Thai Culture Minister To Check TV Drama After Six-Year-Old Girl Hangs Herself

[webfact]

Culture minister to check TV drama after six-year-old girl hangs herself

By PAKAMARD JAICHALARD

THE NATION ON SUNDAY

Culture Minister Nipit Intarasombat said yesterday he would look into the content of "Sai Sok" TV drama after a girl aged six reportedly copied a suicide scene and hanged herself. The minister urged all TV channels not to broadcast inappropriate scenes.

BANGKOK: -- Nipit said he would first investigate if the child hanged herself to copy the drama on the programme and whether "Sai Sok" ran the suicide scene without censuring it.

If that was the case, he would ask drama producers and TV station executives to strictly watch out for and to not air inappropriate content - such as obscene images or others that might affect national security or morality, which could be copied by youths. The ministry's authority in such matters covered films and videos, not TV dramas or stations, so he urged responsible agencies and TV executives to consider these issues.

Nipit suggested TV bosses provide a warning note that dramas needed a parental warning many times or while shows were being aired. He said dramas not suitable for audiences aged under-13 should be shown after 9pm as many children were in bed by that time. He also urged parents to advise their kids about inappropriate content while they watched TV dramas.

The six-year-old girl hanged herself on Thursday evening Nakhon Sawan's Lat Yao district - to demonstrate to her twin brother the suicide scene she saw on the TV drama. The girl was pronounced dead on Friday at 3am.

The family said they would not pursue legal action against anyone but urged the media to be stricter about inappropriate content on programmes.

The family went yesterday to collect the girl's body from a morgue. They urged police to inspect the scene again, as they believed their daughter's death was an accident rather than a suicide, arguing that a six-year-old wouldn't know how to tighten a rope to undertake such an act.

-- The Nation 2010-07-04

[gotlost]

Sad. RIP

[angiud]

Terribly sad, RIP.

But on the other side, another excuse for more censorship.

P.S.: I hate the Thai soaps.

[cshort64]

This is very sad indeed, the poor child and her family.

There is something to be said for a level of censorship, in the pas I would not have felt this way, but having been here a long time now I find the level of domestic violence portrayed on these shows to be amazingly high. In Thailand domestic violence is very high, I am no expert by any means but surely some correlation can be drawn from what is seen on TV and what happens in peoples daily lives, especially when the population may not have all the education advantages to rationalize the difference between fact and fiction.

Just a thought.

C

[jackdawson]

yeah , it's the TV's fault not those around her

[steve187]

what a sad story, it would seem to me that she was demonstrating to her sibling how it was done. my thoughts are with the family

[Hawk]

The family went yesterday to collect the girl's body from a morgue. They urged police to inspect the scene again' date=' as they believed their daughter's death was an accident rather than a suicide, arguing that a six-year-old wouldn't know how to tighten a rope to undertake such an act.[/quote']

Accident not suicide.

Let's all be sensible, as children die because of silly accidents everyday.

Anymore censorship and they will ban the news next.

Edited July 4, 2010 by Hawk

[apetley]

It always amazes me how so many parents let their young kids watch these sort of dramas.

I would never let my two daughters watch anything like that when they were so young.

[Fore Man]

RIP indeed. Suicide can often be the result of a sympathetic reaction....when a person contemplating suicide, particularly a young child without sufficient grasp of his or her situation, sees a similar act performed by others...real or imagined (as on Thai TV)...they are often convinced that 'if they can do it, so can I".

In my previous military career, we experienced a spate of suicides by young soldiers in one locality (not in a war zone either) who literally copied others who had lost hope and were disillusioned with their lot in life. These men and women felt hopeless and that they had no one to turn to...to discuss their situations....which were almost always not as extreme as the victims believed them to be. They ideated their suicidal impulses and after so much of this it internalization it became easier to go through their final acts in life. It took a great deal of counseling and care on the part of leaders at all levels to overcome that terrible trend.

