Has It Become Embarrassing To Watch TV As A Family These Days, Or Is It Just Me?
( words)
*For representational purpose only.
The Patal Lok series on Amazon Prime has left me wondering where the entertainment industry is heading.
I remember, a long time ago, when Titanic streamed on television, I was very excited to watch it. I was 7 or 8 years old. When Kate Winslet’s iconic painting scene showed up on screen, I remember not being able to look anywhere. The rest of the evening, I couldn’t even speak to my parents. I was so embarrassed.
At the time, the entertainment programme was something that the entire family could enjoy. I couldn't think of a single film made before 2007 in which profane and abusive language was used as freely as any other phrase. Even if there was one, it was censored. I'm wondering whether putting 'Sex, abusive, 18+' in the upper left corner would keep the children away from what their parents are watching.
I absolutely agree that most of us use this language with our friends or in general, but is it the correct time for us to expose our children to all of this?
I am completely aware that our children will be exposed to sex as well as crude language at some point. However, I do not believe that television is the appropriate medium for exposing kids to this.
Family time is something that most of us, especially our children, crave. But as the mother of a 3-year-old kid, I fear watching something with him.
As parents, we also cannot watch cartoons the whole day; we also need to watch whatever we wish to. But the wish also comes with a fear of exposing the child to something that his or her age does not permit.
If the children are exposed to this type of language from an early age, the day is not very far when they will not consider it a big issue to abuse someone in front of their parents. Using abusive words will be part of their language and vocabulary.
I wish that the entertainment industry understood the real meaning of entertainment. It might be that the stories presented are real, but there should be a filter to present these real stories.
The way the scenes of an actor displaying their body parts or having sex on screen are deleted from the movies by the censor board, the usage of abusive language should also be seen in a similar context.
I wish my child and every other child should behave according to their age and not as someone who has entered adulthood.
The mainstream media should come up with actual entertainment, which may be fictional, that family members could watch together, similar to how we used to watch television as kids.