Evening star., 1951-01-21
TeIevision-RQdi0 I
Effect of TV on the ChiIds Mind Is Great
Broodcosters Must Remember
By Harry Macarthur

| Whatever the ultimate effect of
television on the young of today.
it will be too late to do anything
about it when its nature becomes
known. The damage, If any, will
be done. 1t behooyes every tele-
vision broadcaster, then, as we'll
as every parent. to take every
precaution he can think Of against
the effect being damaging.
The medium certainly has a
tremendous impact on the child,
more so than on the adult, who
has learned that seeing Is not
necessarily believing.
Often this impact brings only
laughter to the living room and
story for use when dining out.
There is the case, for instance,
of the television producers son,
whose father likes to watch Lucky
Pup" Father thought son wasn't
paying any attention to Foodini
until the day son reached in his
pocket and found a quarter he
had forgotten. He held it aloft in
admiration. "Egad," he cried, "the
wealth of the Indies!"
Another story concerns the son
Of columnist, not this one, who
was watching an elderly movie
when cinema queen of the late
'20s or early '30s hove into view,
clad in an evening gown of note
worthy decolletage. Mother" son
asked, sis that Faye Emerson when
she was young?"
The central figure Of another
bit of evidence of television's i'm
pact is 4-year-old range-rider
who enjoys self Identification
while watching Westerns. This
probably is normal and harmless,
since all forms of popular fiction
have been trading on adult self
Identification for years. 1t was
during the inevitable battle in
the saloon, when the hero vas
taking on a dozen or so desper-
ados, that this boy turned from
the screen just long enough to
say: Il hope Tex wins. That's me-"
A More Serious Cose
Is the Horror Thriller
In considerably more serious
vein is the complaint a father
voiced the other day. He tries,
he said, to keep a firm grip on
things and guide his children's
viewing habits. One recent eve
ming. however, he came into the
living room to find his blood
tense before the television set,
their eyes glued to the screen.
He looked at that and saw
man stealthily approaching bed
where woman lay sleeping. The
man reached the bed, grabbed a
pillow and pushed it down firmly
over the woman's face. The
camera swung down to show her
feet threshing beneath the blan-
ket, finally slowing and stopping,
obviously in death.
AS scene in a melodrama, it
was effectively done, but this
father is concerned. He doesn't
know what fears or terrors have
been etched by this moment on his
children's minds and it is too
late to erase them completely any
how.
He thinks television, in at least
this instance, was out of line and
he is absolutely right. He is will
ing to admit that nothing may
have been done other than to
teach his young how they can dis
pose of the old man If the dis
cipline around the house ever
gets too stiff, but he is not sure
this is a good thing for children
to be learning from television.
1t Isn't Necessary
To ShockIe TeIevision
There is no suggestion here that
television should be shackled by
keeping from it everything which
might frighten a child. There is
no point in making television