If you thought that you couldn’t do without your daily fix of cartoon time in your childhood, imagine what it is like for kids today. After all, they are being born and brought up in a largely electronic world, where their favorite cartoon show is just a click away. But is it appropriate to let our children indulge in seemingly harmless cartoon fun for hours on end? It’s important to consider the effects of cartoons on child development—from how prolonged exposure to screen time might influence their cognitive and social skills, to the potential positive aspects like creativity and learning from educational content. Let’s take a closer look at both sides of this coin.
Positive Impact of Cartoon Characters on Children
There are plenty of reasons why kids should watch cartoons!
- They expand their imagination
- They help them learn new things
- They learn to think ahead
- Laughter, the greatest stress buster
- They discover new passions
- Developing critical and analytical thinking
All cartoons help children’s brains forge vital connections on their own. Relying on a variety of senses, children get a boost to their powers of imagination.
Educational cartoons for kids go a long way in teaching them things they didn’t already know. For instance, when they watch the Ramayana or Mahabharata, they learn all about Indian mythology.
Another great reason for children to watch cartoons is to let them watch and learn how the cartoon characters overcome problems. Through this, they subconsciously learn to think ahead and solve future problems.
What better way to relieve stress in kids than making them laugh? Probably the single biggest impact of cartoons on children is their ability to cause the release of endorphins that are responsible for that ‘feel good’ state of mind.
Cartoons, especially educational cartoons for kids, can help them discover passions they would have otherwise never discovered.
Watching cartoons helps promote brain growth and serves to enhance memory. Certainly one of the biggest factors responsible for opening the doors to a lifetime of learning.
Negative Effects of Cartoons On Child Development
Let’s look at the negative impacts of cartoons on child’s behaviour and development:
- The Use of Foul Language
- Increased aggression and sexually inappropriate behaviour
- Health Problems
- Role Models for The Unreal
- Unruly Behaviour
- Hyper Stimulating Visuals
One of the most negative effects of cartoons on children is their ability to influence kids into using foul language, on account of the explicit language they might contain.
Cartoons, especially those of the violent kind, might have your child becoming hyperactive and overly aggressive. They might even start breaking toys to express their displeasure. Sexually inappropriate content can also have a negative influence on kids.
A no-brainer, really. Long hours spent in front of the television might lead to your child becoming obese, or even nutritionally deficient owing to poor eating habits. You should motivate your kid to go out, interact with other kids, make friends and be active.
Superhero cartoons like Spiderman with the hero casting a web and flying from one building to the next might create unrealistic expectations and unrealistic role models for the kids. Cartoons like this might influence the kids into thinking those moves are real and they can do it too.
Children who watch cartoons might feel it’s alright to be rude to others because their favourite cartoon character behaves similarly. What’s worse, cartoons might, in the same manner, promote a lack of empathy in kids too.
Prolonged screen time and fast-paced sequences in particular can interfere with the development of executive functions in children. Such animated shows can affect the ability of children to self-regulate and control their emotions. Intense visuals can also sometimes cause photosensitive epilepsy. The ‘Pokemon episode seizure incident’ is one example. During a scene in the episode, they used an animation technique that flashed different coloured lights on the screen, with a flash effect that emitted a strong beam of light. The result was a sequence of flashes in a frequency higher than 10 hertz, or 10 flashes per second, which caused photosensitive epileptic seizures in more than 600 children.
Dealing with the Negative Effects of Cartoons on Your Children
Does your child consider a violent cartoon character as his/her role model? Do you feel your kids are too much addicted to those virtual superstars? Here are some invaluable tips to best handle the side effects of watching cartoons.
- Encourage them to play outside more
- Watch cartoons with them
- Allocate a fixed amount of TV Time
- Select appropriate cartoons
- Explain to them the difference between cartoons and reality
Encourage your children to go outside more often. Help them make friends or even be their friend. Introducing a new outdoor sport like cycling, football, cricket etc can motivate them to go out and play. If you feel your children must have other interests like dance, music or art, it is best to provide classes or coaching to make them busy and this will help in skill development as well. Try to arrange more outdoor activities with your kids or arrange a playdate for them, so that they don’t find cartoons to be the only solution to their boredom.
When you watch cartoons with your kids, you will get the opportunity to monitor what they are watching and this is also an excellent way to bond well with your children. This will also spark conversation between you and your kids and help you understand their take on this cartoon and its characters. You can always ask questions about their favourite characters and the reason behind the fandom.
Allocate a fixed duration for their cartoon time. You can also reward your children with a fixed duration of cartoon time after they are done with homework and assignments. Make study time more fun and engaging so that children are more into it than cartoons.
It is always best to go through the cartoon content yourself before introducing it to your kids. Encourage your children to watch cartoons that do not promote negative behaviour and make sure they watch plenty of educational ones. Go for slow and less stimulating cartoons.
When you see your children awestruck with the superpowers of their favourite cartoon characters don’t forget to give them a reality check. Children should be educated on the realities and learn that they cannot simply fly from buildings or escape unharmed if they are beaten up by a mob.
At EuroKids we believe that watching cartoons for children is good, but only in healthy doses. Further, we place a great deal of emphasis on encouraging children to only watch content that benefits them in some tangible way.
For informative and accurate articles on all things related to your new born-toddler’s development, growth, health and nutrition, follow EuroKids Blogs and do check out our nationally recognized preschools – EuroKids for the first step in your kid’s educational journey!
