Yes, I heavily restrict and censor my children’s TV and movie watching. I intend to keep doing so in the future.
"Psychological research has shown three major effects of seeing violence on television:
Children may become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others
Children may be more fearful of the world around them
Children may be more likely to behave in aggressive or harmful ways toward others. " http://www.apa.org/pubinfo/violence.html
I believe it it a good thing to keep children innocent for as long as possible.
I don’t let my kids watch more than 1 hour of TV a day, and even then it’s got to be PBS. The scariest video they’ve ever seen is “E.T.”
I can’t believe anyone would think it is healthy to let children watch whatever they want.
I don’t let my children watch whatever they want.
I don’t let my children eat whatever they want.
I don’t let my children wear whatever they want.
My wife and I don’t have kids yet, but count me with those who say, “It depends on the kid.” Some can handle stuff. Some can’t. I’d rather err on the side of inclusiveness, though: I’d be less concerned about “wounding” a kid than I would about sheltering him or her and then releasing an emotional puffball out into a big, complicated world without being there for immediate guidance. Hell, I’ve even idly speculated about introducing my kid to porn, using it to explain, “People get off on this, but you need to know, it isn’t reality, the genders don’t relate to each other like that, cunnilingus is not performed in that manner, and they skipped the bit about lubing the anus, so feel free to consume it but don’t treat it as instructional.” My only uncertainty is the age at which this discussion would be appropriate: probably very shortly after I realize the kid is secretly seeking out this stuff on his or her own.
I don’t think that showing kids violent TV makes them more violent, I think society has a lot to do with that too. Take Japan for example, popular kid shows such as Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon aired in Japan with death, violence, blood, homosexuality, nudity, some sexual references, etc. This is all edited out of the American versions of course. If violence on TV = violence in children’s actions, then the rates of violence in Japan by children would be much higher there than over here.
My mom never cared much about language or sex in movies, once I got to about ten or eleven, but she did put her foot down on violence. And while she never heavily censored my reading, she did keep an eye on it, though once I was fourteen she let me loose to read whatever I wanted. That doesn’t seem unreasonable to me.
The Japanese cartoons aren’t intended solely for kids the way that cartoons are here, which is at least part of the reason for the edits done for airing here. Anime can be disturbingly adult, or so I have gathered from my very limited exposure. My brother would know more.