Well, it's pretty dependent on context -- and the question is quite an open one... still, I'm going to go with bad. Hiding the realities of the world from someone scarcely ever ends well. You just have to educate your children the best you can. Don't lie to them. Don't act like you always know best... just find the right balance between control and freedom, and slowly shift that balance as they grow older, until an individual is finally blossomed, and the rest is up to them.
So yes, sheltering children to overly high extremes is bad, in my opinion. It can only hold them back, in the long run.
I don't think there is anything wrong with filtering what games/movies etc your children watch or play. I grew up with plenty of sheltered kids who turned out to be normal adults. I don't know what happened with the upbringing of today's college kids and their intolerance for anyone whose opinion isn't the same as theirs. But to be fair when I was growing up there were emos everywhere and Fight Club was at the height of it's popularity. Maybe this generation didn't have anything to tell them they aren't as important as their parents say they are.
I think sheltering kids are good; however, you cannot shelter them for too long. I was a sheltered child. Pure innocence. But as you get older, everything changes, especially if you are in school. Kids made fun of me because I still believed in Santa Claus, but I didn't listen. I kept believing and believing until my parents told me. I was eleven years old believe it or not. I had a tantrum. Tears just flowing from my eyes because my parents lied to me about something like that. I was crushed. But my parents wanted to keep my innocence, but my dad told my mom that it was time to tell me. Children who have innocence seemed so happy and it was beautiful to see a child act like a child. Now, I wasn't completely sheltered. I knew about the violence because me and my parents watched the news together until this very day. I knew about sex because of school and kids kept talking about it. i think sheltering them is good, but not too much. They need to know about violence and sex, but not graphically. Kids know about these things more graphically than I know, which is kinda sad because they don't need to know the details. They just need to know that it is there. And children today don't act like their age. They act like adults and want to grow up so fast and they do not want to grasp their childhood. Because once you grow up that's it. There's no turning back. Sorry for the long post I just wanted to get my whole point out.
As Dillon said. Context is pretty much everything.
Personally the censorship has gone way too far. 1980s and 90s were an epic time to be a kid when it came to Saturday morning cartoons that was for sure. Stuff today just doesn't compete, not by a land slide. It's all so badly watered down. It is so bad that a really cool Disney Cartoon like Gravity Falls saw a ALOT of parent backlash when it isn't even remotely close to what used to be seen on TV. All because it dabbled in serious themes at times with supernatural and mythological creatures. But that was the entire point of the cartoon it was a mystery solving series.
It became considerably worse after 911 as well. I remember when they pulled Mobile Suit Gundam (1979) and Mobile Suit Gundam 08th MS Team (1996-1998) from Cartoon Network, as i guess anti war cartoons were not suitable when war was on the horizon. Which started a negative down spiral for Cartoon Network's best cartoon hour which promised "We are dedicated to bringing you the best action cartoons." Toonami's old motto. They never even got around to finishing Mobile Suit Gundam on Cartoon Network, they brought it back on Adult Swim for like a few weeks but no one was going to stay up until 2am to watch it so... Ironically being the programming seen late at night on Adult Swim isn't even as good as what used to be played on Cartoon Network, it's just much darker but in a immature disgusting way much of the time.
I think people have gotten it so wrong. People are obsessive at trying to keep children away from mature themes in media... but the problem is maturity is necessary. Children need the examples to grew up as moral individuals. It doesn't have to have blood/gore, doesn't have to have sex, and stupid humor. But programming and games which are presented with a sense of maturity in mind..
Family Guy, Archer, stuff like that is insanely immature, the opposite of mature programming. It's adult content, but not mature content. The Context is horrible for children.
Then look at programming like Gumball. Pretty much Family Guy without that adult content... but has the same horrible context that children shouldn't be exposed to.
Now compare that to say Gravity Falls, easily a better cartoon than all of them. Actually personally the best quality Cartoon by Disney since Kim Possible. Gravity Falls saw a lot of flak however from parent groups, it was too mature.. too dark at times, considered unsuitable by modern parents. Gravity Falls was then migrated to Disney XD channel, and taken off of it's original time slot as well, and played relatively late in the day, where the youngest of viewers would be in bed. Despite that it is one of Disney's best Cartoon Shows, ever. lol
I think the best is to let kids discover the world by themselves with the parents serving as a guide to make sure kids don't stray too far into the wrong direction.
