MEDIA AND PARENTING
Namitha Dipak
Summer holidays are a good time for parents to catch up on what their children and their buddies are viewing, and join in the fun too. Children are usually permitted to stay awake longer, and parents are a little more relaxed around this time too. It’s often an eye opener to see how children’s tastes have changed over the years, and how television channels that once ruled their existence, suddenly appear dim on the radar.
I realized this when I stood in the Toon Kidz shop at the new Total Mall in
Yet, even watching that programme seems to be more by force of habit. Serials that are not animated, like those on Disney, seem to be a bigger draw these days for him and his buddies.
Interestingly, the Disney bouquet of offerings seems to be focused on magic and fantasy with a whopping seven serials featuring this in some form or the other: Sonpari, Shakalaka Boom Boom, Karishma ka Karishma, Wizards of Waverly Place, Shararat, Agdam Bagdam Tigdam and That’s So Raven. Considering that some of the serials appear twice in a day, that’s a real fantasy-rich diet.
Of these, Shararat really holds its own thanks to the presence of the effervescent Farida Jalal, and the son-in-law—mother-in-law spats which still manage to entertain even though that theme is old. That’s So Raven was great when it was aired earlier and we watched re-runs galore – now with a late-night slot at10 pm, it’s off our radar.
Wizards of Waverly Place is on at a decent time, but the flip side is that it is can be a bit risqué at times – it was quite startling to watch a recent episode where the young girl Alex and her brother are competing over first kisses. The whole episode is literally a guide to kissing, and it included scenes of kissing at school.
Seriously, is anyone looking at these episodes individually and commenting on their suitability and for which age-group even if it is on a children’s channel? Caution notices about content appear before programmes like My Family and Chef on BBC Entertainment. These notices are good because if an adult is watching them they are able to take a decision on whether to leave it on when children are around. But how can one expect a child to read such a notice and follow it on a children’s channel, because they might watch the programmes by themselves? Alternatively, if an adult is present, it means creating a scene and insisting that the programme be turned off which just draws more attention to it. Could we think about some kind of beeping alarms before the programme begins to alert parents/caretakers who may not be in the same room?
If ever there was a case for parents to sit with their kids when possible to check out what they are viewing, this is it. With the advent of the satellite TV, it is possible to look at the programme summaries in advance…but it is easier to just forbid the child from watching the programme entirely. That blanket ban worked for our family at least with Shin Chan on Hungama! Yep, that precocious five year old cartoon Japanese kid who has a lot of human parents running for cover. Last month, a few of us watched in embarrassed horror when a little boy aged about four went up to a mother of two kids, looked fondly at her, and told her "Aap bahut acche hai – main mera papa se baat karoonga".
Disney channel has also introduced a programme called Kya Mast Hai Life about a young girl called Zenia and her gang – we caught a couple of episodes over the last week, and they did not excite us at all. It is early days yet, but the serial seemed to be slow-paced, with amateurish acting and backdrops. It didn’t help that one of the episodes included an audition scene highly reminiscent of High School Musical.
It’s great to sit with kids and enjoy some of the sitcoms like Suite Life of Zack and Cody and Hannah Montana that are really cheerful and perfect holiday material. But as far as I am concerned, the best programmes are those that really get the children to move around and use the information when they need it. From this perspective, two programmes that standout are Art Attack (Disney) and Backyard Science (Hungama). Art Attack is televised twice a day, whereas Backyard Science seems to be on a break at present.
Art Attack’s host, the cheerful Neil Buchanan, is a hit with the kids – he explains things clearly and works in such an organized and effortless manner, that viewers feel like getting up right then and doing the activity. He gives tips on techniques of writing, drawing and painting that are classy and useful, and if you don’t have the time to do the craft work right away, you could always look up the website, or adapt it to something relevant to you. The activity that Buchanan does in the outdoors: the Big Art Attack also provides a change in pace and perspective which keeps the viewer really curious to know how he will pull it off. To provide some comic relief, a character called The Head pops up from time to time to summarise things.
Art Attack is a one-man show, but on the contrary, Backyard Science’s USP is really the presence of an assortment of kids. The children solve problems in groups of two or three, and two anchors link all the stories together. What is absolutely brilliant is the combination of actual interactions among children in a real setting, and voice-overs which together make it easy to relate to real-life and at the same time gain clarity on scientific aspects. It is extremely fast-paced, enough to make an adult’s head spin perhaps, but in terms of inspirational programming, it wins hands down. I’ve had my son and his friends trying out some experiments from this programme immediately, and even create models for school using some of these ideas. I’ve had them rummaging through my "junk cupboard" for the equipment and using my kitchen to do their little experiments, and I’ve never seen them have as much fun as when those experiments worked! It’s programmes such as these that make me feel that the term "idiot" box is a misnomer. I hope the series is revived again soon.
Lastly, here’s another candidate for inspirational programming: the IPL cricket series. The series shifting to