American children

[SigmaSD]

Are American children being babied? Do you think there should be so many restrictions or should they be lessened or taken away?

For example, there is a chocolate called kinder egg that has a toy inside. This is prohibited from being sold since it is believed that children will swallow it and choke. While they have a point in that, I still think children would know it has a toy inside (I mean, that's the reason why they'd want it in the first place). Kids are stupid and would do anything so even by placing a restriction on them wont stop kids from swallowing anything else.

Now onto my next point: video games. The there was a whole discussion involving mature games was because of children. Do you think that a kid who is exposed to violence in video games will be affected by it immensely?

And lastly TV. Most of the good stuff on TV is shown after a certain time cause it is believed that children are asleep when they're on, or otherwise the program has a bunch of censoring on it. Does the censoring even help much at all? For example, in an anime that is shown in a children's network. Would taking out the blood really help make something appear less violent?

[Lily Hayashi]

American children are most certainly not!




ok maybe we are babied.

[Hanamaru Kunikida]

Are American children being babied? Do you think there should be so many restrictions or should they be lessened or taken away?

For example, there is a chocolate called kinder egg that has a toy inside. This is prohibited from being sold since it is believed that children will swallow it and choke. While they have a point in that, I still think children would know it has a toy inside (I mean, that's the reason why they'd want it in the first place). Kids are stupid and would do anything so even by placing a restriction on them wont stop kids from swallowing anything else.

Yeah, there's a lot of cases where children even chewed and swallowed a coin. So pretty much banning something like that would be unnecessary and it won't stop kids from doing it. But seriously, is not only Americans kid...it's every single kid in the world that does it.

Now onto my next point: video games. The there was a whole discussion involving mature games was because of children. Do you think that a kid who is exposed to violence in video games will be affected by it immensely?

Obviously a kid can't defer fantasy from reality, that's something that's up to the parent to teach the kid, so it depends on how the child was raised.

?
And lastly TV. Most of the good stuff on TV is shown after a certain time cause it is believed that children are asleep when they're on, or otherwise the program has a bunch of censoring on it. Does the censoring even help much at all? For example, in an anime that is shown in a children's network. Would taking out the blood really help make something appear less violent?

Well, bloodless or not it's still violence. it doesn't do anything, if it does something I guess it lowers the disturbance, but that's pretty much about it. Nothing more.


Again, your thread title is misleading since it's all children, and not just Americans. Maybe they are babied the most but pretty much this happens around the globe.

[blueangel06661]

Yeah they are babied now. When I was four I was handed a 4-wheeler and was told to have fun and don't wreck. Now if a parent/guardian did that they'd probably get child services called on them and crazy things. You can't watch nothing but shapes and things on TV. All the cartoons I grew up with were basically animal cruelty. [Tom & Jerry.. etc] But noooo you can't have the good shows on TV anymore..

[Eris]

Isn't it more about douhebags that persist in suing everyone for everything that leads to stuff like that. And wet floor signs. And the note on your toaster that inform you that you're not to use it in the bathtub.

[Aku no Hikari]

Are American children being babied?

Yes, a whole lot. Children have become brats.

Though it's not just "American children"; it's everywhere.

Do you think there should be so many restrictions or should they be lessened or taken away?

It depends. But mostly, there are a lot of things children can learn from and parents just deprive them from them. Lolgrammar

If you want the best way to protect your children, increase their awareness. Teach them what harms them, how and why. Don't say "they're just kids". Depriving them from knowledge will only keep them less aware and more prone to be driven by their curiousity to do stupid things.

For example, there is a chocolate called kinder egg that has a toy inside. This is prohibited from being sold since it is believed that children will swallow it and choke. While they have a point in that, I still think children would know it has a toy inside (I mean, that's the reason why they'd want it in the first place). Kids are stupid and would do anything so even by placing a restriction on them wont stop kids from swallowing anything else.

