▶ Your Answer : I agree with the idea saying that television advertising directed toward children under the age of five should not be allowed because of several reasons : children under the age of five are not able to make right decision and can harm the children's health. First of all, children under the age of five are not mature enough to make right decision for themselves. They cannot clarify what will be good for them or not. If they are told that a certain product is good, they will just accept it, thinking that they had made a wise decision. They are in learning process, therefore easily affected by things around them. For example, there was an experiment conducted by Seoul National University, to check whether young children at the age of four to five can make a rational decision. There was a book in foreign language and children were told that the book contains a good quality of story therefore it is good. Although the explanation about the book was not enough, no one asked futher questions about it. After the lecturer got out of the room, leaving the book and children alone, the researchers found out that all children wanted the book for themselves although they do not exactly know what that was. This shows that if the television advertising directs toward children, telling that the product is good, children will just want to have those products without any reasons.
In addition, television advertising can harm the children's health. If the children cannot get things that they want, they will be stressed. This can harm children's mental health. Children are still young to control their emotions rationally. Therefore it would be difficult for them to manage the stress got by their dissatisfaction that they could not get all things they want. Many parents want their children to have things that they want, but it is hard for the parents to get all things because of their finance and for their own children as they can be rude if they get all things that they want at once, not able to appreciate it. A survey was done by Ministry of Education in Korea. The survey was about how often parents accept their children's request for buying something. More than half of them answered that they do not usually accept all requests. Then with those children who their parents answered that they do not accept all requests, further experiment was done. To check if the children's stress level increases when they are declined about their requests. The result was that children showed high increase in stress level when they are refused by their parents not buying things for them.
In conclusion, elevision advertising directed toward children under the age of five should not be allowed as children are not mature enough to make their own decision and can harm their health.
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