Toons may turn children into bigger monsters than ones on TV

IT’S enough to make Tom and Jerry call a truce or to halt Homer Simpson in the midst of throttling his son, Bart.

It might even see South Park’s Kenny get a stay of execution or stop the Roadrunner dead in his tracks.

What every PC parent feared has now been declared official: certain cartoons are dangerous to your child’s welfare, and could make them into bigger monsters than the ones they see on TV.

Reports of terror attacks on the nightly news or the sight of US troops readying themselves to bomb Iraq is child’s play compared to what the likes of the Roadrunner can do.

According to an extensive new study carried out at huge expense, The Roadrunner - and in particular that dreaded Coyote - could turn your very own Bambi into a raging King Kong.

Children who watch violent television programmes are at greater risk of becoming aggressive young adults, says the survey.

Fair enough. But the study, carried out over a period of 15 years in the United States, also identifies seemingly harmless cartoon programmes like the Roadrunner as violent and psychologically damaging to youngsters.

Results show that men who watched a lot of television violence as children were significantly more likely to have pushed (like Tom), grabbed (Homer) or shoved (Coyote) their spouses. They were also more likely to have been convicted of a crime and to have committed a traffic violation.

Women who saw a lot of violence on television as children were more likely to have thrown something at their spouses (Marge), to have responded to someone who made them angry by beating (Kenny) or choking (Homer) the person, to have committed a criminal act, and to have committed a traffic offence.

Researchers from the University of Michigan undertook a study of 329 youths as a follow-up to a 1977 study of 557 children growing up in the Chicago area. In the first study, children named violent television shows they had watched most, whether they identified with the aggressive characters and whether they thought the violent situations were realistic.

Twee 1970s programmes like Starsky and Hutch, The Six Million Dollar Man and Roadrunner cartoons were all cited as violent programmes.

The researchers discounted suggestions that the results might simply be an indication more aggressive children like to watch violent programmes.

As a result of the survey, psychologists now advise banning violent cartoons on TV.

That could mean that adults will miss out on their favourite cartoon as well.

Doh!