Films laden with adult content and inappropriate language have become a reason to worry for parents, who constantly get embarrassed watching television with their children. Recently, actor Dharmendra remarked that “Earlier we used to make clean films for everyone and a film used to be a family outing. But now things have changed. At times it’s difficult to sit with family and watch the content. I don’t say it is wrong but all this is spoiling the kids. It’s healthy to know things with your age and why unnecessary make everything open?”
Psychologists claim that children often tend to misinterpret the messages conveyed in films. They overlook the positive side and concentrate more on the negatives. They are served with information way too early than they are actually able to handle. They are free to watch anything that comes on television. Now they also have the luxury of the Internet, which is an instant source of information. Dr Jitendra Nagpal blames the explosion of information and irresponsible behaviour shown by “adults” for the imbalance in physical and mental growth. “Recently, a 13-year-old girl was sent to me for counselling by her school. She had sex with her classmate and dared to ask the principal, ‘What’s wrong with that?’ The hyper-awareness is largely accountable for the unnecessary curiosity generated among kids. Let them grow in tandem with nature,” he says.
Among other forms, children are the most susceptible to films. Their minds are immature and are unable to distinguish good from bad. “The content in the films today generate curiosity and so the hormones become active faster. Whereas, mentally they are ill-equipped to handle the changes. My 12-year-old’s classmate asks him on Facebook, ‘don’t you want to f*** xxx any more, dude? I am sure he didn’t mean it literally, but the usage itself is a matter of concern. There should be a moral responsibility of the mass media. They should self-regulate and not spoil innocent minds,” says Shashank Awasthy, a teacher.
Young children are particularly vulnerable to the influence of violence and rampant sex in films. Their minds are not mature enough to consider that it’s not actually cool to hit classmates, argue and disobey authority, feels child psychologist Prithvish Verma. He says, “Children exposed to a lot of sex in the media are likely to have early sexual intercourse out of sheer curiosity than those who have rarely encountered sexual content. Films today don’t discourage bad behaviour. Sexual promiscuity is portrayed as fun with no ill-effects. It may be as subtle as sexual innuendoes but a regular supply of violence, sex, alcohol abuse and smoking is not healthy for the young be it in ads, films or through any other media.”