I abhor all Thai soaps because they portray various means of violence towards others and this is often directed towards family members as well. Thai audiences see these repeated scenes day after day and night after night and then begin to believe that it must be reasonable and correct to mimic those acts. After all, they saw it on TV and as with everything else, anything seen on TV is plausible. There is a recurrent theme in Thai TV dramas that allows undue expressions of sadness and melancholy...I am often aghast at the disparity between sorrowful scenes and happy, joyful ones. This must be something in the Thai personna that wants and expects to see these kinds of sad and emotional portrayals.

In a similar vein, I see the same problem occurring with nearly all product advertisements on Thai TV....those raptly watching TV, especially those with low incomes and the uneducated...believe without a doubt that all claims made are valid and the product must be worth buying ("hey, I saw it on TV, it must be good!"). The only way this cult of the 'Television God' will ever change is for Thai authorities, schools and religious leaders to counsel the population on what is reality and what is not.

As much as I feel for the family of the dead girl, they must share some of the blame for allowing her to watch violent and bizarre soap operas on TV. First and foremost, it is a parental responsibility to take care of children, and in Thailand it sickens me how often that grave responsibility is neglected.

Edited July 4, 2010 by Fore Man

[Scott]

I am surprised that children would watch soaps. I had several evening dramas long ago that I enjoyed watching (Dallas, Falcon Crest--etc.). The kids wouldn't watch them (and wouldn't shut-up so I could either). They had zero interest in them. One even resorted to doing homework rather than watch them.

[beano2274]

I hate the Thai Soaps, too much screaming by the women. Also they show attempted rape scenes, these can also lead to so called copycat acts.

[jcbangkok]

This is tragic but I have to wonder if Thailand's over concern with what is broadcast is part of the problem. I believe kids need to know that TV is NOT real, CANNOT be trusted and is simply entertainment.

The more Thailand puts the safety of kids in the hands of broadcasters and the more parents feel the government is doing the job of keeping their kids educated AND safe ... the more problems like this you will happen.

But lets face it ... these things happen regardless. You cannot ban a magician's act because some kid died because they copied sawing a person in half.

There should be an educational video made for kids to show them how TV is not real (camera tricks, edits ...) and even show that you  should question shows, such as news reports, that are supposed to be reality based.

Edited July 4, 2010 by jcbangkok

[truethailand]

Very sad yet predictable. I read an article in the Post sometime back about the adverse effect that thai tv has on the behaviour of the nation and this tragic event is one of them. The academic who wrote the article stressed how in the absence of the parents( usually working away and grand parents asleep) that the tv was the biggest educator/role model for young children. What we see in thai tv is mirrored in everyday life. Take your pick from violence, unable to communicate always shoutings, upper class characters referring to their maids has lower class, shootings and my favourite the digustingly white faces of the leads actors.

Then when the adverts come on we are bombarded with whitening creams and beauty products, at which point the tv gets turned over to watch more soaps. Have you ever been watching thai soaps and they keep flicking over the channels at adverts but dont return to the original programme when the adverts are finished. They may return 10 mins later and just pick up the storyline like they never left it. The reason they can do this is because every soap on every channel on every day is near enough the same storyline. Handsome (white skinned) hero, beautiful (white skinned) leading lady, evil (white skinned junky) mother, A katoey (white skinned), a midget ( skin colour optional), a gang of thugs with machetes (always brown skinned) and a Tom (usually white skinned) who none of the other cast realise that she is a tom.

The storylines include dying people in hospital who always make miraculous recoveries in time for next weeks show, vendettas, men attacking women etc. We should not discuss the acting skills of these characters because there are none. It reminds me of old time vauderville, where the actors had to over emphasise facial expressions so the people at the back of the auditorium could see. In short its mind numbing <deleted>.

Coming from a country who have a 'watershed' time of 9pm for certain programmes supplemented by parental guidance i now understand , after being here 7 years, how dangerous the goggle box is. In thailand the tv is the biggest cause for a disfunctioning society. There is no choice what to watch, the shows sponsors dictate the storylines which means they are all the same. Give a young child ubc and he will end up watching programmes like 'Animal Planet' and english speaking cartoons. Wheen a child on channels 3 5 7 9 11 and this will inevitably go in some way to determine his future behaviour.

