Every parent knows the threats out there, the violent video games, pedophile e-mailers, the persuasive TV shows, and the adult websites. However the internet cartoons fly under the radar. Parents have the option to block certain sites from being accessed on their computer, but with the title “Happy Tree Friends” its almost impossible to block without being a computer genius. The piece “What’s up Doc? A Bloody Outrage, That’s What” by Katherine Ellison shows growing concern for the youth of today with the wide availability of the media.Katherine, a mother of two boys ages 6 and 9, voices her opinion about media that is to easily accessible to kids.
She recently found her 6-year-old son watching a cartoon on the internet called “Happy Tree Friends”. She was disgusted by what she saw. What she saw was a cute harmless bear all the sudden go berserk and rip off the head of a cougar splattering blood everywhere. Katherine describes herself as a longtime journalist that is in complete agreement with the first amendment, and lives in California’s liberal bastion of Marin County.However she was very upset with this cartoon.
Katherine is truly upset by the amount and extent of the violence in the show, and is amazed by the names on the banner ads surrounding this cartoon. Although Katherine is upset she is firm that t he federal government does not need to step in because the freedom of the internet is to precious. Not only can this cartoon be easily found on the internet, but when it is found it is just begging you to watch it. Before most violent shows it is typical for a warning to show up in red print “Warning Violence: Not for Children”.Happy Tree Friends” gives this a twist though stating “Warning Violence Not for Children or Big Babies”, baiting you to watch it over and over again.
In the article a UCLA neuroscientist Marco Iacoboni is interviewed. He says studies have shown that children tend to copy what they see especially if they see it repeatedly. This fact is very concerning for parents like Katherine Ellison. I can personally relate to this. I can remember every Sunday me my dad and my brother would watch football.It was all we ever did on Sunday when I was young, before the game we would go outside and I would put on my plastic football helmet and we would play football.
As soon as one o’clock came around we would be inside huddled around the TV. To this day I love playing football, I wouldn’t give it up for anything. Looking back upon it now I first got started because of all the football I used to watch with my dad. This relates to what UCLA neuroscientist Marco Iacoboni said, that when children see things over and over they tend to copy what they see. As for the warning sign before the TV shows.
I agree that this does beg you to watch. To some extent I thing that there should be a rule where you can only write a certain phrase for your warning. The show Scarred does this as well. Scarred is a show where people send in gruesome videos of people getting hurt. I remember the first time I saw it I was friends house. We both had never seen the show before.
As it started the warning came up “Warning Not For The Weak”. Immediately the first thing that goes through anyone’s mind when they see this is “bshh I’m not weak, I will watch this no problem”. This is exactly what went through me and my friends mind.Our minds changed very quickly after watching the first video though.
A skateboarder was grinding on a hand rail that went down some stairs at a park. His first attempt was a success, then it showed him go for his second and things went wrong. He fell and bashed his face on the hand rail, and awkwardly fell to the ground. The kid immediately got up screaming bloody murder in pain. He face was gushing in blood, and a bone was sticking out of his wrist none of it was censored. I couldn’t believe what I had just saw.
Never in my life would I have thought I could have seen that on TV.I don’t easily get queasy but there I was cringing at the sight of it. Because of the warning sign I was baited into watching that TV show, although if I would have known what I was going to see would be that gruesome I would never had watched it. Another thing that is concerning for parents is how their kids are learning about things like this. The 6-year-old said he had learned of the cartoon from his brother. His brother had learned of the cartoon at a summer camp he attended while watching over the shoulder of one of the teen counselors working the summer camp.
Ellison believes that these places that we send our children need to be more carefully supervised. I also agree with this. My mom does day care at my house. The kids she watches range from 1 to 8 years old. The kids love to follow me around when I am at the house.
They pick up on everything so I am very careful on how I conduct myself when I am around them. The teen working at the summer camp should have been aware of this and done the same. “Happy Tree Friends” is great for advertisers the site draws in 15 million unique viewers a month.The company that creates the cartoon reaps in $300,000 in advertising alone. Katherine was very disgusted that companies like Toyota and Kaiser Permanente had banners which were found on the “Happy Tree Friends” website.
She thinks that the companies are doing wrong by supporting this. Katherine did her homework and called up the companies involved and there response was that they don’t know where their advertisements are, they buy them from a third party, from there they don’t know what websites they put them on. I disagree with Katherine on this topic.I believe that companies should be able to put their ads where ever they want especially if it is for the own companies benefit. I honestly don’t know why you wouldn’t put your advertisement on a website that gets 15 million unique viewers in a month.
The purpose of the advertisement is getting your company recognized, not supporting cultural movements. The threats are out there and as a parent you do need to keep an eye on your children. I agree with Katherine Ellison in that I don’t believe that children should be exposed to the violence in cartoons such as “Happy Tree Friends”.Children will repeat what they see and extreme violence like that in “Happy Tree Friends” could prove to be dangerous to the children, in the way they think and do things.
As far as advertising its everywhere so why does it matter if they are on a site like “Happy Tree Friends”, they are just trying to promote their business. Meanwhile places like summer camps need to be more aware of the children around them and that they are picking up on everything you do. All in all parents can help out a lot if they play a more active role in their children’s life and keep an eye on what they are doing in their free time like Katherine Ellison.
