How media impacts children

My daughter Keziah was just five and son, Sean, is a few months away from turning four. Like many kids they are attracted to TV commercials, and know many one-liners by-heart.

I was watching the Indian Premier League, much to the chagrin of my wife who thinks cricket is an idol within my heart. Well, that’s another story.

I took my eyes off the TV and looked at my laptop screen during a commercial break. As I was reading up something, I was shocked to hear Keziah who was lurking around me—irritating me with requests to put on a cartoon channel—singing aloud, “Abortion! Abortion!”

I shook my head. What?

She was glued to the screen. I looked up. The commercial was about a contraceptive pill. A woman was shouting ‘abortion’. Keziah picked it up and parroted it with much zeal, making the word echo in the drawing room.

The next move was exactly what I feared. She turned to me and asked: “Papa…” I cringed, and hoped my ears were heavy. But they were not.

“What’s abortion? What’s this ad about?” I sincerely wished I could run away and hide somewhere. I found myself diminished to the corner of the couch.

“Well, you don’t understand it now. I’ll tell you when you grow up.” That was my decent attempt to return that ace. I knew my racket was just flailing in thin air. She was not at all happy with my counting her minor.

Even before we could get over the crisis, another struck. This time it was an ad of a television brand which famously uses devil as the only character and promotes the brand based on neighbour’s envy.

“Hey, look there,” she shouted again, this time to turn her little brother’s attention to the man with two little horns and slimy movements.

“Papa?” she called again. And, I warmed up for another encounter.

“Who’s that with two little horns?”

“Er…that’s…I don’t know.” Honestly, I knew by saying ‘devil’ I’ll be opening the Pandora’s box of queries.

“Poor Papa, you don’t know anything. This is devil,” she said, and moved closer to the screen.

I sat there, all at sea about how to respond.

After the commercial break, a Chennai Super King batsman blasted two consecutive sixes, prompting the scantly-clad cheer girls to burst out in a cameo dance shaking all their flesh.

This time both brother and sister took great interest in the visual treat of vulgar dance.

I sat there, again, still and heavy with thoughts. I didn’t know how to distract them from that cabaret—the latest addition to cricket shows, to add masala to the evenings.

In less than five minutes, my kids were exposed—even if they didn’t fully understand them—to three things which are not acceptable to Christians: abortion, devil and sexy dance.

To hear the word ‘abortion’ coming out of the five-year-old’s mouth was incongruous. To realise that they were familiar with the so-called image of devil much before they knew the Lord well was disturbing. And, to see that their eyes widened to see the cheer girls’ shaking-business was distasteful.

But, that’s what we have now. That’s what’s the media is giving to our children.

As the Christian adults struggle to let go their old habits and unlearn what the world has taught them, the young ones should be protected from getting infected with the evil ways of the world.

Many may call for secularism and liberty. But we know that the liberty that we have in Christ should not be used as an opportunity for the flesh (Gal. 5:13)

That’s why it is important that we should implant in our children Christian values and ethics at such a young age that when they grow up their character will also be moulded accordingly.

Yes, our children should grow up in the liberty that is in Christ—but that’s only when they are in Christ—but it is up to us to make sure their imagination and learning processes are not invaded or dominated by the corrupt ways of the world.

By Sabin Iqbal

Sabin Iqbal is a journalist and author of the critically acclaimed novel, The Cliffhangers. He was raised in an atmosphere of books and writing, with both his parents into literature. His father always came back home with ‘cartons of books’. Today, that young man has grown up to become one of the upcoming faces of Indian literature. You may follow Sabin’s works here: https://www.instagram.com/sabiniqbal/