The tv should be used to inform and educate the masses not dumb them down. My two young children are not allowed to watch any of the thai channels until such a time that they are able to decide for them selves what is right and wrong. It is obvious that the people cannot in general decipher what should be taken light heartedly and what tv should be believed. It is the governments responsibility to protect its citizens, so do the country a favour and turn this crap off.....

[jcbangkok]

Very sad yet predictable. I read an article in the Post sometime back about the adverse effect that thai tv has on the behaviour of the nation and this tragic event is one of them. The academic who wrote the article stressed how in the absence of the parents( usually working away and grand parents asleep) that the tv was the biggest educator/role model for young children. What we see in thai tv is mirrored in everyday life. Take your pick from violence, unable to communicate always shoutings, upper class characters referring to their maids has lower class, shootings and my favourite the digustingly white faces of the leads actors.

Then when the adverts come on we are bombarded with whitening creams and beauty products, at which point the tv gets turned over to watch more soaps. Have you ever been watching thai soaps and they keep flicking over the channels at adverts but dont return to the original programme when the adverts are finished. They may return 10 mins later and just pick up the storyline like they never left it. The reason they can do this is because every soap on every channel on every day is near enough the same storyline. Handsome (white skinned) hero, beautiful (white skinned) leading lady, evil (white skinned junky) mother, A katoey (white skinned), a midget ( skin colour optional), a gang of thugs with machetes (always brown skinned) and a Tom (usually white skinned) who none of the other cast realise that she is a tom.

The storylines include dying people in hospital who always make miraculous recoveries in time for next weeks show, vendettas, men attacking women etc. We should not discuss the acting skills of these characters because there are none. It reminds me of old time vauderville, where the actors had to over emphasise facial expressions so the people at the back of the auditorium could see. In short its mind numbing <deleted>.

Coming from a country who have a 'watershed' time of 9pm for certain programmes supplemented by parental guidance i now understand , after being here 7 years, how dangerous the goggle box is. In thailand the tv is the biggest cause for a disfunctioning society. There is no choice what to watch, the shows sponsors dictate the storylines which means they are all the same. Give a young child ubc and he will end up watching programmes like 'Animal Planet' and english speaking cartoons. Wheen a child on channels 3 5 7 9 11 and this will inevitably go in some way to determine his future behaviour.

The tv should be used to inform and educate the masses not dumb them down. My two young children are not allowed to watch any of the thai channels until such a time that they are able to decide for them selves what is right and wrong. It is obvious that the people cannot in general decipher what should be taken light heartedly and what tv should be believed. It is the governments responsibility to protect its citizens, so do the country a favour and turn this crap off.....

I agree in a small part in theory of some of your thoughts but TV is a reflection of society and not the other way around. The issues of light skin, lower class was all much worse here in Thailand BEFORE TV. Also, advertisers are not deciding what people watch but are TV programmers are programming for what people WANT to watch to make more money from advertisers. It is illogical to think they don't want the most popular program.

All the talk of the internet and TV being harmful is nothing new. The same was said about Radio and even books hundreds of years ago and not to mention things such as plays and other forms of art & entertainment. Many of these same books and plays that were condemned back in the day are considered some of the greatest works today. Oh yea, let us not forget the evils of music because that too has been such a negative impact on our children be it rock, country, rap or classical. Music has also been condemned though out the ages.

The problem is people ... if not TV then we would find another "thing" to blame little Johnny's problems on.

And why should TV be for only education and information?!?!? Why cannot it it be for what people want it to be such as entertainment? Are the masses so stupid that it must be dictated to them what they should and should not watch or have a right to watch?

Edited July 4, 2010 by jcbangkok

[jcbangkok]

PS. Smoking in Thailand is done at a much higher rate of the population than countries who don't ban smoking on TV. Not sure on the stats of drinking but bet the same is true there too.

[Thai at Heart]

The issue for me is that the 'authorities' (if there is any such thing in daily life in Thailand) always miss the issues that really have an effect on TV or other media. The censor the internet for porn, but go-go dancers continue to proliferate. They censor TV for cigarettes, but show husbands smacking their wives.

