Discussion: Media’s Effect on Our Children

Discussion: Media’s Effect on Our Children

Discussion: Media’s Effect on Our Children

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Media’s Effect on Our Children (2002, p. 4)

ecause it was one of her favorite movies, Louise decided to rent a DVD of the film Monsters, Inc. to share with her two children, a 4- year-old and a 10-year-old. The 10-year-old immediately liked the blue-furred Sulley and his one-eyed sidekick Mike, laughing at the monsters as they scared children and collected their screams to

power their factory in the city of Monstropolis. The 4-year-old, on the other hand, tensed up the first time she saw Sulley’s hulking frame and Mike’s bulging eyeball. The young child asked several nervous questions: “What are they?” “Why are they trying to scare those kids?” Shortly thereafter, the 4-year-old announced that she did not like this “show” and that she wanted to change the channel. When a young girl named Boo accidentally entered the factory, the 4-year-old let out a yelp and buried her face in her blanket (see Figure 1.1). Louise was dismayed at her young child’s reaction, wondering how anyone could be frightened by such funny and benign monsters.

Although this example involves a fictitious family, the incident is likely to resonate with parents who are often perplexed by their children’s responses to the media. Indeed, a great many parents have reported that their preschool children were unexpectedly frightened by the gentle but strange-looking alien in the movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Cantor, 1998). Likewise, G- rated movies such as Bambi and Beauty and the Beast have provoked fear in younger children (Hoekstra, Harris, & Helmick, 1999). One study even found that younger children were frightened by Michael Jackson’s music video “Thriller,” which featured the popular singer transforming into a werewolf (Sparks, 1986).

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