There is no shortage of opinions on the allowance of television advertising directed towards young children aged between two and five. Many people have different beliefs about how advertisements in televisions can impact young children’s minds. In today’s world, advertising has become a core component of business. In my opinion, I believe that television advertisements for young children shouldn’t be allowed for two main reasons, which I’ll explore in the following paragraphs.
First and foremost, advertisements in televisions can harm young children’s thought process. Their brains may not be matured enough to understand the underlying purpose of a particular advertisement. The advertisements might be fancy enough to convince a young child to get a hold of that product or service. My personal experience is a great example of this. I used to watch a lot of cartoons on television during my early childhood days. I remember that whenever I watch a fancy advertisement, I would start pestering my parents to get me that particular product that was showed on the advertisement, sometimes even without knowing the product’s purpose. The products would range from chocolates, candies, play things to mobile phones, laptops, etc. Even after much convincing from my parents, they had to get me some of these things, due to my obstinate nature. As a result, the advertisements had impacted me in such a way that my mind thought everything was obtainable. Consequently, I didn’t understand the hardships that my parents had to go through to buy me something that I had asked, just due to its fancy advertisement. For this reason, I feel that advertisements should be directed to children when they start understanding the know-hows of particular things in life.
Secondly, advertisements are an important reason for young children to watch television. Some might argue that they are glued to the television due to the cartoons that they watch. But I believe that they start watching televisions for cartoons, and then also get attracted to the advertisements. This is why even during a commercial break in between cartoons, young children don’t take their eyes off the television. Over exposure to television can harm young children’s eyesight at a tender age. I have to admit that my opinion on this matter has been deeply influenced by my own personal experience. I started watching television for the cartoons, but I became more interested in the advertisements during the breaks. Due to this, I used to watch televisions for close to 2 hours continuously. This in turn impacted my eyesight at the age of 6, and I’ve been wearing spectacles from then on. It’s certainly clear to see that, if there weren’t advertisements directly towards young children, they would take continuous breaks when watching cartoons on the television. This would in fact not degrade their eyesight at a young age.
In light of the reasons mentioned, I strongly agree that there should be no advertisements directed towards children aged between two and five, due to the impact that advertisements could have on their way of thinking and the harm it could cause to their eyesight. For this reason, I would recommend young children and the parents of young children to give importance to the mental ability of children at young age and protection of their eyesight.