I was a rather sheltered kid and i'm still fighting my social awkwardness to this day
I think shelter and children in itself, is not a good thing. Children need to be exposed to the world, and he needs to learn how to make their way in the world. Sheltering a child too much, will only serve to hurt them later on in life. Naturally you will want to shelter them from some things. But you can't shelter to the point where they don't know how to work and interact with other people.
Honestly, it mostly depends on age. I believe every lesson has its time and place, you're not going to teach a 5 year old about sex and things like that but you can teach them the places where others shouldn't touch them.
Parents shouldn't rely on media to parent for them and then complain of what they see, It's the parent's responsibility to monitor what their children consume and be positive examples. They should be sheltered (to an extent of course) not too much that they become socially inept and unprepared for this world but just enough to gradually gain a firm grasp on reality as well as a good morality.
There are a plethora of factors as to why it is good or bad. But maturity, and maturity in the mind, is very real...so I think that there definitely needs to be 'sheltering' for kids as they grow up in some way, depending on its context. You don't show a kid an R rated movie, you just don't, restrictions are there for a reason, and psychological damage is very real also. Just as an example.
But it isn't natural. It's a 20th Century Phenomenon that has gone out of control. I mean look up early versions of fairy tales that were told to children, before they were censored and watered down during the early/mid 20th Century. Stuff like Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, list goes on to infinity.
There are a plethora of factors as to why it is good or bad. But maturity, and maturity in the mind, is very real...so I think that there de… morefinitely needs to be 'sheltering' for kids as they grow up in some way, depending on its context. You don't show a kid an R rated movie, you just don't, restrictions are there for a reason, and psychological damage is very real also. Just as an example.
Natural?
We live in current times, we don't live in the 'early/mid 20th Century', where the world worked a lot differently. Times do change, and sheltering children on certain things is pretty normal in my eyes, children don't have the mental capacity, worldly experience or maturity to cope with many things.
It will be hard to discuss this without specifics, could you tell me where you are coming from? Other than the fairytales?
But it isn't natural. It's a 20th Century Phenomenon that has gone out of control. I mean look up early versions of fairy tales that were … moretold to children, before they were censored and watered down during the early/mid 20th Century. Stuff like Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, list goes on to infinity.
My parents kept me away from most TV until I was like six or seven. Until then, I was operating under the assumption that PBS and The Weather Channel were the only channels. I generally think that was a good thing. TV is no substitute for play, learning and other enriching activities.
As for mature content, context is very important. Gradually exposing them to more mature themes is probably the best option.
In my opinion, it's important not to hide current events and (as @DillonDex put it) the realities of the real world. My parents used to listen to NPR a lot when I was in the car, and I turned out fine. Kids deserve to know their history and what's going on around them.
...children don't have the mental capacity, worldly experience or maturity to cope with many things.
Like adults do? I rarely see a mature adult worthy of being called an adult personally. Secondly, claiming they do not have the mental capacity is insulting. Brain development shoots up the fastest when we are children, after that it slows considerably by the time we are teens/adults it's considerably harder for us to cope, adapt and accept new ideas. To say children do not have the ability is an insult to children everywhere.
Natural?
We live in current times, we don't live in the 'early/mid 20th Century', where the world worked a lot differently. Times do change… more, and sheltering children on certain things is pretty normal in my eyes, children don't have the mental capacity, worldly experience or maturity to cope with many things.
It will be hard to discuss this without specifics, could you tell me where you are coming from? Other than the fairytales?
I´m European so none of this relates to me, but I think that sheltering kids from certain things is neither good nor bad. Children are uncontrollable I think, you´ll never be able to mold your children the way you want which is what I think when I know over-sheltering parents, you should not seek out to expose them to "adult stuff" but neither hide from them the stuff in life they will have to deal eventually.
I´ve known parents that will talk about rape to their 7 year old daughter because "she´s turning into a woman, she must know" as much as parents that will get piss off if you even dare to smoke a cigarette in the same house as their children are because "they shouldn´t know that this things exist until they have an adult mind to understand it". Both choices are equally stupid and dangerous for the kid.
