Experts have advised parents and guardians to monitor programmes their children and wards watch, especially cartoons, to prevent them from being influenced negatively.
A counsellor, Nancy Oghenekaro, said cartoons had both good and bad effects on children, depending on the content.
Oghenekaro, who is also a communications expert, said children had innocently mimicked wicked characters in cartoons to their own destruction and great harm to others.
She said: “Some cartoons have a high level of violence.
“It has been found out that children have learned how to shoot through cartoons.
“They always want to practice what they see in the cartoons and since they have very impressionable minds, whatever they watch impacts on them.”
Oghenekaro added that some children who had become addicted to cartoons sometimes missed their meals and went to bed very tired as a result of being glued to the electronic device showing the cartoon.
She said: “Some children have become so addicted to cartoons that they would rather urinate on themselves than go to the toilet just because they do not want to miss any part of the cartoon story.
“In fact, these addicted children become so disobedient and disorderly in their homes.
“I have heard some children say they have a headache after spending hours watching cartoons.
“I also know children who today have bad eyesight because of long hours in front of the television.”
Conversely, Oghenekaro noted that children had been known to learn very positive behaviour from cartoons, adding that some children learnt good diction through cartoons.
She added that watching cartoons also helped to develop children’s concentration.
The counsellor advised parents and guardians to expose their children to only good cartoons and programmes by monitoring what they watched and being firm about it.
According to her, parents can buy positive cartoons for their children and allow them watch only cartoons approved for our national television stations.
Oghenekaro said: “If we remember that we are what we eat, then the onus is on parents, guardians and other caregivers to mind what their children and wards take in.
“This role must not be delegated to housemaids who also need to be taught and monitored.”
Oghenekaro added that parents must have home schedules for their children so that they do not watch cartoons all day, especially when on holidays.
She said: “Some parents actually keep their kids watching cartoons in order to keep them busy and to distract them from running all over the house doing some mischief.
“Each parent must learn to positively keep their children from mischief.”
Also commenting on the issue, Adedotun Ajiboye, a Clinical Psychologist, said watching cartoons in itself was not bad, but getting addicted to it affected children negatively.
Ajiboye, a staff of Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado-Ekiti, said watching cartoons provided an opportunity for children to get information and learn.
He said: “Watching cartoon at that level for children is a learning process but when they get addicted to it, then it becomes a problem.
“It may affect the sleeping pattern of that child.
“Having watched cartoon for the better part of the day, that child may begin to daydream about that cartoon at night.”
Ajiboye said another negative effect of cartoon addiction on a child was lack of concentration in school, resulting in poor performance.
Ajiboye explained that for someone to be addicted to a thing, something must have triggered the addiction.
According to him, it is the duty of parents to identify these triggers and address them immediately.
According to him, idleness resulting from lack of a proper schedule can be a trigger for a child’s addiction to cartoons.
He said: “If there is no proper schedule for a child, he becomes idle and can watch cartoon all day, leaving no time for other activities.
“It is, therefore, the responsibility of parents to plan their children’s day, giving time for other activities other than watching cartoons.”
A concerned parent, Cynthia Okafor, therefore, advised parents to make out time for their children and get involved in all their activities in spite of their busy schedules.
Okafor, a public servant and mother of three, said she also controlled what her children watched, including cartoons, by blocking channels that she felt were not appropriate for them.
She said: “There are some cartoon stations I do not allow my children to watch because they have become so violent.
“I cannot be with them 24 hours.
“So, I just block such stations.
“It is our responsibility as parents to monitor our children, not housemaids who hardly know better.
“If they turn out bad, we are the ones the society will blame.
“Please, parents, let us get more involved with our children.”
NAN.