That's ridiculous. I'm not sure how a child can swallow something as large as the toy egg you find inside a kinder egg without actually trying hard. (Seriously, you are an adult; TRY to swallow it.) By the age their mouth is big enough to do that, they'll be aware enough not to try swallowing it.

The toy inside the egg can't really be swallowed by accident, since you have to open the egg first. And a kid who would intentionally swallow the toy inside the egg will probably swallow any other tiny object. So why this in particular, when it's more protected than other things?

Now onto my next point: video games. The there was a whole discussion involving mature games was because of children. Do you think that a kid who is exposed to violence in video games will be affected by it immensely?

It can depend on the child, but mostly no.

And lastly TV. Most of the good stuff on TV is shown after a certain time cause it is believed that children are asleep when they're on, or otherwise the program has a bunch of censoring on it. Does the censoring even help much at all? For example, in an anime that is shown in a children's network. Would taking out the blood really help make something appear less violent?

Same as games. The blood shouldn't be taken out.

Actually, I can come up with a counter-argument saying "derp, if you remove the blood the children might not understand how really violent and harmful it is, so they might try it!!1!"... but then that would be the same kind of obnoxious silliness I am against.

Both in anime and games, if the kid finds something to be too disturbing, s/he will avoid it by themselves. If not, then there's no reason to prevent them from watching/playing it. What does matter is their awareness and mental health, which are influenced by way many other things that just anime and games.

[Aleyna]

Now onto my next point: video games. The there was a whole discussion involving mature games was because of children. Do you think that a kid who is exposed to violence in video games will be affected by it immensely?

The U.S. needs to ban all video games or our future generation of children will turn into the young adult male population in the U.K.

 

Just Kidding. I don't think the U.S. children are that babied. I have volunteered at elementary schools, and a lot of Somali boy students have expected me to spoon feed them and wipe their butt when they go potty...and they are 10 years old!

[Skilero]

Here's what I have to say about this.

 

Video also found here:


Very important stuff--
ʘ͠͠φΘ

[animeyay]

It's not just the American children that are being babied.
It's the Americans that are being babied, children and adults alike.

[Lily Hayashi]

All us Americans are not all babied. Some are Some arent. It really depends on the parent.

[Lotha Cryso]

ait, my opinion? children too sheltered become too soft hearted and hurt easily, those not become violent, either or you got messed up people everyone. you got the bullies and the geeks who get shoved in dumpsters, no matter where you look? humans in general are dimwitted an will nevr be able to find the right style of making everything "perfect" because that is what we are, imperfect people. even if we didnt have televisons, games, parents to bring us up, we all messed up in head... end of statement..

[Shinn Kamiyra]

Are American children being babied? Do you think there should be so many restrictions or should they be lessened or taken away?

By comparison with children in other countries such as Africa, or the much harsher example of the Ukraine; yes, American children are being babied to an almost deplorable degree. Many of them, too many, becoming fat, lazy, obstinate, and just plain weak. Complacency and the ease by which they can get things done fester in their minds, denying them the opportunities to struggle, fail, and become stronger.

Don't want to get up and fix yourself a wholesome dinner? No worries, there's a fast food restaurant (or two or three depending on where you live) right around the corner.

Don't want to do your homework? Pay such and such enough money and you'll never have to worry about homework again.

Don't want to get a job? Forget about it and just let your parents take care of that for you.

It goes on and on and on...

For example, there is a chocolate called kinder egg that has a toy inside. This is prohibited from being sold since it is believed that children will swallow it and choke. While they have a point in that, I still think children would know it has a toy inside (I mean, that's the reason why they'd want it in the first place). Kids are stupid and would do anything so even by placing a restriction on them wont stop kids from swallowing anything else.

To be fair, placing a restriction on something only makes it all the more appealing. Don't tell me I'm the only one who had his hand itching to pull that shiny fire alarm when I was a kid?

Now onto my next point: video games. The there was a whole discussion involving mature games was because of children. Do you think that a kid who is exposed to violence in video games will be affected by it immensely?

