On most days, a graveyard silence hangs over Isheri, the Lagos home of Mr. Nwachukwu Gregory. Only the humming sounds of passing vehicles can be heard from a distance. With a career that constantly takes the 39-year old underwriter off the home scene from daybreak to twilight, the erratic nature of his wife’s job as a paediatric nurse means the home front suffers real parental absence. Their seven-year old kid, Jasper, takes solace in the care of a live-in cousin, Chidera. Upon return from school, extended hours in front of the television top the menu of activities to keep the ‘poor’ boy engaged.
But studies say parents like Mr. Nwachukwu could be inflicting the worst of havoc on their innocent kid without knowing. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), “routine violence on television, films, cartoons and video games, which is common to media content around the globe, has been found to affect children at multiple levels.”
The outcomes are clearly not what most parents would ever wish their children. The ripple effects of Jasper’s constant cartoon viewing, the report adds, is responsible for increased aggressive behaviour, heightened fear and anxiety towards the world in which the child lives. That is not all. Such children lose feelings of empathy for fellow humans. And by extension, the report expresses concern that such children are likely to accept violence as the primary way for resolving human conflict.
Even though most contents on television carry compelling caveat – with age delineation and audience fitness – not one stresses viewing limit and all the negative consequences associated with extended television viewing.
So there is a limit to the share of blame Mr. Nwachukwu can be made to bear. The near illiteracy of Chidera means she is unlikely to decipher which content is appropriate for Jasper as well as the dangers of prolonged viewing.
“Our neighbours have been complaining of how Chidera and Jasper disturb the compound with the TV. I was also told that Jasper doesn’t read when he returns from school. So we have decided he will be in boarding house next academic session even though it’s expensive,” Nwachukwu said.
A peep into the daily routines of both parents show that, like most urban dwellers faced with the pressure of giddy city life, Jasper’s fascination with television viewing is a subtle escape from a deep parenting gap.
“I leave home every day by 5:30am to escape the traffic to Lekki where I work. Because of the demands of work, I leave the office late, most times. My wife works in a hospital and returns home late on most days. That’s why we brought in Chidera from the village to stand in for us. But that seems not to be working now,” he admitted.
Genesis of addiction and danger
Expressing fears that his child might develop addiction to the visual contents he sees, Nwachukwu said: “Jasper can watch the television from morning till night if no one stops him. He forgets to eat when he sees a cartoon. It’s scary what the future implications may turn out to be.”
In a report by the Albertia Family Wellness Initiative (AFWI), a multi-disciplinary initiative that connects early brain and biological development and children’s mental health with addiction research, prevention, and treatment, said the human brain, especially at development stage, requires a nurturing environment to create a strong foundation for later development.
According to it, nurturing environments are crucial, especially from pre-natal to six years of age, and that experiences within this age reflect, to a great extent, how the brain is shaped.
The last few years may have seen the rise of visual entertainment contents and children’s love for cartoons and video games, according to creators, is said to have doubled, occasioned largely by the explosion of cartoon networks on various television channels.
A study by the University of Michigan Health System corroborates this claim. TV viewing among kids stands at an eight-year high, with children ages 2-5 expending 32 hours a week in front of TV—either watching television, DVDs, DVR and videos, and using a game console. While for kids aged 6-11, an estimated 28 hours is spent weekly in front of a live television. What’s is shocking, however, is that children who spend an hour each day watching a TV program are likely to develop attention problems by roughly 10 percent.
The study also revealed what most parents seem not to have noticed. Sustained TV viewing has gradually replaced vital activities in a child’s life, including interacting with family members, playing with friends, doing homework, being physically active and reading. While most parents enjoy the luxury of freedom when their kids swoop on TV contents for extended hours, that freedom has been proven to be of little or no importance compared to the possible havoc television addiction wrecks on children.
If unchecked, studies have shown, children who spend long hours in front of the television are likely to suffer from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), a psychiatric disorder common in children and adolescents. Three years ago, the World Health Organisation says about 39 million people suffer from this condition annually, mostly children.
Aside attention disorders, there are more compelling reasons why parents need to take charge of their children’s television viewing experience. A 1998 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) worldwide study showed that more than 51 percent of children living in war zones and high-crime areas chose action heroes on television as role models. They perceived the near thug life of these “heroes” as the best way to survive, overcome challenges and get ahead in life.
And there is more. The children were more likely to associate with cartoon characters more easily than real-life adults and tend to retain the lessons imparted more readily. What may turn out as the most unpleasant portion of the narrative is that children have grown to unknowingly follow the moral codes – good or otherwise – of cartoon characters than their parents or guardians.
Where have all the parents gone?
In 1989, the United Nations adopted the Conventions on the Rights of Children, a revolutionary treaty that encapsulates the rights of children globally. This pact was later to inspire the Cartoons for Children’s Rights initiative which seeks to create awareness on the rights of children with partnership forged with about 70 animation studios in 30 countries.