Someone mentioned earlier how Thai TV portrays massive swings of emotion from utter despair to utter bliss which whilst it can twang the heartstrings, is so patently unreal to a non-Thai eye, is soaked up by minds in this country every day. The utterly devious nature of half the casts in these soaps, (and yet their apparent wealth and superficial success) is also and issue, other than the fact that EVERY single soap has them. They spend their ENTIRE time plotting some misfortune or wrongdoing for the apparent good guy.

The overwhelming problem I have with these soaps, that despite the fact that they are fiction, there is not a single realistic reference point in any of the characters. No one goes to work, comes home with a kiss for the wife, and goes to bed. If you watch them long enough you may actually start believing that there is a fantasy world of wealth, double dealing, neuroses, going on minute by minute within the gilded gates of wealth in Bangkok. If nothing else it makes people believe that if you sit and think about sneaky way to solve problem long enough you too can have a Merc and a big car. (But you may have to wear a lot of black and wear a fake moustache)

I long for the day that a program set in such mundane reality as old fashioned Eastenders or Coronation Street comes along.

The "authorities" continually want to interfere in people's moral compass in this country, and yet they continually miss the point about what psychological effect things like TV can have on people. The world has been studying it for decades, but in Thailand we still think it is important to smudge out cigarettes whilst, showing attempted rape scenes and wife beating, between 6 to 8pm.

I will never forget inadvertently watching a scene on one show last year, where the heroine was subjected to an attack by her suitor, at which point he handcuffed her in the rain to the steps of his swimming pool, only for her to be racked by guilt about not putting out for him.

And this is what Thai's want their people to see as acceptable???????????

Edited July 4, 2010 by Thai at Heart

[scorecard]

This is very sad indeed, the poor child and her family.

There is something to be said for a level of censorship, in the pas I would not have felt this way, but having been here a long time now I find the level of domestic violence portrayed on these shows to be amazingly high. In Thailand domestic violence is very high, I am no expert by any means but surely some correlation can be drawn from what is seen on TV and what happens in peoples daily lives, especially when the population may not have all the education advantages to rationalize the difference between fact and fiction.

Just a thought.

C

I agree with cshort in this instance.

A couple of years back there was strong outcry about the severe violence and macho attitudes portrayed on Thai soap opearas, the producers replied that they couldn't change it because several actors / actresses would be put out of work.

In essence this shows, to me, that the industry involved has no intention whatever of self regulation, therefore they should be censored.

A while back I asked our maid if she believd the violent scenes which she was watching, on a Thai soapie, her relpy was "yes, it's a real family, you can see their beautiful house."

Recently there was a Thai soapie showing two little girls being repeatdly smacked hard on their faces and legs. all because, in the story, the mother was angry with her playboy husband.

Surely this is very innapropriate and if the producers will not stop it, then they should be controlled by some appropriate and strong and enforceable regulations, with strong punishment for any transgressions.

Edited July 4, 2010 by scorecard

[tomahawk]

A very horrible tragedy. I do not understand why the tv will show all this graphic violence, with blood spattering everywhere and people chopped up and blown to hel_l, but then they do that blurry thing with the gun when it is close to the victim. Does this make it less violent because gun is blurry? Do people not know the thing killing the other guy is a gun because it is blurry? When guy is smoking, and cigarette is blurred when it touches the guys lips, do people no longer realize he is smoking? I understand many things are cultural differences, but this blurry thing is truly beyond my comprehension. If the rope hanging the person on tv was blurry, would that have prevented this tragedy? For all I know, maybe it was blurry? I dont know. I didnt watch it and I am glad of that.

[zthyadat]

yeah , it's the TV's fault not those around her

She killed herself on Thursday evening? Where were her parents? At that age, they shouldn't be unattended long enough to pull something like that. Didn't the brother think anything was wrong? Did he just go watch TV afterward? The girl was declared dead at 3am? What happened in the numerous intervening hours? Was the poor girl dangling somewhere in the house and nobody noticed, or missed her?

The parents said they aren't seeking compensation? Well now, that's good of them, especially seeing as they were unable to take care of their own daughter. Blame it on some TV show, not on the parents - no responsibility to be a proper parent. Here's an idea - how about parents actually monitor and control what garbage their children watch on TV instead of depending on big brother government to do it for them?

