Sunday, May 11, 2008

Moms versus the Media

Over the years TV programming has changed in content, so much so that more and more mothers are losing unsupervised children to crass entertainment. Kids today are more aware of issues like intimacy and violence because of the stuff being aired on the cable, the games accessible on the computer and cheapily available DVDs of trashy films.

A few years ago I visited the temple of the Hindu deity Kali in the interior of Sindh with a group of female teachers from a local university. As we were about to enter, a Muslim lady who is also a mother and was walking ahead of me said to her kids: “What do they say (in Star Plus soaps) on such occasions?

“Om jai Jagdish hare,” the children chanted mindlessly.

Once inside, the kids informed me of the rituals they had learnt from watching the Star Plus soaps. I was amazed. Not because they were practicing a non-Muslim ritual but because they had picked it up with absolute clarity from TV programmes not meant for their impressionable young minds. It also got me thinking about what a strong impact the power of the media has on young susceptible minds and the role of parents, specially the mothers.

Interestingly, a few years back a prestigious school in Karachi advised the parents of its pre-school students to discourage them from viewing Cartoon Network because of what they alleged was “unsuitable content meant strictly for older children.”

Over the years TV programming has changed in content, so much so that more and more mothers are losing unsupervised children to crass in the name of entertainment. Kids today are more aware of issues like intimacy and violence because of the stuff being aired on the cable, the games accessible on the computer and the cheaply available DVDs of trashy Hollywood and Bollywood films.

In fact, it is pedestrian to come across small kids singing and dancing to lyrics of popular ‘item numbers’ that they don’t even know the meaning of. Little wonder one comes across numerous cases of juvenile crime in the West that is directly attributed to negative images seen in the media. A simple case in point was the number of suicides reported among children who had seen Saddam Hussain’s hanging and tried to imitate it.

Dimple Amin is a dentist and a mother of two sons, aged seven and five. She is very acerbic about the way local television channels are airing content which can be unsuitable for children. “I have blocked all unsuitable cable channels and even Indian dubbed cartoon channels because of the tapori slang that they have. My children were being exposed to words and phrases such as abay chal and premika which was a source of concern for me. I encourage them to watch Discovery Channel and National Geographic, and the local news channels instead.

“But the irony is that our own Pakistani channels air news flashes of newly released violent and sexy Indian films which my kids then pass comments on. At times, even the coverage of fashion shows in the local news has models strutting about in revealing outfits which is of serious concern for me. I do not want my kids to grow up with such role models of women in mind,” she says.

Gone are the days when the mime-like antics of Pink Panther or Tom and Jerry were all the rage. While characters like Bugs Bunny, Donald Duck and Tweety are forever enshrined in our brains they don’t quite excite young kids anymore. Today, cartoons like The Power Puff Girls, Johnny Bravo, Ed, Ed & Eddie, Cow & Chicken and many others are popular with impressionable kids and their contents range from the violent to the obnoxious to downright obscene. Some of it is not even subliminal — Cow & Chicken, for example, has a cow with embarrassingly huge udders and a big pink butt that the said cow is always using to its best advantage. As a mother, I can’t wonder where such graphic images fit into an innocent kid’s concept of entertainment.

Nuzhat Tariq is a home maker and a mother of a daughter and son aged 11 and 9. Voicing her concerns over TV and computer programmes she says, “My husband and I try to make sure that our kids watch TV with us around. We try to encourage them to watch programmes like Blazing Teens, Scooby Do and Tom & Jerry rather than the other cartoons or even the ones dubbed in Hindi. Cable TV channels that are not meant for them are a strict no-no. In fact, when they are idle in afternoons we disconnect the cable connection. But there are times when you have to trust the kids to make their own decisions after making them realise that they should not watch what’s not meant for them.”

Mozamila Saeed, a dietitian and a mother of two sons aged 9 and 7 has a 9-to-5 job and finds it impossible to keep a constant eye on her kids’ TV viewing. She says, “I have sat down with them time and again to tell them how important it is to watch good clean stuff meant for them. I have told them that there will be times when temptation will lead them to watch stuff not meant for them which is basically, violence, nudity and obscenity, and that they should turn to their grandparents for help when this happens. I discourage them from watching Indian channels since they are unpredictable with content. I have tried to encourage my kids to indulge in activities like walking, swimming and playing in the park rather than spending time staring at the idiot box. I have also done away with the TV in my room because one teaches by example.”

Some new additions to TV channels for kids like Baby TV and the local Wik Kid have, however, provided some welcome relief to concerned parents, especially mothers, with informative, entertaining content. Baby TV is a smashing hit with toddlers and pre-schoolers with its colourful and musical variety of programmes that teach kids manners, poems, songs, cooking and painting.

It is safe to assume that media trends will continue to grow more irresponsible whether in reporting gory bomb blasts or showing explicit images. The only sensible course of action left for parents, and specially mothers since they are the ones who are singlehandedly responsible for the proper upbringing of children at home, is to equip their children with a sense of good and bad, to awaken their conscience and to set an example of abstaining from watching content that can encourage negative behaviors.

Published in Images, Dawn Newspaper in May 2008