Things sure have changed since I was a kid...

[David In Indy]

When I was 10 years old, we watched things like "Leave It To Beaver", "The Andy Griffith Show", and "The Patridge Family" on television. My record collection consisted of albums from The Jackson Five, Elvis and The Carpenters.

I just spoke to my 7 year old great nephew on the telephone today. During our conversation I asked him who some of his favorite singers were. He proceded to ramble off a bunch of names I'd never heard of before, except for the name Eminem, which suddenly threw up all kinds of red flags. He said one of his favorite videos was "Toy Soldiers". Hmmm. Toy Soldiers. It sounds fairly innocent. I'm sitting there picturing little toy plastic soldiers or something from the "Nutcracker Suite". So, I looked it up on the Internet and this is what I found...

(WARNING!! THIS VIDEO IS VERY DISTURBING!)

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JkH607y5_U[/youtube]

Eric is seven years old! I am absolutely APPALLED at my niece for allowing him to even watch videos such as this! She bought him the DVD for his birthday!!

Does anyone else see a problem here, or is it just me? Why would my niece allow her son to watch/listen to such a violent video like this? Maybe I should have posted this in the Bitch, Bitch, Bitch thread.

I have half a mind to sneak over there, find that terrible DVD and throw it into the trash barrel.

He's SEVEN YEARS OLD for God's sake!! 

Things sure have changed since I was a kid.

[opinionista]

That video is definitely disturbing and shouldn't be watched by a sever year old. However, I disagree with you when you say things have changed. I think kids from all generation have been exposed to violence in one way or another. Maybe the ones who grew up during the 50s didn't see too much violence on TV but they sure played with toy guns and stuff like that. I grew up during the 70's and I recall all those shows you mention. But I also remember the John Wayne and Clint Eastwood movies and how the kids from my neighborhood wanted to play cowboys and indians, with toy guns. The liked to play to kill one another, steal women and all that.

Also, cartoons are extremelly violent and so are fairy tales. IMO no matter what you do, it is very hard to shield your kid from the reality of violence, because it is everywhere. TV, literature, games everywhere. The best thing to do is being realistic about it, teach them what violence means, and what can it do to them and to others. IMO that is.

[Brokeback_Dev]

I have to agree things have changed since we were kids.  IMO not only with violence in music videos, but the degredation of women in  music videos and rap songs.  When my daughter was seven Brittney Spears had a sexy vid called  Baby Hit me One more Time, and dont forget Christina Aguilerra singing Im a Jeanie in the Bottle you have to rub me the right way.

Also, I  agree and disgaree with David on some things,  While its true that some of our cartoons of the 60's and 70's were violent, and yes i did play war in the woods with my friends,  kids over the past decade or so have video games they play that get you points when you kill a cop or rape a prostitute.  A bit diff than harmless toy guns.

[injest]

Things have certainly changed. Yes, John Wayne movies were violent. But the context was completely different. And context matters.
 
Violence was presented as a last resort. And the hero was the GOOD guy. The one that was committing violence for the protection of the innocent. And the violence wasnt' so graphic as it is now.

I remember going to the movies when I was a kid and watching Bonnie and Clyde. That was a pretty bloody movie. NO ONE in the audience laughed when people were shot in the face. But people will talk about how 'funny' a movie is...it makes me wonder about them. How can depictions of ears being cut off or tongues being pulled out be funny?

[jstephens9]

Well, I agree with parts of what everyone has said so far. I do agree that the video seems much too violent for a 7 year old, but chances are this video is also being shown on television. What is really sad about this video is that Eminem is actually speaking against all the violence that hip hop music has become. I found the lyrics and read them just to be sure I was thinking right. However, it is no doubt a disgusting video. In my opinion it is past the time for rap/hip hop to go away. I don't like what it stands for. Most of it stands for killing people, degrading women, doing drugs and the like. The hip hop "singers" say it should be that way cause that is how they grew up. Did they ever think that them being millionaires might be a way they could help, rather than hurt, the places they came from? Instead they are proud of it and continue this lifestyle in their incredible fancy cars while doing their drugs with all their "girls" hanging around. They think being a pimp is cool and hey murder is just something they think is fine.

Anyway, beyond my tiraid on that, I think things have changed, but I do agree that violence has always existed in one form or another. It seems in some ways things are displayed more graphically such as the things we see on the extreme amount of CSI type shows on television. As far as music goes there is always someone there to shock and someone there that is going to destroy the youth. For example, Marilyn Manson is nothing more than an incarnation of Alice Cooper in my opinion. And what does Alice do now, play golf 

But yes David I do definitely see where you are coming from. What you didn't watch "The Munsters?" I never will forget that when I was little I had a nightmare that they captured me and wouldn't let me out of their house 

[David In Indy]

That video is definitely disturbing and shouldn't be watched by a sever year old. However, I disagree with you when you say things have changed. I think kids from all generation have been exposed to violence in one way or another. Maybe the ones who grew up during the 50s didn't see too much violence on TV but they sure played with toy guns and stuff like that. I grew up during the 70's and I recall all those shows you mention. But I also remember the John Wayne and Clint Eastwood movies and how the kids from my neighborhood wanted to play cowboys and indians, with toy guns. The liked to play to kill one another, steal women and all that.

Also, cartoons are extremelly violent and so are fairy tales. IMO no matter what you do, it is very hard to shield your kid from the reality of violence, because it is everywhere. TV, literature, games everywhere. The best thing to do is being realistic about it, teach them what violence means, and what can it do to them and to others. IMO that is.

Hi Natali!!

Well, I still say there is a huge difference between a mouse hitting a cat upside his head with a frying pan in a cartoon, and this terrible video I posted. Yes, we saw violence on television when we were kids, but it is so much worse now. And it's ALL THE TIME. We can't turn our telvisions on, even in the daytime, and not see it. It wasn't like this back in the 60's. Not to this degree. Not even close.

And it's not just the violence. I can't imagine what folks would have thought in the 60's if they saw a commercial on television about vaginal dryness or errectile dysfunction. People didn't even talk about these things amongst themselves, much less on television! I consider myself a very liberal person, but I suppose I'm a bit conservative when it comes to this. Maybe it's my midwestern upbringing. But I don't think seven year olds should be subjected to these things; especially ALL THE TIME like they are in today's world.

[David In Indy]

But yes David I do definitely see where you are coming from. What you didn't watch "The Munsters?" I never will forget that when I was little I had a nightmare that they captured me and wouldn't let me out of their house 

I watched The Munsters too, but I was more of an Addam's Family kid. Boy that sounds like a freaky dream! That sounds like the kind of dreams I sometimes had as a kid.

[opinionista]

Hi Natali!!

Well, I still say there is a huge difference between a mouse hitting a cat upside his head with a frying pan in a cartoon, and this terrible video I posted.

I'm going to go OT to reply to your post so I apologize. I wish cartoons were just about a mouse hitting a cat with frying pan. I suppose you talk about Tom &Jerry. What I remember was those two trying to kill each other in every possible way. Sometimes, Jerry would take the skin off Tom with a knife. Yosemite Sam is always pissed off trying to kill bugs bunny with shot guns. Cartoons are extremelly violent. I agree that children are more exposed to violence in the media today than before they did before because of technology, but in terms of content, in my opinion, things haven't changed that much. I'm enclosing a link about violence in cartoons. It has more to do with smoking but it is relevant to this discussion. The author talks about old shows that were targeted to children and were very violent. Like the Three Stooges.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060828/COLUMNIST23/608280443