Come on folks, there's something wrong with this whole story.

As is so often the case, a Nation story raises more questions than it answers and the reporter seems blissfully unaware of the absence (and necessity) of crucial facts. (I worked for them as an editor some years back and most of the reporters then didn't have a clue what made a good story. It was as if they felt that asking too many questions was impolite - and of course t would take effort, like an extra 20 minutes or worse, firing up your brain.)

[astral]

It always amazes me how so many parents let their young kids watch these sort of dramas.

Agreed.

Parental guidance is needed in TV watching, and computer games.

[zthyadat]

Very sad yet predictable. I read an article in the Post sometime back about the adverse effect that thai tv has on the behaviour of the nation and this tragic event is one of them. The academic who wrote the article stressed how in the absence of the parents( usually working away and grand parents asleep) that the tv was the biggest educator/role model for young children. What we see in thai tv is mirrored in everyday life. Take your pick from violence, unable to communicate always shoutings, upper class characters referring to their maids has lower class, shootings and my favourite the digustingly white faces of the leads actors.

Then when the adverts come on we are bombarded with whitening creams and beauty products, at which point the tv gets turned over to watch more soaps. Have you ever been watching thai soaps and they keep flicking over the channels at adverts but dont return to the original programme when the adverts are finished. They may return 10 mins later and just pick up the storyline like they never left it. The reason they can do this is because every soap on every channel on every day is near enough the same storyline. Handsome (white skinned) hero, beautiful (white skinned) leading lady, evil (white skinned junky) mother, A katoey (white skinned), a midget ( skin colour optional), a gang of thugs with machetes (always brown skinned) and a Tom (usually white skinned) who none of the other cast realise that she is a tom.

The storylines include dying people in hospital who always make miraculous recoveries in time for next weeks show, vendettas, men attacking women etc. We should not discuss the acting skills of these characters because there are none. It reminds me of old time vauderville, where the actors had to over emphasise facial expressions so the people at the back of the auditorium could see. In short its mind numbing <deleted>.

Coming from a country who have a 'watershed' time of 9pm for certain programmes supplemented by parental guidance i now understand , after being here 7 years, how dangerous the goggle box is. In thailand the tv is the biggest cause for a disfunctioning society. There is no choice what to watch, the shows sponsors dictate the storylines which means they are all the same. Give a young child ubc and he will end up watching programmes like 'Animal Planet' and english speaking cartoons. Wheen a child on channels 3 5 7 9 11 and this will inevitably go in some way to determine his future behaviour.

The tv should be used to inform and educate the masses not dumb them down. My two young children are not allowed to watch any of the thai channels until such a time that they are able to decide for them selves what is right and wrong. It is obvious that the people cannot in general decipher what should be taken light heartedly and what tv should be believed. It is the governments responsibility to protect its citizens, so do the country a favour and turn this crap off.....

I agree in a small part in theory of some of your thoughts but TV is a reflection of society and not the other way around. The issues of light skin, lower class was all much worse here in Thailand BEFORE TV. Also, advertisers are not deciding what people watch but are TV programmers are programming for what people WANT to watch to make more money from advertisers. It is illogical to think they don't want the most popular program.

All the talk of the internet and TV being harmful is nothing new. The same was said about Radio and even books hundreds of years ago and not to mention things such as plays and other forms of art & entertainment. Many of these same books and plays that were condemned back in the day are considered some of the greatest works today. Oh yea, let us not forget the evils of music because that too has been such a negative impact on our children be it rock, country, rap or classical. Music has also been condemned though out the ages.

The problem is people ... if not TV then we would find another "thing" to blame little Johnny's problems on.

And why should TV be for only education and information?!?!? Why cannot it it be for what people want it to be such as entertainment? Are the masses so stupid that it must be dictated to them what they should and should not watch or have a right to watch?

