It is inevitable that children are growing up faster. In the fast paced world that we live in where new iPods come out all the time; kids are exposed to this kind of technology at a young age. Whether that is bad for kids, I can't really say. But this isn't titled cell phones or technology, its about the beloved Disney Channel stars we have watched for years. Whether your embarrassed to admit it or not, we all watched Shia LaBeouf play Ren's trouble-maker younger brother, and Hilary Duff with her cartoon conscience. One thing these shows had in common was that there was an innocence in every episode, and a lesson to be learned.
Disney's more recent shows like Hannah Montana, and the High School Musical phenomenon have similar morals instilled. But their stars cannot be said the same for. At a younger age they are doing acts described as provocative and raunchy, such as the most recent display at the Teen Music Awards. The Hannah Montana star, Miley Cyrus, performed what was seen as a pole dance. There has been controversay whether it was actually meant to be taken that way. But why should young children have to decipher that? Less recently there was an incident of Vanessa Hudgens, a High School Musical star taking somewhat questionable pictures of herself. Its these kind of acts that are corrupting young children. The show is called "Teen" Music Awards, but do we really want teens and younger children doing those kind of things?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
As it is, kids almost never realize when even the most blunt sexual overtones in cartoons, music, or movies are in front of their eyes. And despite it being called Teen's Choice Awards, teenagers really aren't the target audience of that program-- it's typically the much younger crowd. Also, judging from the fact that Miley Cyrus' dance was in no way a pole dance, even if elementary schoolers and tweens had the ability to decipher sexual overtones in their programming, which they typically can't, there is nothing sexual to interpret in the first place.
ReplyDeleteAbove comment should've been made with this file. Whoops.
ReplyDeleteAlthough you made a valid point, to some degree kids notice. Especially if they are younger, even if they don't understand what they're doing it's likely they'll ask questions. Also, this is a recurring pattern in society today. For one there are countless photos of celebrities like one mentioned in the post which young children can easily access. Also, someone like Britney Spears who went from pig-tail wearing school girl to a body suit at the 2000 MTV awards.
ReplyDeleteAlso, take a look at this link:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1618490/20090811/cyrus__miley.jhtml
If Disney Channel did not believe this was affecting their young viewers, and probably to avoid bad publicity as well, they would not be trying to distance themselves from this type of behavior from one of their stars.
(sorry you have to copy and paste the url)
I agree with you Morgan. Even if the kids aren't going to go out and copy these scandals they still saw them. They still see it on their favorite channels and there for as acceptable. Something I noticed on the site you posted was a quote Disney put out -->
ReplyDelete"Disney Channel won't be commenting on that performance, although parents can rest assured that all content presented on the Disney Channel is age-appropriate for our audience — kids 6-14
— and consistent with what our brand values are."
Disney puts this out as if nothing potentially "too pg-13" happened. What exactly ARE their so-called "brand values" then? That's what /I/ wonder.