Devin Smith
English 101
Lauren Clark
11/17/2010
Effects of Smoking Cartoon Characters on Children
Since televisions have been a regular appliance in the American household, children have grown up watching cartoons for entertainment. The cartoons they watch and the characters that they look up to can have a great influence on the young audience. A major issue with cartoons today is the characters smoking. Many parents of young kids do not agree with the depiction of their son or daughters favorite cartoon character smoking a cigarette. The characters will portray the cigarette as a way to attract people and a fun thing to do. Some people believe that smoking in cartoons can influence children to believe that smoking is acceptable.
In the last several decades, televisions have became very popular in households across America. Today, almost everybody owns at least one television. Children have grown up watching television shows, especially cartoons. In a recent study, children spend four hours on average watching TV per day. It is also known that the shows and characters on TV can influence the children's behavior and thought processes. Children who watch violent movies or play violent video games are more likely to act aggressive and also fear that something bad will happen to them (Gavin, 2008).
Many cartoons, especially older ones, will depict one or more characters as smoking a cigar or cigarette. The early cartoons such as Tom and Jerry and Looney Tunes often showed the main characters smoking. When these cartoons were made, there was no controversy over the issue because smoking was believed to be safe and it was more socially accepted. Smoking was a normal aspect of society. Smoking today is known to cause cancer and many other diseases. Smoking is not accepted anymore and has been banned from restaurants and many other public places here in North Carolina. The percentage of people who smoke has also decreased drastically in the past several years. These early cartoons are still played regularly and are loved by many children. Many parents of these children are outraged at the fact that they show the characters in the cartoons smoking. The characters will be shown enjoying smoking and are placed in good situations. For example, in one episode of Tom and Jerry, Tom is shown rolling up a cigarette and smoking it to attract a female. They are afraid that the cartoons will influence their children to think that smoking is acceptable and give them the urge to go outside and light one up. Many parents have raised awareness of this issue and have succeeded in forcing the cartoon companies to edit out the smoking scenes. Turner Broadcasting has edited more than 1500 of the old cartoons including Tom and Jerry, Looney Tunes, The Flintstones, and Scooby Doo to remove all of the smoking scenes in the shows (Reuters, 2006).
Smoking cartoon characters is a big issue, but what about the same characters abusing each other? In Tom and Jerry, the whole concept of the show is Tom trying to catch Jerry to eat him. It shows the characters beating each other with mallets, hitting each other, and even shooting each other with guns (Vigil, 2006). Does this not give kids the same idea that it is acceptable? It does not make sense why smoking is a big issue but the violence part is not a big deal. If they are going to remove smoking from the cartoons, then they definitely need to remove the violent scenes. Violence in the world today is a much bigger issue than smoking.
When I was young, I watched many of the original cartoons on a regular basis. Tom and Jerry and Looney Tunes were my favorite shows and I watched them almost every day before school. I never was influenced from the cartoons to smoke or be violent. The reason behind this is because I always had great parents growing up who would tell me when something is right and when it is wrong. They always told me that smoking and violence is bad. Children are influenced a lot more by their parents than any cartoon show ever made. If a parent smokes and has children, the kids will very likely pick up the bad habit. Also, if the parent acts aggressive towards the kids or other people, the children will most likely act the same way. Parents have the power to control their children and many do not realize it. Parents should be strong and make sure that the child knows that smoking and violence is not acceptable. If a parent does not want their kid to see a cartoon character smoking, they should not let their kid watch the cartoon. It is not fair for those parents who let their children run their lives to take away good and original cartoon shows from the children who have the right values and have responsible parents. I do not agree with the issue that smoking in cartoons negatively influences children and I certainly do not agree with the editing of thousands of great original cartoons. It is all up to the parents to control what their children think and do (Answerbag, 2007).
As long as televisions have been around, children have been watching cartoons. Many of the cartoons that they watch depict their favorite characters smoking. This could influence the child to think that smoking is acceptable, but with good parents who tell the children right from wrong, the child will not be pressured into smoking from the cartoon. Many parents do not know how to tell their children how to act and have succeeded in getting rid of the smoking scenes in these cartoons. Parents need to step up and raise their own kids.

Works Cited
Gavin, M.L. (2008, October). How TV affects your child. Retrieved from
http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/family/tv_affects_child

Reuters, Initials. (2006). Smoking scenes chopped from classic cartoons. The Star
Phoenix, D4.

Vigil, D. (2006, September 28). Cartoon characters up in smoke. Retrieved from
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/parenting/detail?entry_id=9296

Why are cartoon characters allowed to smoke?. (2007, February 18). Retrieved from
http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/142527