As everything in life, the correct answer lies in between the opposites.
I'm of the notion that when a child is old enough to understand the premise of something they should be told, at least, the basics of it.
Whether a parent shows their kid an R rated movie or not I don't much care, I don't think it makes any impression worth noting. I know I watched my first scary, R rated movie no later than 8. It was fun.
No it's just reality. A child doesn't have 20+ years of experience in the world to be able to understand or cope with many things. It's not insulting, but basic fact.
But yet again, it depends on specifics, i'm not saying shelter them from everything, this is a very broad topic...hard to speak generally.
...children don't have the mental capacity, worldly experience or maturity to cope with many things.
Like adults do? I rarely see a… more mature adult worthy of being called an adult personally. Secondly, claiming they do not have the mental capacity is insulting. Brain development shoots up the fastest when we are children, after that it slows considerably by the time we are teens/adults it's considerably harder for us to cope, adapt and accept new ideas. To say children do not have the ability is an insult to children everywhere.
It is a very broad topic. If I recall if someone doesn't mature by the time they're a teenager they're likely not going to be much more mature by the time they're an adult, and into later life. When it comes to Experience most of the horrific things that Experience could teach someone even Adults Today are Shielded from. Unless you live in a very violent part of the world. If that is the case our children will learn it the same way we do through the media, and there is no too early or too late to start learn that.
Children are more than able to understand the concepts of life and death. During the 1980s it wasn't uncommon to see cartoon and film characters for children to die. It wasn't uncommon for weapons/firearms to exist on kids shows/movies. It wasn't uncommon for politics at least simple politics to exist, teaching the concepts of morality, right and wrong. etc etc etc. Everything a maturely made TV show could present them. Such programming today rarely exist. Example being a cartoon like Gumball only teaches kids to bounce off the walls, and it's okay to be crazy. lol
I must just be me then. I grew up watching stuff like Shaka Zulu, reruns of Shogun and Robotech all before the age of 10. Lets say even Robotech for todays standards would be banned unless it was played at like midnight. It involved everything from romance to genocide. Used to stay up insanely late and watch zombie and horror films as well when everyone was asleep. You know the stuff your kids do when you're not around. lol
No it's just reality. A child doesn't have 20+ years of experience in the world to be able to understand or cope with many things. It's not … moreinsulting, but basic fact.
But yet again, it depends on specifics, i'm not saying shelter them from everything, this is a very broad topic...hard to speak generally.
Comments
You'll have to define exactly what you mean by 'sheltering children'; that's pretty vague.
Sheltering them from R-rated movies, the internet, certain video games, sex, etc. Anything that's perceived to be bad.
Well, it's pretty dependent on context -- and the question is quite an open one... still, I'm going to go with bad. Hiding the realities of the world from someone scarcely ever ends well. You just have to educate your children the best you can. Don't lie to them. Don't act like you always know best... just find the right balance between control and freedom, and slowly shift that balance as they grow older, until an individual is finally blossomed, and the rest is up to them.
So yes, sheltering children to overly high extremes is bad, in my opinion. It can only hold them back, in the long run.
Well, age is obviously important, like you don't go take your 6 year old and describe in-detail on how babies are made.
I don't think there is anything wrong with filtering what games/movies etc your children watch or play. I grew up with plenty of sheltered kids who turned out to be normal adults. I don't know what happened with the upbringing of today's college kids and their intolerance for anyone whose opinion isn't the same as theirs. But to be fair when I was growing up there were emos everywhere and Fight Club was at the height of it's popularity. Maybe this generation didn't have anything to tell them they aren't as important as their parents say they are.
