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<title> Age limit on cartoons? </title>
TV violence has become a big issue as TV takes more and more time of childrens free time. What can be the affect on children when they are watching violence on TV?
	The quantity of TV-channels has increased a lot with satellites, commercials and large networks. The channels broadcast 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It is very hard, if not impossible, for parents to control what their children watch on TV. The question is how big affect the TV has on their behaviour. I believe that the childrens environment, not only TV but also how they are raised and in what sort of neighbourhood they grow up in has a big influence on weather or not they get violent. The V-chip that Ginia Bellafante presents in her article "Locking out violence" is a great idea, but it can be hard to make it reality. The V-chip is a chip that when used right it would give the parents a chance to chose what TV programs their kids could watch. The people who lives in the poorest and toughest neighbourhoods can't afford to pay for such a chip. It is probably the people in those neighbourhoods that needs the chip most of all.
	What can be done then to help children getting away from violence? If you look at the TV programs for kids these days and what their contents are, then I think that they have not changed all that much. The only difference is that you are able to watch them whenever you feel like it. You are no longer limited to the five a clock shows on SVT1 or SVT2 like the children were when I was growing up. For instance, when I was younger, if there were a cartoon shoving, it was almost as if there was a party. A good cartoon came along maybe once a week if you were lucky. Now you have the cartoon channel that shows cartoons 24 hours a day.
	What is the message that a cartoon should send to a kid? I would like to bring up my favourite cartoon, Tom and Jerry. Tom and Jerry is a cartoon about one cat, Tom, and one mouse, Jerry, and occasionally one dog, which I don't know the name of. Every episode is a constant fight between the cat and the mouse. It is not said clearly, but the cats goal is to catch the mouse and eventually eat it. In his struggle to stay alive, Jerry, the mouse, uses very unconventional methods. It is not unusual for him to use different tools to stop the cat. Frying pans getting smashed to the cats head and bowling balls dropping on his feets. The classic scene that occurs once in a while is when Toms teeth cracks like glass. They do so in many different situations. Him getting a plank in his head or when he accidentally runs into a wall. Each and every time when the cat gets hurt he just shrugs his shoulders and continues his chase for food. Sometimes, when the mouse finds it difficult to get away from the cats persistent hunt, he turns to the dog for help. The dog is of course a big strong Bulldog and he is superior the cat in strength. In the end the mouse always gets away in one piece and often Tom and Jerry make friends with each other. What is the message then that this cartoon sends to children? You could assume that every kid that watch Tom and Jerry thinks that it is okay to hit someone in the head with a hammer, because after a couple of seconds he will be fine and you are friends again. But I don't think that children work that way. I think that they are able to see that it is wrong to beat up your friends like that. The writers of Tom and Jerry has just taken the supposed rivalry between cats and mice and made it to something exaggerated violent in a funny way. The same concept is found in another cartoon, Roadrunner. A coyote tries to catch a couple of ostriches. The coyote gets hit by cars and falls of cliffs. He always survives, but he never catches the ostriches.
	The effects of TV violence are a little bit exaggerated. The overall environment plays a much bigger part in childrens life.
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