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.

[Mona_Lisa]

Originally Posted by Raph's Girl

One of the shows I wasn't allowed to watch was The Simpsons because my dad felt that Bart was a bad influence.

I wasn't allowed to watch the Simpsons either.

Originally Posted by Cipher Classic

Pokemon took a lot of the same abuse.

What was wrong with Pokemon?

Originally Posted by Drawsher

Ren and stimpy.

I hate Ren and stimpy, it was gross and dumb!

[discordiatookie]

Originally Posted by Mona_Lisa

What was wrong with Pokemon?

Wasn't that the show that seemingly had kids going into seizures in front of the telly, due to the mad animation?

[Candy Kappa]

Originally Posted by discordiatookie

Wasn't that the show that seemingly had kids going into seizures in front of the telly, due to the mad animation?

that episode only aired in japan, but Pokemon had other crazy stuff like use of gun in a episode, and James blow-up boobs....

and since they had Pokemon duels fanatics probably screamed it made children violent

[Cipher]

Pokemon got a lot of (ridiculous) opposition during the fad for being too violent and instilling anti-Christian values in children. You can still find plenty of articles about it.

But of course, now that it's settled into just being one of the top-selling game franchises each year rather than a global phenomenon, the critics seem to have vanished. They only care when something reaches a certain level of popularity.

Hell, I'm sure you can find some negative press about Beanie Babies if you look.

[Powder]

The only controversy the other children & I knew was the misuse of the franchises name in the media.

News reports talking about the POKEYMAN PHENOMINA.

We hated that the adults couldn't pronounce it right.

Heh.


EDIT: For Mona Lisa,

http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wi...on_controversy

[METALHEAD]

my mom allowed me to watch ninja turtles, transformers, he-man, she was a groovy woman. she wasn't stritct...hell i even watched wizards (1977) which was violent AND heavy metal. .... heavy metal still disturbs me...can't watch it for some reason...

but anyways....if it had sex in it thats a nono. violence? i dunno...i was a kid when i saw robocop. an terminator 2. *shurgs* and i am in a catholic family.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

I think a lot of more violence has been carried out in the name of religion than in the name of shows.

[gobo]

Originally Posted by METALHEAD

if it had sex in it thats a nono.

It had Irma in it. Care to rephrase?

[Mona_Lisa]

Originally Posted by gobo

It had Irma in it. Care to rephrase?

That’s a joke right????

[gobo]

Meaning "was that supposed to be funny?" Yes. But, it is a legitimate concern at the same time. If some parents were too conservative to look the other way for the sparse violence in TMNT, why could they do so for the man-hungry Irma? Doesn't make much sense, does it?

[Mutagen Mutant]

Originally Posted by Powder

I do remember a book called 'Ninja turtles exposed' which said april oneil acted too provocatively & her character design would teach young boys to.. I don't know, like, stare at her breasts (they worded it differently). Also of course the nunchuku were considered a lethal weapon in several states so advocating its use was questionable to some adults. Another note, in an issue of the archie comics series some manic christian said the comic would corrupt him & his younger brother for having mentioned zen within its pages. People will bastardize anything if they look hard enough. Its just a case of over analytic parents. I would love to bash religion for its faults but hey, I'll leave that one alone.

Michaelangelo's nunchucks were the first to go from the cartoon series because of this. He henceforth used that grappling hook, which is wrong. I remember nunchucks being singled out too, as if katanas that could cut off your head like a watermellon, or sais that could gut you like a fish, or a bo 4 feet long weren't dangerous? It probably would have been lame if everyone had a grappling hook, but there you go nunchucks lost out. I remember thereafter getting a REAL pair of nunchucks to play with, which I still have, thinking they sure aren't taking these away from me.

[plastroncafe]

Saturday Mornings were family bonding times in my household. My father and I would spend quite literally hours in front of the television watching reruns of Loony Toons and Bullwinkle. Both of which have quite a bit of violence and gunplay in them. Or well, they did before they were censored in the late mid 90s.

So when it came to watching the Turtles...that was nothing. I mean, after you watch a bunch of rabbits commit suicide because Bugs lost yet another race to the Tortoise, exploding ninja robots is nothing.

Though, I do have to say that I find it truly disturbing that we're more than willing to let young kids see so much violence, but even the slightest hint of sexuality and it's Rated R time.

