It is Friday morning. Your child stumbles out of bed and reaches out for the remote control. You don't want to spoil her/his mood. But, asks Reem Leila, are you making a mistake? Childhood is precious, perhaps too precious to spend watching television. But let's be realistic. How many times did your friends drop by, and to have a moment of peace, you were relieved to see your child stick another tape in the VCR? Television, a friend once said, is becoming the main babysitter in average homes. But, what kind of babies is it bringing up? "I grew up watching Spiderman, Superman, and Mr Fantastic. These were the role models available to me. I cannot remember having an Egyptian or even an Arab role model, except for Sindbad, and he was not that exciting," admitted Salah El-Dali, now a successful TV producer. Is this what we want? A bunch of fantastical cartoon characters to educate our children, to compete with our parental vision of reality? Children can be gullible. They have fewer points of reference than adults do. And they are constantly looking for a way to put order in their world, to identify regularities in the midst of chaos. Children are acutely aware of the grownup world. They are also -- perhaps not unlike adults -- great escapists. They want a world that is more stimulating and colourful than ours, and what could be better than the bigger-than-life, wittier- than-dad world they encounter on the screen? Films, both children and grownup productions, affect children's precepts, values as well as prejudices. Over the past decade or so, Hollywood has come up with several mega productions of movies directed to children, some animated, that took the world by storm. The Lion King, Jurassic Park and Harry Potter, to mention just a few, were all children blockbusters, throughout the world. Several were duly dubbed into Arabic. But parents have a right to wonder. Is this the type of movies we want our children to watch? Aren't we missing the local touch that could help the children see our point of view? The local touch is available, but less than adequately provided. Mamdouh El-Leithi, head of the Cinema Production Committee of the Media Production City, says Egypt can and does produce quality children films, but not at the scale sufficient to withstand foreign competition. Other than the wildly popular Bakkar, one good recent production is Nasaniso, or the monkey kid, which features the adventures of a boy who leaves his village for a big town, and has to survive on his wits. El-Leithi is particularly pleased with the animated short films of Zeinab Zamzam. The National Cinema Centre for Children, he says, produces quality documentary and short films for children, as well as muppet shows. But perhaps more needs to be done, El-Leithi concedes. Almost 40 per cent of Egypt's population are children, and most have more access to TV than good schooling. So, what kind of impact do films have on young minds? A lot, educationalists say. Violent or unsuitable material on the screen, warns psychologist Qadri Hefni, could undermine their mental and physical well-being. The first five years of life are essential for the cognitive, physical, and emotional development of children, Hefni reminds us. Most children, psychologists believe, are capable of separating the real world from the imaginary one on the screen. But then, this is not always the case. We all know or read of cases in which children endangered their lives by imitating the exploits of Superman or another fictional character. Parents should therefore regulate and monitor the television-watching habits of their young ones. Better still, they should make an effort to watch films with their kids and explain things to them. This would help the young bridge the gap between what is real and what is fictional, between parents' view of the world and that of the movie industry, both foreign and local. This is particularly true in the case of children who are, by nature, adventurous viewers. Karim Ahmed, five, has no use for children movies. "I like very much to watch action, star wars, and sci-fi movies. These are movies for big boys like me. Cartoons are for babies and girls." Girls? Now, Ahmed, what are you getting at? Perhaps it is hard to tell how much of our children's prejudices emanate from the screen and how much from real life. But none of the psychologists spoken to suggests that the screen is powerful enough to overrule the influence of role modelling provided by family, peers, and school. Mohamed Ibrahim, seven, is only critical of local children productions. "There are no Egyptian movies for children worth watching. I watched Baby's Day Out and the three parts of Home Alone. My dad was too busy to take me to Harry Potter, but I will get it at the video club once the exams are over." If local productions are to improve, the government, or someone, has to do something about it. Farag El-Kamel, mass communication professor at Cairo University, says funding is crucial. Producers in this country tend to allocate inadequate budgets to children films, "almost half the money they would spend on a general audience movie", he notes. Unless we give children's films the same attention and funds we give to regular films, our children would drift to grownup movies, and the scenes of sex and violence they are likely to witness may harm their minds, he warns. "Children turn to actors, not parents or relatives, for role models," warns El-Kamel. He calls on scriptwriters to keep that in mind when writing for children. Lubna Abdel-Aziz, the darling of the Egyptian screen and presenter a highly successful radio children show, "Auntie Lulu" was jury head of the Cairo International Festival for Children's Films a few years ago. She says parents should regulate the times in which their kids are allowed to watch TV and screen the material they watch. They should also insist that the children spend some time reading. "In my own programme, I provide a lot of information, even more than necessary, but something is likely to sink in." Abdel-Aziz is critical of other children programmes. "Most of the information presented is already known to children. So, what exactly are we offering?" Children programmes, she says, deserve to be a priority, just as is the case in Europe and USA. "If more funding and thought were put into these programmes, things would change," she insists. More funding, again. But where should the money come from? Government subsidies is the usual answer, but is it the only answer? Why is there a revival in comedies and teenage movies, but not in children movies? Aside from the lack of funding, is not there a lack of attention and momentum? Some experts spoken to have floated the idea of another children film festival in order to stimulate the industry and give it a method of self-appraisal. Others suggested the establishment of a special agency for children productions. Laila Abdel-Meguid, mass communication professor at Cairo University, says Egypt's children film industry has been stagnant for the past 30 years. A specialised agency should be set up with the explicit task of kick-starting this industry. This agency, she notes, should rely on government backing as well as private sponsorship. Egypt can produce children films of high quality and suitable content, but the right steps have to be taken first, she argues. El-Leithi has promised to have the Cinema Production Committee look into this suggestion. Perhaps the day would come when we have our own mega productions, and hopefully they would offer our children a reality less controversial than that of Hollywood. But who would be the judge? Look again at the little brat flopped on the sofa. Perhaps you want to sit down for a while.