Can depend on what kind of a kid you're dealing with, and his/her family situation. In moderation, I believe exposing a child to certain levels of violence, whether by video games, TV, movies, etc, can be productive. Better to have the child come to terms with violence in today's world, embrace it as an inevitability and come to terms with it, rather than to have him/her try to figure it out on their own and have who knows what happen to them as a consequence.

There are exceptions to everything though. Sometimes a child can be so affected by the violence he/she sees, whether in a video game, on television, or wherever else that they find it fascinating to a degree and feel compelled to explore it further. There's really very little in this world quite as cruel and innocent as the mind of a child. Couple that together with an earnest wish to explore the nature of violence and you've a recipe for disaster.

And lastly TV. Most of the good stuff on TV is shown after a certain time cause it is believed that children are asleep when they're on, or otherwise the program has a bunch of censoring on it. Does the censoring even help much at all? For example, in an anime that is shown in a children's network. Would taking out the blood really help make something appear less violent?

Dunno. I know that for me, whenever I watched a show that was labeled "Censored," all it did was make me curious as to what they were hiding from me. So, whenever I got the chance I wrapped my grubby little fingers around all the uncensored material could find and watched it to my teenage heart's content. (Insert joke about puberty here.)

But in all honesty, I don't think it makes all that much of a difference. Uncensored material you'll seen on anime and/or cartoons in going to be the least of your worries by comparison with what children will see pretty much anywhere else. Huge billboards with half-naked women on them, commercials advertising men and women in underwear/lingerie, the evening news (them news people just love reporting all the most gruesome stuff, they do), their parents if they're unlucky, etc. As I said before, give it to 'em in regulated doses where it's as least coupled with a decent form of entertainment; not left to their own devices to come up with whatever their underdeveloped minds can dream up.

[Wio]

Don't want to get up and fix yourself a wholesome dinner? No worries, there's a fast food restaurant (or two or three depending on where you live) right around the corner.

Don't want to do your homework? Pay such and such enough money and you'll never have to worry about homework again.

Don't want to get a job? Forget about it and just let your parents take care of that for you.

It goes on and on and on...

Speak for yourself dude. Very few of the Americans I know fit this profile. I've moved around many places too.

[Shinn Kamiyra]

Speak for yourself dude. Very few of the Americans I know fit this profile. I've moved around many places too.

With all due respect; even if you've traveled this entire country over, I doubt you know all that many people.

However, to be fair; when I was speaking before, it wasn't my intention for people to be inclusive of all those traits. Just one or two is more than enough, and I do believe it's easier to agree that many, many people are guilty of them at one point or another.

[Videogamer555]

The argument that "children will avoid violence on TV if they don't like it" doesn't fly. You'd NEVER say that about household cleaning chemicals "the child will stop drinking it if it tastes bad). Parents LOCK UP bleach around 5yos. So likewise they should lock up Mortal Kombat around 5yos. Children don't know what will PHYSICALLY harm them, until they drink it and get poisoned. So also children don't know what's bad for them psychologically/mentally, and will play these games until their brain is corrupted. One must take care of their kid's physical health and psychological health equally. Just as one will die from drinking drain cleaner, one will become emotionally dead from playing too much violent games. The only reason people so often neglect the idea of emotional health is because it is less obvious and the effects can't be seen immediately. However if CPS know that a parent is NOT properly locking up physically dangerous items in the house the child may be removed from the home by law, I believe that a parent should also have their child taken away for neglect of the child's mental from in terms of committing offenses such as allowing the child to play M-rated video games below the rated age of 17.