Even though the initiative recognised the rights of children to education, leisure and play, it failed to provide measures to protect children from the vagaries of excessive TV viewing. The initiative failed to recognise the statistics that over 61% of TV programming in 2014 contained violence and that children who spend the most hours on television are liable to suffer lower verbal intelligence, according to a study by the American Academy of Paediatrics.
The findings showed that some cartoons – which are children’s favourite contain an average of 20 acts of violence within an hour of viewing, and that by age 18, children would have seen over 200,000 simulated acts of violence.
But can parents sufficiently douse the negative flames emanating from most cartoons? Ogumah Martin, a father of three and Head of Marketing at Synthesis Communications said, “I personally have a timetable for when my kids watch the television. I know that not all cartoons are healthy for them. I can’t allow them see whatever they like.”
He warns, “Passion is a very sensitive thing. If you allow kids to become too passionate about a particular thing, (watching television and cartoons), you may be unable to handle the addiction that comes with it later. So parents have to determine what their children see and how long they see it.”
While Martin’s claim worms its way easily into the heart of parents, it is likely to bounce off the ears of most kids. Interactions with a cross section of students at Rise Up Tutorial College at Council Road, Ipaja, Lagos suggest that any attempt to stop children from watching their favourite cartoon would be met with immediate backlash. Since children develop emotional attachment to cartoons early in life, halting their attachment seems like a hard fight with no sign of victory in sight.
Olatunji Ogini, a JSS 2 student of State Junior High School, Alimosho, said, watching cartoons was as important as his education. “I love cartoons so much. I learn so many things from them. I can’t stop watching cartoons. I will cry if anybody stops me,” he added.
While such passion as Olatunji confesses to have for this animated creations, may not appear to be wrong, an underlying danger lurks around for these innocent children, especially at a time when parents spend more time battling for the survival of the home front than spending quality time with their children.
“Most parents don’t spend the same amount of time with their children,” says child psychiatrist Michael Brody, who chairs the television and media committee of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Brody possibly had the likes of Nwachukwu in mind when he said: “Television has a very big influence, and a lot of it is negative. There are hundreds of studies showing a connection between violence on TV and its impact on children – from aggressive behaviours to sleep disorders.”
Living with a mum who spends a substantial portion of the day at her shop in Iyana-Iba and a working dad, Mensah Peace – a pupil of Higher Grounds Primary School – and her two siblings are often left to their own devices, especially as regards the content they consume on television. Their vulnerability to the unhealthy influence of indiscriminate cartoon and TV consumption should be seen as a real concern.
This category of ‘parents-at-large’ may need to turn the page to a recent study by a group of scientists at the Department of Psychology, University of Virginia. The purpose of the research was to explore the effects of fast-paced cartoons on children’s executive function which allows the frontal cortex of the brain to control and coordinate other brain areas.
The children who watched SpongebobSquarepants cartoon performed worse than their counterparts in all measures barely after nine-minutes of sparse viewing. The children did worse in problem solving, focus, inhibition of impulses, attention and memory.
From these findings, the negative impact of most cartoons on children may far outweigh the pecuniary entertainment they seem to provide. More than ever before, research has shown that there is a strong link between child bullying and media violence and that children were more likely to practice the aggressive behaviours they see on television.
In Nigeria, about 56.8% school children said they were bullied within a time-frame of one month according to a research published in the British Journal of Education, Society and Behavioural Science by the sextet of Abosede Adegbohun, Increase Adeosun, Adebayo Jejeloye, Olufemi Oyekunle, Oyewale Ogunlowo and Adunola Pedro of the Department of Mental Health, Benjamin Carson Senior School of Medicine, Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo, Ogun State.
Following complaints and reports of risky behaviours by children, owners of the popular World Wrestling Entertainment(WWE) kick-started a media campaign to dissuade children from practising the violent stunts displayed by their favourite wrestlers on television. But the campaign has been largely unsuccessful. With fierce use of sledgehammers, metal folding chairs, garbage cans and quantities of thumbtacks, a significant portion of its audience, estimated by the US Sport Academy’s The Sport Journal to be children aged 2-17, face the risk of truancy, disobedience to constituted authority, lewd languages and gestures according to the study.
Sharing her experience, head-teacher at Wisdom Field School, Mr. Okosieme Doherty, said most children are influenced by the behaviours they see on the television to such extent that they lose control of their impulses.
“We have seen a lot of such cases. Recently a pupil jumped from the class window and landed on another. The poor boy was seriously injured. At first, I wanted to punish him for hurting his colleague. Then, I decided to know why he did what he did in the first place. When I asked him, he became remorseful. He said he was only trying out a stunt he had seen in a cartoon. When we called for a parents’ conference, we found out that the parents are hardly at home. The children are often left alone at home, watching whatever they want,” he said.
