What an interesting question. My option is yes. Children who are watching a scary movie, may not understand that it and may believe it is real. Children can be affected by trauma by watching T.V.
My grandchildren were twins. I believe they were 5 years old, at the time, and we were watching a cartoon where four people were going into space, mom, father, and two children, the ship blew up, but mom and dad, placed the children in a different vessel and they lived, but mom and dad died.
They asked the other kids “where are mom and Dad? Someone responded “they died on the ship, aren’t you watching the movie? Both of my grandchildren started crying uncontrollably,
I tried to explain, that it was just make-believe and it was not a real-life movie. Took me 20 minutes of talking to them to calm them down. They were ok and went back to watching the movie. They said, “they placed themselves in the movie.”
As a mother, in my time, I did not think too much of what the kids would watch, maybe it was because I explained this part of T.V. watching to my kids. It’s not real.
One movie, that I know of affected my son to this day. He liked watching scary movies too when he was young. He does not like clowns since he watched the movie “it” a clown who killed children.
This movie got to my son up to this day. Currently, he is not as frightened about it as he was when he was a child. He stated it “scared the bejesus out of me”. Still talks about it, when we bring up the twins crying (my grandkids) at that age.
There was another time I was watching a movie with one of my other grandsons. This one bothers me up to this day.
We, my family, and my grandson were watching a movie about aliens who looked like cats, who could turn into humans but to survive living on earth. They had to stay in the human form.
They needed to feed on Virgins, of both sexes. As my little grandson was watching this movie, I turned to him and noticed he was trembling, I picked him up and took him to the other room. He said he wanted to finish watching that movie.
As I put him down, he ran back into the living room and finished watching the movie. I asked him why was he trembling as if he was so scared, and he said “he liked getting scared.” As he grew older, I asked him again and he stated “I don’t like watching scary movies anymore.”
Later in life, he developed an allergy to cats followed by Asma. Was it because he watched that scary movie about the cats? He breaks into a rush when he picks up a cat to pet it. What do you think about that?
We really would like our children to grow up healthy, happy, and balanced kids. Now that we know better, we have concerns about what the kids watch or the games they play on T.V. or the computers or game boys. Those other games they take everywhere with them.
I remember, the grandkids having all these games they would carry everywhere they went. Hand-held games. They would play for hours and not pay attention to Nana. There were no conversations anymore.
I wish we could go back to when the kids could play games outside, they would use their imagination to create run after me games. I enjoyed hearing them playing and laughing. I used to make ice-flavored popsicles or homemade ice cones with Kool-Aid flavors, on a hot summer’s day.
Do our young children get affected by these scary movies on T.V. or the games? I believed some do and some don’t. Parents need to be vigilant when it comes to allowing their kids to choose what they can and cannot watch.
Watch a family movie with them. If there is a lesson or some topic that the children could learn from it would be better, right?
Ask them how they feel about what they just saw. You can show something they can benefit from. If you own a cat or dog, they die. Sometime in their lifetime, they will experience the cycle of life.
Do cats really have nine lives? (that’s another story.)
Many Blessings to you.