- TOKYO, Dec 18 (Reuters) -
Outraged Japanese mothers on
- Thursday demanded that TV networks adopt
technical standards for
- animated programmes after hundreds of
children nationwide
- suffered seizures while watching a top-rated
cartoon.
- More than 700 mainly school-age
children were rushed to
- hospitals after watching bright flashing
lights on the popular
- Pocket Monsters programme on Tuesday
night.
- ``We are gravely concerned
at this escalating race, this
- competition by the television networks
to show ever more
- stimulating images, targeting even children,''
the country's
- largest mothers' organisation said in
a statement.
- ``It's all commercialism.
With incidents like this, we can't
- help but believe that this competition
for ratings among the
- networks is encroaching even into programming
for children,''
- said Miyo Inoue, who heads the New Japan
Housewives'
- Association.
- She called on the networks
to conduct a thorough vetting of
- programmes from a medical standpoint
to prevent a recurrence of
- the Pocket Monster phenomenon.
- The National Parents and
Teachers Association (PTA) of Japan
- said the incident will awaken parents
to the fact that they must
- monitor what their kids are watching
on television.
- The group, which does not
obejct to animated programming per
- se, said the Japanese government should
think about legislation
- mandating screening devices in television
sets, known as
- ``V-chips'' in the United States.
- The method allows parents
to blank out programs they do not
- want their children to watch.
- Networks such as Fuji Television
and public broadcaster NHK
- said they would screen all of their animated
programming to
- ensure that it does not contain brightly
coloured strobe-like
- sequences that are suspected of causing
visually induced
- sickness.
- An executive at a leading
producer of animated programming
- said the Pocket Monster incident will
probably lead Japan to
- develop technical standards for animation
production.
- ``When an animated show leads
to kids ending up in emergency
- rooms, networks and animation production
companies have to
- re-examine what they are doing,'' said
the executive, who
- declined to be identified.
- Japanese animation is a mutli-billion
dollar a year industry
- and cartoons have dominated television
programming and movie
- theatre line-ups for decades. Many Japanese
animated films and
- programmes are popular outside of Japan.
- Network executives said the
Pocket Monster incident would
- not cure Japan of its animation addiction
or lead to a cut in
- the amount of time devoted to animated
programming.
- But they said parental concern
was likely to lead networks
- and production companies to more carefully
examine the quality
- of animated fare.
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