Mr. Okosieme’s experience is mild compared to that of Mrs Ajanaku Oreoluwa, a parent who resides at Adegboyega Street in Onipanu Lagos. One day, her five year-old son Timilehin, decided to take his passion for cartoons to a different level.
“Like most kids, Timi has always loved cartoons. Sometimes he says things only his sister understands because they both learn them from scenes in the cartoons they watch. But I noticed Timi became restless at a point; he jumps from everywhere. I noticed he started doing risky things and I would punish him.
“One day, I was making my hair downstairs and he was playing with other kids in the room. All of a sudden, I heard people shouting and I ran to see what had happened. To my amazement, I met Timi writhing in pains, after falling off the cliff. Later, his elder sister confirmed he had been trying some cartoon stunts on the window prior to his fall.”
Whither indigenous contents ?
In Nigeria, virtually all the cartoons consumed by kids are the brainwork of foreign creators. From Spiderman, Looney Tunes, Barbie, Teenage Mutant Ninja Tortoise to Sophia The First, Road Runner, Paw Patrol and Jimi Nitron, Nigerian kids are influenced early in their developmental stages by stories outside their own environment. Experts believe that without the suitable contents to counterbalance the children’s lessons, such kids grow up ignorant of consequences of their actions.
A cartoonist at the Creative Desk of The Nation Mr. Solomon Izekor, said the need for indigenous contents is long overdue. Corroborating what seems like a perfect solution to children’s alienation from their own stories, Solomon said creating indigenous cartoons would help Nigerians tell their own stories; influence, inspire and shape the value system of children.
In Solomon’s judgement, “Children view life from the prism of the things (cartoons, films) they watch. You may be surprised to know that they learn more from their cartoons than they learn from their teachers or parents. They learn values from the characters in the animations. Most times, they are tempted to live and act the way their favourite characters do. But all of this is fantasy because they can’t relate those experiences to their real lives; it doesn’t help their adaptation to the Nigerian environment. A lot of them grow up disappointed with the unpleasant realities of life.”
He added, “What we need are contents that help us instil values in our kids. We need contents that educate kids on how to navigate the vagaries of life. We need contents that help kids adapt to the environment in which they live. Above all, we need contents that speak our own language,” Solomon said.
Over to the regulators
In recent times, the hammer of the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) has been brought down heavily on errant film-makers. As the only regulatory body involved in the censorship and classification process of all local and foreign audio-visual contents shown in cinemas, and on television, videos and DVD, the NFVCB has clamped down on a few visual contents, with the film 50 Shades of Grey as one of the most recent.
But most parents and communication experts believe a lot of our visual contents are rarely regulated. They wondered how a culture of nudity, sex, hard drugs and dirty money has steadily crept into video contents seen by Nigerians, unmindful of our cultural peculiarity.
Their dissatisfaction may not be baseless, after all. Early this year, the world woke up to an online outrage, following controversial scenes in Steven Universe, a children show aired on Cartoon Network, a popular cartoon station on the DSTV bouquet. In the cartoon, a controversial scene of two females kissing passionately stirred the anger of most parents. Cartoon Network Europe swiftly moved to censor the scene.
A parent, Lars Green, who initiated an online petition following the controversial scene, said: “I love watching Steven Universe with my kids but same sex relationship is not a topic that should be discussed in children’s programs. The kiss between Ruby and Sapphire was over the top for a children’s cartoon. We are signing this petition for Cartoon Network to censor current episodes Jailbreak and Roses Scalbard to exclude LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) themes and to censor future episodes.”
In Nigeria, however, nothing was heard from regulatory agencies over contents considered to be inappropriate for children. For over four weeks, this reporter attempted to get the reaction of the NFVCB authorities through phone calls, text messages and WhatsApp messages. The agency’s Public Relations Officer, Mr. Terry Odeh, declined responding to comments.
However, Child Protection Specialist at UNICEF Nigeria, Mrs. Roseline Akinroye, said: “It’s not for UNICEF to regulate the negative contents that are found on Nigerian TV. Nigeria has regulatory bodies to do that. Obviously, regulation is weak. The media needs to enlighten the public on the negative impact of unwholesome contents seen by children because some parents don’t even know it’s harmful. With the advent of cable TV, everybody feels they are trendy in the society by getting one. Children are exposed to things they shouldn’t see and parents are not even there to monitor them.
She added: “When children see abuse and violence on TV and nobody talks about it, it begins to rub off on them and they start seeing it as normal. The laws are there. Regulatory bodies need to enforce them.”
A lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, Miss Ngozi Emmanuel believes regulations have been porous and ineffective. “I believe with the rise and rise of nudity content in broadcast materials today, the National Film and Videos Censors Board may not be living up to expectations after all. And with the influx of these kinds of contents in our broadcast content and the permissive attitude of viewing audience now, I believe the danger is staring us all in the face if nothing is done urgently by the regulatory body and concerned stakeholders,” she warned.