is said at the beginning of the show, where it is said that a boy or girl who is under eighteen can watch it or not. And the other news is that, there are some TV channels that telecast and make programs only for children, among them the cartoon channel named “Cartoon Network” is specially named. Various NGO's in home and abroad working on. They arrange workshops, dialogues, cultural programs, rally etc.

Though many times have already been passed, but there is still hope if we start from now and raise our consciousness.

 

14 June, 2004