Back when the 80’s toon came out.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

How old were you when you were not allowd to watch? I think it's wrong to ban children from watching cartoons. Cartoons are the thing you shall watch as a child.

Children who grew up in Sweden in the 1970's and 80's were seldom allowed to watch cartoons before the arival of the videocassette recorder, not because of their parents but because of the Swedish government monopoly for radio and television between 1925 (radio, television from 1956) and the late 1980's/early 1990's (television monopoly broken in 1987, radio in 1993). Before December 1969, there was only one channel, then it was only two. In the 1950's and 60's, the Swedish government even managed to ban private radio stations from operating from boats on international waters and broadcast to Sweden.

This may sound more like the USSR or GDR than Sweden, but it was. The only difference was that it was decided in a democratic way, and it was not ran to broadcast government propaganda but allowed the free opinion (you could say you hated this government monopoly). Sweden was a nanny state (and some say it's still, but not so much, even if it's not the night watchman state).

This system was paid with a radio and television licence so you only saw commercials in billboards, cinemas and newspapers/magazines.

Children who grew up in Sweden at that time felt like it was Christmas when they could see cartoons. They knew some like Disney ("From All of Us to All of You" is still broadcasted every Christmas Eve since 1959) and Tom & Jerry, but many US cartoon shows were probably unknown to Swedish children.

The Swedish government monopoly television had some own "cartoons" (like Alfons Åberg and Bamse), but a lot of live-action shows (some were based on Astrid Lindgren books). Some were more to be education than entertainment (I think Kindergarten and schools are for education).

In 1987 a third Swedish television channel begun operating, which was private and aviable through cable television and parabolic antenna. Soon, a lot of US cartoons came to Sweden. And the children's programme host Skurt ("a frog Doll") and Inga-May were even educational. They visited places to teach how things worked, had a 1991 Christmas calendar witha an old train to teach about the world 100 years ago (late 19th/early 20th century), visited missionary schools in Ethiopia, Kenya and Liberia (not to broadcast any religious propaganda, but to teach about children in Africa), talked to the Swedish queen (even if I hate monarchy) and learned about the European Union.