Is Ben 10 an Evil Cartoon? Selected Mothers' Perception of the Influence of Ben 10 on their Children's Behaviour

Abstract

The study was informed by a controversy raised in a book written by a Colombian lady (Zambrano, 2009) who said she died and went to  hell where she saw many people among which was a young boy who went to hell because he was watching Ben 10 films which led him to  disobey his parents. Nigeria is a deeply religious country and many Christians in Nigeria who had read the book branded Ben 10 cartoon film a tool of the devil. The survey method was adopted for this study. Questionnaire distribution and depth interviews were used as data  gathering techniques for this survey research. The study was aimed at ascertaining from mothers whose children are exposed to Ben 10  films, the nature of influence, if any, exposure to Ben 10 film had on their children. The results revealed that mothers in Nigeria agreed  that there was a level of influence of Ben 10 films on behaviour of their children, and this influence was both positive and negative but  not evil. The study recommended strict parental guide on children's exposure to animation and other movies to ensure that children do not expose themselves to movies with harmful content.