[Revan]

Originally Posted by Mona_Lisa

That’s a joke right????

That's kind of his thing. Gobo and Jester tend to joke around a lot.

Anyway. Let me tell you a story.
When I was 6, my parents went out to dinner together and called a sitter for me. During the course of the evening I made a trip to the kitchen, grabbed a couple butter knives, and started waving them around at my babysitter. "I'm a ninja turtle," I said. She freaked out and told my parents and my mother took ALL MY TURTLE FIGURES AWAY. Worst day of my young life. Now I wasn't brilliant by any means but I wasn't stupid either. So I guess what I am trying to say is that kids can be influenced to behaving "violently." The only catch is, I didn't intend to be violent. I was simply imitating my heroes and that behavior happened to be construed as violence. Bottom line. Yes, kids (myself) can be more "violent" as a result of watching characters who act that way.

[Krutch]

My parents are Roman Catholic and they had no problem with me loving the Turtles. And I even remember two of my teachers talking about how they thought the show was funny and would watch it even when their kids weren't around.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

He-Man was probably more blamed for being a violent show than TMNT.

[hudemx]

Originally Posted by J 1982

He-Man was probably more blamed for being a violent show than TMNT.

Really? Even as a Child I always though He-Man was just a "Piece of Stockfootage"

Yeah I never like that show...or any other Filmation show...

[plastroncafe]

Originally Posted by Neutrino

That's kind of his thing. Gobo and Jester tend to joke around a lot.

Anyway. Let me tell you a story.
When I was 6, my parents went out to dinner together and called a sitter for me. During the course of the evening I made a trip to the kitchen, grabbed a couple butter knives, and started waving them around at my babysitter. "I'm a ninja turtle," I said. She freaked out and told my parents and my mother took ALL MY TURTLE FIGURES AWAY. Worst day of my young life. Now I wasn't brilliant by any means but I wasn't stupid either. So I guess what I am trying to say is that kids can be influenced to behaving "violently." The only catch is, I didn't intend to be violent. I was simply imitating my heroes and that behavior happened to be construed as violence. Bottom line. Yes, kids (myself) can be more "violent" as a result of watching characters who act that way.

It's probably no surprise to anyone that there are quite a few studies backing up your anecdotal evidence. That yes indeed, children mimic the behavior they see.

Having said that, cartoons are not to blame for violent behavior. Parents are. There's one study in particular, and I can go searching for the source to cite if anyone likes, where they skimmed the "most violent" children from one of these traditional studies. Then split them into two groups.

The control was just shown plain old ordinary television.
The experimental group watched television with an adult who then talked to them about what they saw when the show was over.

What they found was that the experimental group's violent tendencies dropped like a rock due to having the context of the behavior explained to them.

Now back to anecdotal evidence.
I only ever tried to fly once. I wanted to be Mighty Mouse. After my father pried me off of the banister 15 feet above the ground, he sat me down and gave me the "reality is not fiction" talk. I couldn't have been more than four.

That was it. I still got to watch my favorite cartoons, including Mighty Mouse. I just never tried to fly like him ever again.
(though...I also developed a very sizable fear of falling)

[Revan]

Parents def need to take responsibility for talking with their kids. Not just about violence but everything. It's no secret that kids mimic the behavior of adults. Little girls play house and carry baby dolls around. Young boys play cowboys and indians and cops and robbers.
It's not to say that television is to blame for violent behavior but it can have an influence if it is the only source of information a kid gets. Parents need to be that other source and be teachers.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by Neutrino

That's kind of his thing. Gobo and Jester tend to joke around a lot.

Anyway. Let me tell you a story.
When I was 6, my parents went out to dinner together and called a sitter for me. During the course of the evening I made a trip to the kitchen, grabbed a couple butter knives, and started waving them around at my babysitter. "I'm a ninja turtle," I said. She freaked out and told my parents and my mother took ALL MY TURTLE FIGURES AWAY. Worst day of my young life. Now I wasn't brilliant by any means but I wasn't stupid either. So I guess what I am trying to say is that kids can be influenced to behaving "violently." The only catch is, I didn't intend to be violent. I was simply imitating my heroes and that behavior happened to be construed as violence. Bottom line. Yes, kids (myself) can be more "violent" as a result of watching characters who act that way.

You mean a wooden butter knife?