I think sheltering kids are good; however, you cannot shelter them for too long. I was a sheltered child. Pure innocence. But as you get older, everything changes, especially if you are in school. Kids made fun of me because I still believed in Santa Claus, but I didn't listen. I kept believing and believing until my parents told me. I was eleven years old believe it or not. I had a tantrum. Tears just flowing from my eyes because my parents lied to me about something like that. I was crushed. But my parents wanted to keep my innocence, but my dad told my mom that it was time to tell me. Children who have innocence seemed so happy and it was beautiful to see a child act like a child. Now, I wasn't completely sheltered. I knew about the violence because me and my parents watched the news together until this very day. I knew about sex because of school and kids kept talking about it. i think sheltering them is good, but not too much. They need to know about violence and sex, but not graphically. Kids know about these things more graphically than I know, which is kinda sad because they don't need to know the details. They just need to know that it is there. And children today don't act like their age. They act like adults and want to grow up so fast and they do not want to grasp their childhood. Because once you grow up that's it. There's no turning back. Sorry for the long post I just wanted to get my whole point out.
As Dillon said. Context is pretty much everything.
Personally the censorship has gone way too far. 1980s and 90s were an epic time to be a kid when it came to Saturday morning cartoons that was for sure. Stuff today just doesn't compete, not by a land slide. It's all so badly watered down. It is so bad that a really cool Disney Cartoon like Gravity Falls saw a ALOT of parent backlash when it isn't even remotely close to what used to be seen on TV. All because it dabbled in serious themes at times with supernatural and mythological creatures. But that was the entire point of the cartoon it was a mystery solving series.
It became considerably worse after 911 as well. I remember when they pulled Mobile Suit Gundam (1979) and Mobile Suit Gundam 08th MS Team (1996-1998) from Cartoon Network, as i guess anti war cartoons were not suitable when war was on the horizon. Which started a negative down spiral for Cartoon Network's best cartoon hour which promised "We are dedicated to bringing you the best action cartoons." Toonami's old motto. They never even got around to finishing Mobile Suit Gundam on Cartoon Network, they brought it back on Adult Swim for like a few weeks but no one was going to stay up until 2am to watch it so... Ironically being the programming seen late at night on Adult Swim isn't even as good as what used to be played on Cartoon Network, it's just much darker but in a immature disgusting way much of the time.
I think people have gotten it so wrong. People are obsessive at trying to keep children away from mature themes in media... but the problem is maturity is necessary. Children need the examples to grew up as moral individuals. It doesn't have to have blood/gore, doesn't have to have sex, and stupid humor. But programming and games which are presented with a sense of maturity in mind..
Family Guy, Archer, stuff like that is insanely immature, the opposite of mature programming. It's adult content, but not mature content. The Context is horrible for children.
Then look at programming like Gumball. Pretty much Family Guy without that adult content... but has the same horrible context that children shouldn't be exposed to.
Now compare that to say Gravity Falls, easily a better cartoon than all of them. Actually personally the best quality Cartoon by Disney since Kim Possible. Gravity Falls saw a lot of flak however from parent groups, it was too mature.. too dark at times, considered unsuitable by modern parents. Gravity Falls was then migrated to Disney XD channel, and taken off of it's original time slot as well, and played relatively late in the day, where the youngest of viewers would be in bed. Despite that it is one of Disney's best Cartoon Shows, ever. lol
I think the best is to let kids discover the world by themselves with the parents serving as a guide to make sure kids don't stray too far into the wrong direction.
I was a rather sheltered kid and i'm still fighting my social awkwardness to this day
I think shelter and children in itself, is not a good thing. Children need to be exposed to the world, and he needs to learn how to make their way in the world. Sheltering a child too much, will only serve to hurt them later on in life. Naturally you will want to shelter them from some things. But you can't shelter to the point where they don't know how to work and interact with other people.
Honestly, it mostly depends on age. I believe every lesson has its time and place, you're not going to teach a 5 year old about sex and things like that but you can teach them the places where others shouldn't touch them.
Parents shouldn't rely on media to parent for them and then complain of what they see, It's the parent's responsibility to monitor what their children consume and be positive examples. They should be sheltered (to an extent of course) not too much that they become socially inept and unprepared for this world but just enough to gradually gain a firm grasp on reality as well as a good morality.
There are a plethora of factors as to why it is good or bad. But maturity, and maturity in the mind, is very real...so I think that there definitely needs to be 'sheltering' for kids as they grow up in some way, depending on its context. You don't show a kid an R rated movie, you just don't, restrictions are there for a reason, and psychological damage is very real also. Just as an example.
