The Independent Television Commission (ITC) has published a report which claims that fears that children are addicted to cartoons and affected by the violence in certain animations are unfounded.
Cartoon Crazy? is the first UK report to draw on the views of children themselves by looking at the attitudes of 5-9 year olds as well as their mothers. Despite the growth in the number of cartoons, particularly through cable and satellite channels, factual and drama programmes are still more popular with children. The report cites CITV’s Art Attack and CBBC’s The Demon Headmaster as being favourites of the children surveyed.
ITC chief executive says that programme makers should be aware that children are discerning and want a broad choice, not just cartoons. He says that they can ‘ignore this at their peril’.
Moreover, the research showed that the most favoured cartoons are those which are funny and slapstick rather than action and violence oriented. Rugrats and Scooby Doo are the ones they make appointments to watch. Children are less enamoured with action cartoons like X-Men and Street Sharks because they are rarely funny, says the report. The core audience for these cartoons is boys aged 5-7 who, according to the ITC, go through a phase where they could watch cartoons all day.
On the whole children do not find cartoons frightening because they are not deemed to be real enough; however, plot lines which relate to real life (such as children being kidnapped) and violence to humanoid-like characters (such as those in Reboot), are found to be more scary. The latter concern lies more with the mothers than the children.
Saturday mornings are the most popular times for watching cartoons, with children often tuning in whilst their parents are still asleep. Afternoon viewing tends to be unsupervised with the elder sibling often taking control, whilst evening sees the parents (particularly fathers) deciding which programmes to watch.
Over a third of children interviewed had televisions in their bedrooms and parents try to lay down rules on what they can and can’t watch there.
The survey was produced by Broadcast Research Ltd. on behalf of the ITC. Copies are available from the ITC Information Office, priced £5.
Independent Television Commission: 0171 306 7743
