Role and Impact of Cartoons in Building Children’s Attitude at Primary Level

Abstract

The objective of this study is to explore the impact on the attitudes and language of children after watching cartoon programs. It is considered that cartoons are the safest and most popular entertainment for children. Plenty of TV channels non-stop broadcast different cartoons for children. Kids spend far more time watching cartoons on electronic gadgets than on any other task. It not only attracts the children through its contents but also inculcates some positive and negative habits in them. Violence is a vital part of most cartoon programs, which affects badly children’s attitudes and language because they are not able to distinguish between good or bad and reality or fantasy aspects of cartoon content. Children watch cartoon characters and they try to imitate and use aggressive attitudes at home and school. Children are induced and attracted by violent content by broadcasters and children act accordingly. The researcher adopted a survey research design to explore deeply the cause-and-effect relationship among the variables. The targeted population of this study was the parents of these cartoon-watching children who use to watch long hours daily in Karachi. 100 children’s mothers were randomly selected from ten private schools at the Pre-Primary level of Central District, Karachi. Five-point Likert scale questionnaire was used to collect the data. Findings show the impacts of violence presented in cartoons on children’s behavior. They not only imitate their favorite cartoon characters, and use aggressive attitudes at home and school.