Regulating how children watch movies
It is almost impossible to stop kids from watching movies. A broad range of television programmes: cartoons, dramatic series and professional sports such as boxing, contain violent contents. There is a strong evidence that exposure to violence in the media can increase aggressive behaviour in children.
The internet, especially on cell phones, increases the media through which children watch movies. There are movies rated 13, 16 and 18, yet children under these age groups watch them and try to emulate what they see, albeit ignorantly. It is based on this premise that parents, especially mothers, are advised to monitor the kinds of movies their children watch.
A mother of two, Bara’atu Hassan, is of the opinion that watching movies a lot has negative effect on children. She added that some parents had satellite dishes but did not have control over them, while some did not have the time to checkmate their children.
She said, “Leaving the children to have total control of what they watch affects them morally, as you will see children more knowledgeable on some issues than their parents.”
She added that children were copycats and that watching a lot of movies stopped them from reading. She advised mothers or caretakers to restrict their children and wards from watching too much TV by engaging them in other activities like reading, playing games and having good sleep at the right times.
A teacher and mother of two, Felicia Anthony, said watching movies or staying glued to the TV had both positive and negative effects on children and added that it all depended on how parents controlled them.
“I have many educational movies on my phone and laptop that I downloaded for the sake of my children and it is really helping them academically. And I have a younger sister staying with me and she knows that for the sake of the children she is also restricted. Some channels are also restricted and they become a no-go area for them. So, even if I am not around, no one dares to watch such,” she said.
Mrs. Anthony added that not regulating how children watched movies affected them negatively morally and academically. She advised parents and teachers to take part in controlling the movies children watched.
A father of four, Mustapha Bala, said children were quick to pick up things as they liked imitating what they saw. He advised parents to use parental guide as a means of regulating the movies their children watched and download educational applications on cell phones and laptops to enable them do well in school.
The Academy of Paediatrics says, “More than 1,000 scientific studies and reviews conclude that exposure to media violence increases the risk of aggressive behaviour in some children, exposes them to violence and make them believe that the world is a mean and scary place. If children begin to think that this type of violence is normal behaviour, these thoughts are often said to be difficult to change later in life.”