But it isn't natural. It's a 20th Century Phenomenon that has gone out of control. I mean look up early versions of fairy tales that were told to children, before they were censored and watered down during the early/mid 20th Century. Stuff like Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, list goes on to infinity.
Natural?
We live in current times, we don't live in the 'early/mid 20th Century', where the world worked a lot differently. Times do change, and sheltering children on certain things is pretty normal in my eyes, children don't have the mental capacity, worldly experience or maturity to cope with many things.
It will be hard to discuss this without specifics, could you tell me where you are coming from? Other than the fairytales?
Nothings gonna corrupt my precious little baby angel! Stay away you vile impure beasts.
It depends.
My parents kept me away from most TV until I was like six or seven. Until then, I was operating under the assumption that PBS and The Weather Channel were the only channels. I generally think that was a good thing. TV is no substitute for play, learning and other enriching activities.
As for mature content, context is very important. Gradually exposing them to more mature themes is probably the best option.
In my opinion, it's important not to hide current events and (as @DillonDex put it) the realities of the real world. My parents used to listen to NPR a lot when I was in the car, and I turned out fine. Kids deserve to know their history and what's going on around them.
Like adults do? I rarely see a mature adult worthy of being called an adult personally. Secondly, claiming they do not have the mental capacity is insulting. Brain development shoots up the fastest when we are children, after that it slows considerably by the time we are teens/adults it's considerably harder for us to cope, adapt and accept new ideas. To say children do not have the ability is an insult to children everywhere.
I´m European so none of this relates to me, but I think that sheltering kids from certain things is neither good nor bad. Children are uncontrollable I think, you´ll never be able to mold your children the way you want which is what I think when I know over-sheltering parents, you should not seek out to expose them to "adult stuff" but neither hide from them the stuff in life they will have to deal eventually.
I´ve known parents that will talk about rape to their 7 year old daughter because "she´s turning into a woman, she must know" as much as parents that will get piss off if you even dare to smoke a cigarette in the same house as their children are because "they shouldn´t know that this things exist until they have an adult mind to understand it". Both choices are equally stupid and dangerous for the kid.
As everything in life, the correct answer lies in between the opposites.
It depends on WHAT you're showing them and WHEN you're showing it to them.
I'm of the notion that when a child is old enough to understand the premise of something they should be told, at least, the basics of it.
Whether a parent shows their kid an R rated movie or not I don't much care, I don't think it makes any impression worth noting. I know I watched my first scary, R rated movie no later than 8. It was fun.
No it's just reality. A child doesn't have 20+ years of experience in the world to be able to understand or cope with many things. It's not insulting, but basic fact.
But yet again, it depends on specifics, i'm not saying shelter them from everything, this is a very broad topic...hard to speak generally.
It is a very broad topic. If I recall if someone doesn't mature by the time they're a teenager they're likely not going to be much more mature by the time they're an adult, and into later life. When it comes to Experience most of the horrific things that Experience could teach someone even Adults Today are Shielded from. Unless you live in a very violent part of the world. If that is the case our children will learn it the same way we do through the media, and there is no too early or too late to start learn that.
Children are more than able to understand the concepts of life and death. During the 1980s it wasn't uncommon to see cartoon and film characters for children to die. It wasn't uncommon for weapons/firearms to exist on kids shows/movies. It wasn't uncommon for politics at least simple politics to exist, teaching the concepts of morality, right and wrong. etc etc etc. Everything a maturely made TV show could present them. Such programming today rarely exist. Example being a cartoon like Gumball only teaches kids to bounce off the walls, and it's okay to be crazy. lol
I must just be me then. I grew up watching stuff like Shaka Zulu, reruns of Shogun and Robotech all before the age of 10. Lets say even Robotech for todays standards would be banned unless it was played at like midnight. It involved everything from romance to genocide. Used to stay up insanely late and watch zombie and horror films as well when everyone was asleep. You know the stuff your kids do when you're not around. lol
Depends on a situation.
If there is a riot just outside of your house's door, you might want to keep your kids inside.
However if you lock your children on the room, you've likely gone too far in your parenting.