"TV is a reflection of society and not the other way around"

Is this your opinion or a statement of fact? Does history make men or men make history? The answer is that it works in both directions (so life is imitating art imitating life imitating art imitating Elvis). There have been many studies on the impact of entertainment on behaviour and it has been found many times over that a lot of behaviour ans a sense of social norms is learned from media. The soaps are a reflection of real life? The families and characters are almost entirely dysfunctional -is this the way most people are in Thailand? I doubt there are quite so many rapes in real life per capita (though I could be wrong), but it engenders an acceptability. Often after the rape, the girl sleeps next to the man who raped her, and when she awakes is still frightened of him, but cowed and almost respectful. Maybe that is the way it is in "real" life, but only because those who behave that way don't know any other way. A few characters who break the societal norms might help to expose viewers to new ways of looking at things. It doesn't have to be a "messaqe", it can just be a character who doesn't behave predictably - a few new twists in the plot.

"The issues of light skin, lower class was all much worse here in Thailand BEFORE TV."

Really? Your gut feeling again, or a statement based on some evidence? You were in Thailand BEFORE TV? Or you have read studies about the before and after of television entertainment in Thailand?

But given that in the 20 years I have been here, the number and range of whitening products have grown exponentially, I find it hard to believe that light skin was a bigger issue before - I don't see how it could possibly be a bigger issue than it is now.

"Advertisers are not deciding what people watch but are TV programmers are programming for what people WANT to watch to make more money from advertisers."

Have you ever worked with Thai advertisers? I suspect not, because I have and can assure you that their involvement in the production of TV shows, magazine articles, etc., can run very deep. They see it as the one who pays the piper calls the tune - if we start letting pipers choose their own tunes, the natural order of things will be disrupted and the world as we know it will collapse. Trust me on this one, they can and do dictate all sorts of things, including storyline.

And this nonsense about what people WANT to watch - there is no quicker way of dumbing down a population than to give them what they want - to pander to their infertile imaginations - or to an advertiser's perception of what they want. When money is the only concern, quality suffers. Money's level is in the gutter, basically. It is, or should be the job of good producers, writers and directors to produce something the people didn't know they wanted (because they couldn't imagine it themselves), but something that challenges and entertains them. This would be an important aspect of encouraging the people of this country to start thinking for themselves.

[RickBradford]

Most of the Thai soaps are formally rated 13+, with an announcement to that effect shown before the show starts.

Probably nobody pays a blind bit of notice; they always know better, you see. . . . . .

[kissdani]

A while back I asked our maid if she believd the violent scenes which she was watching, on a Thai soapie, her relpy was "yes, it's a real family, you can see their beautiful house."

Some foreigner don't recognize the amazing skills of their maids in leg-pulling.

[ChoakMyDee]

Thailand will eventually become the same as the western country I tried to escape from...too many 'do gooders' who think they know what's good for everyone else; too many rules and regulations; too many taxes to pay for all the bureaucracy; too much censorship because parents are too lazy to take responsibility for taking care of their children and need to blame it on something else. Where will I move to then?

[TheWalkingMan]

Thailand will eventually become the same as the western country I tried to escape from...too many 'do gooders' who think they know what's good for everyone else; too many rules and regulations; too many taxes to pay for all the bureaucracy; too much censorship because parents are too lazy to take responsibility for taking care of their children and need to blame it on something else. Where will I move to then?

I wondered how long before someone stood up and mentioned or alluded to the nanny state or something.

Let's speak plainly here... As with all countries Thailand has various problems and the loosey-goosey nature of running things is not helping the country move forward. I always wonder why a non-Thai person would not want to see the country tighten up things a bit and move forward. Don't they want to see the place improve?

TheWalkingMan

[jcbangkok]

Very sad yet predictable. I read an article in the Post sometime back about the adverse effect that thai tv has on the behaviour of the nation and this tragic event is one of them. The academic who wrote the article stressed how in the absence of the parents( usually working away and grand parents asleep) that the tv was the biggest educator/role model for young children. What we see in thai tv is mirrored in everyday life. Take your pick from violence, unable to communicate always shoutings, upper class characters referring to their maids has lower class, shootings and my favourite the digustingly white faces of the leads actors.

