Television advertising directed toward young children (aged two to five) should not be allowed.
Recently, there has been a ton of debate on whether advertising directed towards young children (aged two to five) should be allowed or not. In my opinion advertisements directed towards children of this young age should not be allowed. I feel this way for two main reasons, which I will explore in the following paragraphs.
First of all, advertisements can brainwash children majorly for their benefits and to make their product or service more popular among kids of this age. Children are naïve and fall for the idea shown in the advertisements though it might not be true and make their parent spend a lot of money and resource to get these products. My personal experience is a great example for this, my nephew who is 5 years of age watched this advertisement about a candy that claims to make children ‘disappear’. Though it sounds very gimmicky and false for an adult to see, children on the other hand can believe this easily at times. He was so obsessed with these candies he asked his parents to buy the candy more than often and they were really expensive too. This type of advertisements can cause very bad impact on kids and their parents financially or emotionally.
Secondly, advertisements can circulate propagandas very easily in children as they believe whatever is shown quite readily. There are so many cases around the world where propagandas and thoughts are placed into an under developed children’s mind using advertisements and tv shows. Drawing from my own experience I heard about this advertisement that showed Asian parents as very strict guardians and this became a very common stereotype among children. Moreover, these children genuinely feared Asian parents of their fellow classmates and were avoiding them most of the time in school functions. From this example, it is certainly clear to see why a children’s mind readily believe in propagandas shared by advertisements and this can cause a very bad effect in the longer run.
So, in my opinion advertising directed towards young children should not be allowed as children’s mind are naïve and this might cause the children to be either obsessed with the product or might even create a standard stereotype that remains in their brain as they grow older which a very bad thing.
Submitted by Sanid Dahal on