Watching Cartoons – Good or Bad for Children, Negative & Positive Effects

Cartoons and children are interconnected. Since the emergence of cartoon films, generations have grown up watching them. Children not only love watching cartoon movies but it has become an integral part of their lives. Still, the memories of some cartoons revolve in our minds such as Tom & Jerry, Peter Pan, Aladdin, the Magic Lamp, Cinderella, etc. It is a fact that cartoons have both negative and positive effects on the cognitive development and behavior of children. But that does not mean they should watch for long hours. Many times, parents are confused that watching cartoons is good or bad for children

Positive Effects of Cartoons on Children

Cartoons have several positive effects on children. It affects their behavior and development to a high extent. Here are some of the notable points:

• Supports Cognitive Development: Watching cartoons help in developing cognitive skills in children. It also develops reasoning ability, and auditory processing, and increases concentration.
• A better Language Development Process: It has been seen that cartoons support the development of a child’s linguistic abilities. In whichever language they watch cartoons that language becomes better. By watching cartoons, children are able to acquire clear pronunciation and their manner of talking also improves.
• Increase Creative Skill: Watching cartoons increases the creativity and imagination ability of children. Your child will start giving out-of-the-box ideas. They come up with new creative ideas and when they do artwork based on the cartoons, their imagination power will increase.
• Helpful in Learning: Cartoons help children to learn better and quicker. Educational cartoons help children to learn about shapes, numbers, colors, etc effortlessly. Such types of cartoons provide ease in learning basic things in an interactive manner. It also makes learning a joyful experience. The talking, walking, moving, and colorful pictures grasp their interest and make learning an interesting process.
• Stress Reliever: There are some cartoons that make children laugh. This clearly shows that cartoons are stress busters and confidence builders. In addition to these qualities, cartoons boost immunity and release endorphins causing positive feelings.
• Help in Learning Several Things: Children will be able to learn several things by watching cartoons every day. It becomes easy for your kid to acquire knowledge about your customs, history, traditions, manners, etc. The animated versions of epic or well-known stories help in grasping things easily.

Watching Cartoons – Good or bad for children, still a mystery! Let’s know more about cartoons!

Negative Effects of Cartoons on Children

As every coin has two sides-good and bad, in the same way, cartoons also have their own negative impact on children along with positive points. Let’s find out here:

• Promote Violence: Usually, cartoons are funny and light-hearted.  However, there are some cartoons that depict violence in children. They believe that no one gets hurt or gets into pain because cartoons escape after experiencing an accident. For instance, Oggy and the cockroaches, Tom and Jerry hit one another often without any consequences.
• Unruly Behavior: There are some cartoons exhibiting rude and unruly behavior towards parents and teachers. At times, it is seen that children mimic this behavior and such mimicry becomes their habit for a long time. Thus, we can say that some cartoons promote a lack of empathy and unruly behavior.
• Promote Foul Language: In some of the stances, cartoons use foul language which is unfit for children. Children have an impressionable mind and they start using bad language in real life with their friends and family.
• Encouragement to Unsocial Behavior: There is a wide number of cartoons encouraging antisocial behavior and conveying wrong messages to children. Several cartoons even contain aggression, bad behavior, sexual insinuation, etc. This may affect a child’s development, especially in tender years. Children are innocent and think it is normal to be aggressive and violent.
• Cause Health Issues:  Sitting in front of the television screen and watching cartoons is not a good idea. It may cause various health problems due to a sedentary and inactive lifestyle. Amongst several health issues obesity, vision problems, and nutritional deficiencies are caused due to too much-watching cartoons.
• Influence of Bad Role Models: Children have their specific favorite cartoon character and they love it so much that they start mimicking it. Now, they mimic their favorite cartoon character, which impacts their psychology. This may lead to devastating consequences and result in antisocial behavior.

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Tips to overcome the negative effects of Cartoons on Children:

Now that we have talked about the various advantages and disadvantages of cartoons and the impact of cartoons on children’s behavior, here are some tips for parents to deal with the negative side effects of cartoons:

• Accompany your Child: Watching cartoons with your children will help you to monitor what your children are watching. You can observe what your child is watching. This also builds a strong bond between you and your child. By spending time with your child when he/she is busy watching cartoons, you will come to know what sort of cartoons they are watching.
• Set the Time Limit: Set the time limit for your child for watching cartoons. You may keep an hour per day. Tell them the drawbacks of watching cartoons in excess. Also, explain the benefits of physical games and playing outdoors.
• Choose Appropriate Educational Cartoons: Make sure your child watches age-relevant cartoons and good stuff that do not depict negative behavior in them. Age-appropriate cartoons will help in learning in the right direction.
• Tell Children that Cartoons are Far from Reality: Many a times, it is seen that children become fond of cartoons and think them real. They follow the footsteps of their favorite character because they think them real. It is significant for parents to explain that although the character has escaped after facing the violent behavior but this does not happen in real life.
• Use Monitoring Applications: To keep control of children, you can use parental control applications consisting of monitoring and filtering software to filter unsuitable content. You can even lock the content if you do not want your child to access it.
• Choose Informative Channels: You may look for some informative channels such as Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, National Geographic, and so on. This will help in learning better things which will increase their knowledge. Such channels are effective in the overall development of their mind.

Towards the End:

Cartoons have both negative and positive effects, so it is difficult to make out whether watching cartoons – good or bad for children. However, too much of everything is harmful, so ensure that whatever your child watches do not leave a bad impact on them. Thus, be with them and keep a secret watch on what they watch.