Young children watching primetime adult cartoons.

Any age, but I guess we can start this at around eight-ish. If you had a child who was elementary school aged, would you allow them to watch 'adult' cartoons like Family Guy, South Park, Boondocks, etc., etc.? When I ten, I was watching the Simpsons. My mom hated it, and thought the humor was crass and in bad taste (at the time, it was 'edgier' than it is now) but because my dad loved it, I was given leeway to watch it too. By the time I was around 13/14, Beavis + Butthead were on the air, and I was a regular viewer of it.

My daughter watches all of those Sunday night animation shows on FOX, and she loves Boondocks; the latter of which I was sort of 'eh' on her watching, but don't stop her from seeing. On the flip side, I have a cousin with a son my daughters age (and a daughter two years younger.) They are not allowed to watch any of those adult cartoons. When they visited a few years ago, I overheard my daughter asking them if they watched Family Guy. The boy answered "What's that?" For a second, I had to question my parenting methods.

I wouldn't let young children watch. I work in a kindergarten classroom and we have this one little guy that I think is allowed to watch adult cartoons, as the things he said are far more mature than most of the other kids in his class. He's a spoilt brat whose seen as perfect by his parents, but the way he talks sounds like those adult cartoons, though thankfully nothing sexually explicit has come out. The teachers are always going after him for the language he uses and the things he says.

I do think there's a proper age. Kids are exposed enough to that kind of thing, anyway. I don't know about "Family Guy" and some of those older cartoons, but I'd be fine with Simpsons, though I'm not a big fan of them myself - can take them in small doses, but usually half an hour is enough for me. I don't think I'd let an 8 year old watch the more adult cartoons, but maybe by 10 for things like Family Guy. Then again, I dont' watch those shows myself, as they're really not my style.

I have an 8 year old sister.....I wouldn't let her watch Family Guy or Southpark. It's too mature for her and she prob. wouldn't get it anyway. My mother only lets her watch Nickelodeon. But Chris, you shouldn't question your parenting skills if you let your daughter watch The Boondocks or Family Guy. She's older (13 right?) so she can handle the content.

The way I see it is that if they're under ten most of these "adult" cartoons will probably air past their bedtime anyway.

Oh hell no, I'm an adult and even I don't watch most of the adult cartoons on TV.

Nystyle709 wrote:I have an 8 year old sister.....I wouldn't let her watch Family Guy or Southpark. It's too mature for her and she prob. wouldn't get it anyway. My mother only lets her watch Nickelodeon. But Chris, you shouldn't question your parenting skills if you let your daughter watch The Boondocks or Family Guy. She's older (13 right?) so she can handle the content.

Yeah, thirteen now and in the eighth grade. Truth be told, she's old enough now to see anything on TV that's rated TV-14, so I don't too much worry about broadcast television. Cable is another story.

CatEyes10736 wrote:The way I see it is that if they're under ten most of these "adult" cartoons will probably air past their bedtime anyway.

Yeah really. My 5 year old's bedtime is 8:30 and my 9 year old's is 9pm.
Because they're in bed by the time the 18-34 male targeting cartoons are on, it's never been an issue. When they're old enough to have their bedtimes are extended, they can watch it.

I don't like any of those myself, and so never let my son watch them. Now, at 11, he has seen Family Guy at friends' houses and likes it a lot, which annoys me. He can't watch it here. He has learned to play the theme song on his trumpet, and that annoys me too.

Maybe I'm just a super lenient parent, but I pretty much let my kids watch whatever they want on BROADCAST (as opposed to cable) TV if it's on before their bedtime.

When I was about 7, FOX network went on the air....I saw one episode of Married with Children and loved it, even though some of the adult humor probably did go over my head. I told my mother about the show so she sat down and watched an episode with me. When it was over she was like "Nope. You not watching that again". I threw a fit but she remained firm. Guess what? I watched it anyway....just went to another room when it was on. After a while she figured out I was still watching the show, didn't like it....but eventually let it go.

I remember being about 12 and there was an especially racy topic on Geraldo's old talkshow one day. Both my parents were like "Nah, change the channel." I went to my bedroom, closed the door and turned the volume down low on my TV and finished watching the show.

Moral of the story....telling kids they can't watch this or that is going to make them more hellbent on seeing it. I don't make an issue out of my kids watching some more adult geared TV show that airs on network television. If it doesn't feature nudity and hardcore cursing, ultimately I don't think it's that serious.

Marc™ wrote:Moral of the story....telling kids they can't watch this or that is going to make them more hellbent on seeing it.

Not always. As kids, my parents never let my brother and I watch the Nick Toons in the afternoons on Nickelodeon, and from the brief glimpses we did see of them, we weren't especially tempted to see them. The only one we took issue to was when they told us we couldn't watch Kablaam, we'd been watching it a long time before they ever stumbled upon it.

Supernova wrote:Not always. As kids, my parents never let my brother and I watch the Nick Toons in the afternoons on Nickelodeon

Why not?

I don't really know, I guess they thought they were stupid or something.

Same applied to the Cartoon Cartoons on Cartoon Network, Johnny Bravo, Cow & Chicken, etc., now Johnny Bravo I still sneaked around to watch, but stuff like Cow and Chicken, when she said no, there wasn't much argument to that one.