[Chewbaka]

The argument that "children will avoid violence on TV if they don't like it" doesn't fly. You'd NEVER say that about household cleaning chemicals "the child will stop drinking it if it tastes bad). Parents LOCK UP bleach around 5yos. So likewise they should lock up Mortal Kombat around 5yos. Children don't know what will PHYSICALLY harm them, until they drink it and get poisoned. So also children don't know what's bad for them psychologically/mentally, and will play these games until their brain is corrupted. One must take care of their kid's physical health and psychological health equally. Just as one will die from drinking drain cleaner, one will become emotionally dead from playing too much violent games. The only reason people so often neglect the idea of emotional health is because it is less obvious and the effects can't be seen immediately. However if CPS know that a parent is NOT properly locking up physically dangerous items in the house the child may be removed from the home by law, I believe that a parent should also have their child taken away for neglect of the child's mental from in terms of committing offenses such as allowing the child to play M-rated video games below the rated age of 17.

Yes, because playing a violent video game guarantees that the kid will grow up to murder people, mug people or do other unsavory things. [/sarcasm]

Also, locking things up won't work all the time. The kid will find a way into the cabinet or storage area somehow. It's best to teach them not to drink it with actual parenting, instead of anything halfbutted. That's the key thing: being a good parent. Hell, I started playing M-rated games when I was about 15ish, since I knew the concept that a game is just a game, and not something real. That's what has to be taught. Now the chemical part should be common sense.

I'll find more wording to use in a rant later, when I can develop such words.

[Skilero]

For example, there is a chocolate called kinder egg that has a toy inside. This is prohibited from being sold since it is believed that children will swallow it and choke. While they have a point in that, I still think children would know it has a toy inside (I mean, that's the reason why they'd want it in the first place). Kids are stupid and would do anything so even by placing a restriction on them wont stop kids from swallowing anything else.

While I understand your point, this example is invalid. What if the child using the toy were mentally challenged? Now we have to only make sales to mentally healthy children and at all costs avoid selling our product to mentally challenged children - good luck with that.

You'd NEVER say that about household cleaning chemicals "the child will stop drinking it if it tastes bad). Parents LOCK UP bleach around 5yos.

To be honest, I find the Bleach quite refreshing; Ichigo Kurosaki is a very interesting character.

[Meenah]

The argument that "children will avoid violence on TV if they don't like it" doesn't fly. You'd NEVER say that about household cleaning chemicals "the child will stop drinking it if it tastes bad). Parents LOCK UP bleach around 5yos. So likewise they should lock up Mortal Kombat around 5yos. Children don't know what will PHYSICALLY harm them, until they drink it and get poisoned. So also children don't know what's bad for them psychologically/mentally, and will play these games until their brain is corrupted. One must take care of their kid's physical health and psychological health equally. Just as one will die from drinking drain cleaner, one will become emotionally dead from playing too much violent games. The only reason people so often neglect the idea of emotional health is because it is less obvious and the effects can't be seen immediately. However if CPS know that a parent is NOT properly locking up physically dangerous items in the house the child may be removed from the home by law, I believe that a parent should also have their child taken away for neglect of the child's mental from in terms of committing offenses such as allowing the child to play M-rated video games below the rated age of 17.

I would hate it if you were my father.

Anyway, I'm not always under the influence of my parents, but more from my older brother. I was playing Mortal Kombat when I was 6. Good times and I turned out just fine.
Meh either way the kid will learn things on their own, as a parent, the best you could do is lead them in a right direction without holding them by the neck, loving them and not be too controlling. I'm just thinking, soon I'll have parental instinct and figure it out on my own. I will think what to do until my time comes.
fyi, I'd let my children play a crap load of video games and let them destroy the world. Muhahaha./plot

[Skylar1]

I think children aren't pushed hard enough academically here, is what I think.

Take a quick visit into any generic elementary school here, and you're likely to find a classroom that encourages cliques by arranging desks into specific groups, being distracted bright colorful crap all over the walls, teachers that are very good an nurturing and caring but are terrible at actually teaching kids anything beyond the required curriculum (which is miserable in of it's self because a lot of the material is useless). Lots of breaks, recess, playing learning games, blah blah.

All of these things are intended to help promote creativity, self-identity, and teamwork (hallmarks of western sentiments). But good intentions lead to bad results, mostly because the american school systems have failed HARD at taking advantage of the key period in a child's life when their brain will develop more than at any other time.

