This Toxic Behavior is in Almost Every Children’s Television Show
The amount of times I watched this happen on TV is unsettling.
Growing up, I spent lots of time outside or with neighborhood friends, so I was hardly ever in my house. But when I was inside, the two networks I switched between watching the most were Nickelodeon and Disney Channel.
These networks had some of the most iconic and witty shows of the 2000s and early 2010s. Some of my favorites included Drake and Josh, Good Luck Charlie, Victorious, and Hannah Montana. All of these shows were funny, entertaining, and the teenagers in them I thought lived the most exciting lives (especially Hannah Montana and Tori Vega).
These shows painted the lives of 16-year-olds to be vibrant, unexpected, and just downright cool to younger kids. Many common plots of these shows involved the main characters going to high school every day, dating, and achieving stardom.
However, many shows on these networks typically had a dramatic episode where one of someone would get cheated on by their significant other. This would often blow up in a fight and a breakup, which is reasonable.
However, after a few episodes, the couple was always able to let their past be water under the bridge and they would inevitably get back together, despite one of them cheating on the other.
In Drake and Josh, one of the main characters Drake Parker (Drake Bell) was known to frequently date new girls, pick up random girls, and constantly move from one relationship to another. On the other hand, his stepbrother Josh Nichols (Josh Peck) isn’t as charismatic and doesn’t date many girls.
Despite the fact that Josh is the more thoughtful, sensitive, and caring guy of the two, I watched the show subconsciously thinking Drake was more “desirable” because of the toxic stereotypes that were portrayed.
In Good Luck Charlie, the main character Teddy Duncan (Bridget Mendler) is a teenage girl who starts dating a guy from her school named Spencer (Shane Harper). In one episode, Teddy catches Spencer out on a date with another girl. When Teddy first confronts her, Spencer says he was hanging out with his cousin.
When Teddy later discovers that Spencer was lying and cheating on her, they broke up. But, the couple got back together towards the end of the second season when Teddy gives Spencer another chance.
In Hannah Montana, the main character Miley (who doubles as the pop star sensation Hannah Montana) is dating the fictional heartthrob actor Jake Ryan. The characters have an unpredictable on and off relationship until season four when Miley discovers Jake was cheating on her with other girls. After this discovery, their relationship on the show ends for good.
In Victorious, one couple featured in the main cast were high school sweethearts Beck (Avon Jogia) and Jade (Elizabeth Gillies). Many episodes throughout the series feature the couple spontaneously fighting, breaking up, and getting back together in such a short span of time.
There is a common theme in most of these shows of negative dating environments. Someone is always breaking up, fighting, cheating on one another, the list goes on.
Why Is This a Problem?
According to The American Academy of Pediatrics and The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AAP and AACAP), it is believed that television shows can start to influence childrens’ behavior by the time they are one year old. This goes to show that children can and will imitate what they watch on a regular basis in their actual life.
Pre-teens and teenagers are no exception to this claim. Subconsciously, they may choose to behave a certain way because they see the character/actor in the show they like do the same thing. If Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana is dating a guy that never fully commits to a relationship with her, it teaches the audience to follow in the same footsteps.
The Arguments Against Eliminating This Plotline
On the contrary, most of these problems the characters face are simultaneously supposed to provide a moral lesson to the audience (especially if it’s a children's show). More often than not, the lesson that is presented at the end is to avoid toxic partners that will be unfaithful and noncommital. But this almost never ends up working.
In time, writers will inevitably take away the wisdom a character once gained by having many of these couples get back together as a cheap shot to keep their audience’s attention. Everything that character learned is now scrapped.
On another hand, many of these characters have insincere “changes of heart”. The show’s writers will sacrifice the integrity of a villain's bad intention to keep them rotating through upcoming episodes. This is teaching the audience it’s okay to get back together with someone who treated you poorly or was unfaithful.
But It’s just a TV show, it’s not real life.
It’s not real life, but when a show’s demographic is a younger audience, they have much more influence over their audience than other networks and shows. Children are impressionable and are constantly absorbing everything that is happening around them, and that includes what they watch on television.
Final Thoughts
In the future, I think it would be interesting for television writers to take teen relationships in childrens’ shows in another direction.
Instead of depicting the explosive couples that are constantly fighting and having problems, why not feature healthy teenage relationships? While toxic relationships may happen a lot in the real lives of teenagers, perhaps that could be because that’s what they saw on television growing up?
Unfortunately, television is only such a small fraction of what young children are absorbing on a daily basis, but making the shows they watch in the future depict healthier relationships is certainly a good place to start.