Swearing in cartoons

And that was absolutely my point. But, in some circles here, people like to stick with the "if you are not with me, you are against me, and hence, are wrong" group. And for the life of me, I have never understood why people love to belittle those who believe differently than they do, but that's just me. I have the ability to agree to disagree and try and respect others opinions.

 

"And for the life of me, I have never understood why people love to belittle those who believe differently than they do" ... doesn't that work both ways?

 

I never once insinuated you were a conservative parent, but it is almost as if you said it yourself: a teaching moment. So many factors make up a child's life and his/her growing up stages, it's inevitable that each person will encounter such things at some point in their lives -- be it a curse word, meeting the opposite sex, having sex, etc. Especially in this day and age with the Internet and anything readily available at someone's expense, it's hard to stop anything from happening.

I get what you are saying from a parent's perspective and how it can be difficult, but should it really be an "easing" period? I don't know, maybe I am basing my statements just from the way I was raised and those around me (some of which were the complete opposite and still are to this day).

 

A couple of years back, I heard one of those commercials for Kidz Bop, where you have a chorus of kids singing current music.

Except in the commercial, they were singing Maroon 5's "This Love", which featured the following lyrics:

"I tried my best to feed her appetite
Keep her coming every night
So hard to keep her satisfied"

I just couldn't imagine kids singing that, on a CD, that was being played in a Nickolodeon commercial. Just struck me as rather ... inappropriate.

 

That is part of the problem. Some things are censored for dirty words, but things like that go right through. Pretty much every girl in my daughter's second-grade class has been singing lines from Rihanna's new song -- including the part about whips and chains exciting her.

The worst part about Kidz Bop is they will clean up songs with profanity, but then the kids want to listen to the original version.

That said, much as parents would like it to be diifferent, it is damn near impossible to shield our children from this stuff. And I have to agree with JC's point, if not his tone. I am far more concerned about the violence my daughter is exposed to than the profanity.

I'll go back to the Family Guy example. If we flip by it on TV, my daughter always wants to watch. It is something she expects to be ok -- cartoon with a talking dog and a talking baby.

Of course, the one time I don't make her change the channel quickly enough, it was the episode where Brian owed Stewey money and Stewey put him through a glass shower door and beat him to try to get it. As you can imagine, I moved VERY quickly to get the remote and change it.

 

My wife and I have had the same conversation about Kidz Bop.

Some of the lyrics of those songs are pretty racy for a kids album. I remember there were a few Pink songs that were pretty blatant. Same thing with some of the Black Eyed Peas Stuff.

Funny.

 

Part of parenting is doing your research. Don't blindly grab a DVD your kid picked up in the movie store and prepare to pay for it. Once you look at it, if you're still not sure, ask an employee.

Don't assume cartoons are safe for everyone, don't assume pop music is appropriate for everyone.

And then don't get bent out of shape for occasional exposure to your kids of the real world, where people swear and talk about naughty things. Correct them, tell them not to say it, and move on.

 

I looked this up on commonsensemedia.org to see what exactly we were talking about. I still believe parents have a reasonable expectation that a PG-rated cartoon won't have swear words. (As long as PG-13 exists, PG is by definition aimed at a crowd 12 and under.)

However, the swearing referenced in the thread title, according to that parents' review website, appears to be multiple uses of "damn" and "hell." Also one character apparently says "son of a b" and then it trails off so you can't hear the rest of the word. None of that is swearing. Some parents might find it objectionable, but many won't, so it's pretty safely in PG land.

 

Straight from the MPAA and filmratings.com

G - The motion picture contains nothing that would offend parents for viewing by their children

PG - Parents are urged to use "parental guidance", as the motion picture contains some material parents might not like for their younger children to view.

PG-13 - Parents are urged to be cautious. Some material may be inappropriate for pre-teenagers

R - Contains some adult material. Parents are urged to learn more about the motion picture before taking their younger children with them. Generally, it is not appropriate for parents to bring their young children with them to R-Rated motion pictures.
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Rango is PG. In-laws should have expected it.

NC-17 - Patently adult. Children are not admitted.

 

You mean Toy Story 2 isn't PG-13 because Buzz get a space woody?

 

The key in the rating is that it's understood that children may not get some of the references. Buzz standing at attention would be one of those instances.

 

You are misunderstanding it. PG-13 means "You should probably consider whether you want your kid to watch this even if he's 13 or over." PG means "You should probably think about whether you want a non-teen kid to watch it."