Then when the adverts come on we are bombarded with whitening creams and beauty products, at which point the tv gets turned over to watch more soaps. Have you ever been watching thai soaps and they keep flicking over the channels at adverts but dont return to the original programme when the adverts are finished. They may return 10 mins later and just pick up the storyline like they never left it. The reason they can do this is because every soap on every channel on every day is near enough the same storyline. Handsome (white skinned) hero, beautiful (white skinned) leading lady, evil (white skinned junky) mother, A katoey (white skinned), a midget ( skin colour optional), a gang of thugs with machetes (always brown skinned) and a Tom (usually white skinned) who none of the other cast realise that she is a tom.

The storylines include dying people in hospital who always make miraculous recoveries in time for next weeks show, vendettas, men attacking women etc. We should not discuss the acting skills of these characters because there are none. It reminds me of old time vauderville, where the actors had to over emphasise facial expressions so the people at the back of the auditorium could see. In short its mind numbing <deleted>.

Coming from a country who have a 'watershed' time of 9pm for certain programmes supplemented by parental guidance i now understand , after being here 7 years, how dangerous the goggle box is. In thailand the tv is the biggest cause for a disfunctioning society. There is no choice what to watch, the shows sponsors dictate the storylines which means they are all the same. Give a young child ubc and he will end up watching programmes like 'Animal Planet' and english speaking cartoons. Wheen a child on channels 3 5 7 9 11 and this will inevitably go in some way to determine his future behaviour.

The tv should be used to inform and educate the masses not dumb them down. My two young children are not allowed to watch any of the thai channels until such a time that they are able to decide for them selves what is right and wrong. It is obvious that the people cannot in general decipher what should be taken light heartedly and what tv should be believed. It is the governments responsibility to protect its citizens, so do the country a favour and turn this crap off.....

I agree in a small part in theory of some of your thoughts but TV is a reflection of society and not the other way around. The issues of light skin, lower class was all much worse here in Thailand BEFORE TV. Also, advertisers are not deciding what people watch but are TV programmers are programming for what people WANT to watch to make more money from advertisers. It is illogical to think they don't want the most popular program.

All the talk of the internet and TV being harmful is nothing new. The same was said about Radio and even books hundreds of years ago and not to mention things such as plays and other forms of art & entertainment. Many of these same books and plays that were condemned back in the day are considered some of the greatest works today. Oh yea, let us not forget the evils of music because that too has been such a negative impact on our children be it rock, country, rap or classical. Music has also been condemned though out the ages.

The problem is people ... if not TV then we would find another "thing" to blame little Johnny's problems on.

And why should TV be for only education and information?!?!? Why cannot it it be for what people want it to be such as entertainment? Are the masses so stupid that it must be dictated to them what they should and should not watch or have a right to watch?

"TV is a reflection of society and not the other way around"

Is this your opinion or a statement of fact? Does history make men or men make history? The answer is that it works in both directions (so life is imitating art imitating life imitating art imitating Elvis). There have been many studies on the impact of entertainment on behaviour and it has been found many times over that a lot of behaviour ans a sense of social norms is learned from media. The soaps are a reflection of real life? The families and characters are almost entirely dysfunctional -is this the way most people are in Thailand? I doubt there are quite so many rapes in real life per capita (though I could be wrong), but it engenders an acceptability. Often after the rape, the girl sleeps next to the man who raped her, and when she awakes is still frightened of him, but cowed and almost respectful. Maybe that is the way it is in "real" life, but only because those who behave that way don't know any other way. A few characters who break the societal norms might help to expose viewers to new ways of looking at things. It doesn't have to be a "messaqe", it can just be a character who doesn't behave predictably - a few new twists in the plot.

"The issues of light skin, lower class was all much worse here in Thailand BEFORE TV."

Really? Your gut feeling again, or a statement based on some evidence? You were in Thailand BEFORE TV? Or you have read studies about the before and after of television entertainment in Thailand?

But given that in the 20 years I have been here, the number and range of whitening products have grown exponentially, I find it hard to believe that light skin was a bigger issue before - I don't see how it could possibly be a bigger issue than it is now.

"Advertisers are not deciding what people watch but are TV programmers are programming for what people WANT to watch to make more money from advertisers."