The logic is that "they'll learn the difficult stuff later on, let's keep it simple and easy for them now" which is the totally WRONG approach.

Take a look at any generic Japanese elementary classroom, you'll find a very different set up. Desks are lined up in rows, equally spaced, everyone dresses the exact same way, and the only thing to pay attention to is the front of the room where the educational material is being presented. School days are longer, with more material to cover, and a longer school year.


What I've found to be a fatal flaw in western ideas of education is that they want to make childhood enjoyable because they think that if they make kids hunker down and study hard, it will stifle them in life, when in fact it couldn't be farther from the truth. You're only giving them the best opportunity possible if they can comphrend things on a college level before they've even left highschool.

When you just let kids play around and have fun all the time, they're not going to learn anything, and they'll be less prepared for adulthood where they'll only have to waste more time, energy, and money making up for what they didn't learn, rather than straightaway reaching their true potential.

Childhood is ~18 year, which is nothing compared to the rest of their life.

[blueangel06661]

The thing about your post Eric is that it's trying to force everyone to be the same? Honestly I don't care for uniforms or things that take away originality. How many students leave high school and go into a field that was tied to their academic courses? Like you love science and things? What science related field are you in at the moment? You graduated right?

More students go into more creative fields of study like band... art... drama... digital design.. etc rather than biology and literature. We promote creativity which is a good thing. The whole world doesn't need to be like Asia. Oh man this whole planet would have HORRID air pollution because really high tech business countries like China produce the most.

[Skylar1]

The thing about your post Eric is that it's trying to force everyone to be the same? Honestly I don't care for uniforms or things that take away originality. How many students leave high school and go into a field that was tied to their academic courses? Like you love science and things? What science related field are you in at the moment? You graduated right?

More students go into more creative fields of study like band... art... drama... digital design.. etc rather than biology and literature. We promote creativity which is a good thing. The whole world doesn't need to be like Asia. Oh man this whole planet would have HORRID air pollution because really high tech business countries like China produce the most.

My point wasn't to say we should dispose of/inhibit the creative process, as that is a fundamental part of human ingenuity; vital for all parts of society.

Rather, my point was that there are reasons why the US has fallen so far behind 2 dozen or so countries in fields like science and math, and it doesn't look as if we're taking the steps necessary to fix that. School systems are far to casual in their approach, and there are a lot of teachers that aren't doing a good enough job.

[Lizze]

I think they shouldn't be restricted so much..

[miniPhil]

No Kinder eggs? Torture sounds like a better word that babied.

Honestly I don't care for uniforms or things that take away originality.

I know this is borderline taking you out of context but I just wanted to address this one sentence. Uniforms play an important part in school systems as without you get a lot of bullying based on what people wear. There is a huge social pressure in dealing with choosing clothing and people can be singled out very easily and made feel ashamed of something they took pride in. Then theres the class divide, some students can afford more than others and bullying can take place because of this.
There are plenty of other ways to express ones individuality and it's easier for kids to get up in the morning as well as the parents who do washing and buying of clothing.

[blueangel06661]

No Kinder eggs? Torture sounds like a better word that babied.


I know this is borderline taking you out of context but I just wanted to address this one sentence. Uniforms play an important part in school systems as without you get a lot of bullying based on what people wear. There is a huge social pressure in dealing with choosing clothing and people can be singled out very easily and made feel ashamed of something they took pride in. Then theres the class divide, some students can afford more than others and bullying can take place because of this.
There are plenty of other ways to express ones individuality and it's easier for kids to get up in the morning as well as the parents who do washing and buying of clothing.

I've never seen anyone experience this. We have dress codes that restrict things that cause unnecessary attention but as far as full uniforms go... Ehhhh...

[under the rain]

Well gratuitous parental restrictions on a child will ultimately detract from a person's decision-making skills, social skills, and overall happiness-levels exponentially. In other words, their psychological and emotional maturities tend to be very low.