Our television programming – serious cause for concern

Fri May 23, 2014

Editor: Is it possible that we are secretly walking to our own destruction and unknowingly taking our children with us?{{more}}

One of the areas of concern that I have is our national television and its programming. I would not go into every detail, but I must say that a lot of the movies that are shown are downright outrageous. I rarely turn on my television these days at night, because almost every time I do so, I have to turn it off soon after. When the shows are not laced with overly strong sexual content, (simply put some of them are just plain porn), they are almost always very violent. Is it a wonder the way our children behave these days? Ask any teacher and I am sure he/she will tell you about the conversations young children are having. Consider the behaviour of our youths; violence is a laughing matter to some of them. It is not to say that the television is the only cause of such conduct. However, it definitely is one area that we have control over in regard to national programming.

I want to address specifically the area of wrestling. It is something that I know both adults and children alike love to watch. How much of it is real, I do not know; but some of it must be. As I am thinking about it now, though, I realise that we sit and watch men beat each other until they bleed and we laugh about it. Have we considered the impact this has on young minds? Are they growing up now thinking that such violence is okay? I know that wrestling has been around for a long time, but something is much different about it now. It is glamourized and there is a level of recklessness towards human life that is portrayed now. Have we considered this?

It is my opinion that in all this our nation is being desensitised to violence. Persons would just stand and stare at others being beaten and laugh about it. Phone lovers would simply take inappropriate pictures and send them via the web, as if it’s a nice lunch at the park. We have to be concerned.

Even with the theme for this child month “Tolerance today for a violence-free world tomorrow,” let us awake to the cries of the souls of our children. Let us not tolerate violence on our television shows. SVG TV, you have a responsibility to the children of our nation. Let us awake and consciously choose to do our part to engender a gentler society.

Concerned Citizen