Have you ever worked with Thai advertisers? I suspect not, because I have and can assure you that their involvement in the production of TV shows, magazine articles, etc., can run very deep. They see it as the one who pays the piper calls the tune - if we start letting pipers choose their own tunes, the natural order of things will be disrupted and the world as we know it will collapse. Trust me on this one, they can and do dictate all sorts of things, including storyline.

And this nonsense about what people WANT to watch - there is no quicker way of dumbing down a population than to give them what they want - to pander to their infertile imaginations - or to an advertiser's perception of what they want. When money is the only concern, quality suffers. Money's level is in the gutter, basically. It is, or should be the job of good producers, writers and directors to produce something the people didn't know they wanted (because they couldn't imagine it themselves), but something that challenges and entertains them. This would be an important aspect of encouraging the people of this country to start thinking for themselves.

You might want to try to educate yourself more on these subjects.

[ChoakMyDee]

Thailand will eventually become the same as the western country I tried to escape from...too many 'do gooders' who think they know what's good for everyone else; too many rules and regulations; too many taxes to pay for all the bureaucracy; too much censorship because parents are too lazy to take responsibility for taking care of their children and need to blame it on something else. Where will I move to then?

I wondered how long before someone stood up and mentioned or alluded to the nanny state or something.

Let's speak plainly here... As with all countries Thailand has various problems and the loosey-goosey nature of running things is not helping the country move forward. I always wonder why a non-Thai person would not want to see the country tighten up things a bit and move forward. Don't they want to see the place improve?

TheWalkingMan

If I may be permitted to respond, you and I are probably not going to agree on too much if you consider censorship an 'improvement'. I consider censorship an evil. If I have children, they will not be sat in front of a TV all day to be assaulted with whatever trash some advertiser wants to throw at them and they will certainly not be watching Thai soaps at a young age; but you see that's my responsibility as a parent...that's where you and I differ fundamentally; you think the government is responsible for raising my kids and I don't. Let's speak plainly here...if you feel the need to improve things, please go do it in some other country, not Thailand.

[sirchai]

Sad. RIP

I can't believe it. RIP.

[TheWalkingMan]

Thailand will eventually become the same as the western country I tried to escape from...too many 'do gooders' who think they know what's good for everyone else; too many rules and regulations; too many taxes to pay for all the bureaucracy; too much censorship because parents are too lazy to take responsibility for taking care of their children and need to blame it on something else. Where will I move to then?

I wondered how long before someone stood up and mentioned or alluded to the nanny state or something.

Let's speak plainly here... As with all countries Thailand has various problems and the loosey-goosey nature of running things is not helping the country move forward. I always wonder why a non-Thai person would not want to see the country tighten up things a bit and move forward. Don't they want to see the place improve?

TheWalkingMan

If I may be permitted to respond, you and I are probably not going to agree on too much if you consider censorship an 'improvement'. I consider censorship an evil. If I have children, they will not be sat in front of a TV all day to be assaulted with whatever trash some advertiser wants to throw at them and they will certainly not be watching Thai soaps at a young age; but you see that's my responsibility as a parent...that's where you and I differ fundamentally; you think the government is responsible for raising my kids and I don't. Let's speak plainly here...if you feel the need to improve things, please go do it in some other country, not Thailand.

:lol: :lol:

You missed the point. Where-o-where did I mention censorship? Your post seem to allude to the dreaded nanny state type of government which tells people what to do and that you left your home country to get from under the yoke of an oppressive system. Honestly, I did not see you mention censorship until just now when I re-read your post. My fault for not being diligent.

It sounded like you were saying everything is just fine and dandy - the country does not any improvement. That is what I was commenting on because it always seems to me that people against enhancements want to keep the country down. Maybe my view of that is wrong, but the place really does need to improve in many areas and people who say all is fine make me wonder.

Just a FYI - I hate censorship and the parents need to monitor what their kids are watching, not the state.

TheWalkingMan

[tjeffrutherford]

Exactly! TV is always going to be mainly full of garbage, packaged around ads. That's the nature of the thing. It's parents letting little kids watch the garbage every night, sitting in front of that stupid box. You can censure the thing all you like and it'll likely just get more vapid and insidious. Just turn it off. <br><br>

<br>yeah , it's the TV's fault not those around her<br>

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