Films for Children
Children have notoriously bad taste, and enjoy many things, such as liquorice, walking in the gutter and loud noises, which their elders and betters abhor. For the most part, ho*ever, these youthful eccentricities are overcome, and the disreputable child in the gutter becomes the respectable man in the street. Is there any reason to suppose that the latest interest of youth—the cinema—is more deleterious than the old-established ones ? The Departmental Committee on Children and the Cinema, which published its report last week, believes' that there is. The direct " evidence " in a matter like this is necessarily scanty ; it is rare even for the psychiatrist to be able to trace a particular misdemeanour back to a particular origin. But the evidence provided by the films themselves is enough to base some judgement on, and many of the films to which children flock week after week are meretricious, cruel or frightening. Probably the frightening films do most harm. The committee begins to take itself too seriously when it talks of the " worldly and material values" inculcated by the cinema ; children can usually swallow plenty of worldly fantasies without suffering any ill effects, but they have only a limited capacity for horror. One of the reforms recommended by the report, which would extend the category of films forbidden to children to grounds other than horrific, might easily fail in its object if it was too vigorously interpreted. What is wanted, apart of course from more films which are suitable for children and will amuse them, is an increase in rival attractions, both inside and outside the home.
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