You've heard that the South African version of Sesame Street, "Takalani Sesame," is adding an HIV positive female Muppet to its program in the fall.
Well, talks about a similar character in America are also under way.
Only there are these five Republican lawmakers who wrote a letter to PBS saying that an HIV positive Muppet would not be welcome on American TV because the target audience of Sesame Street would be too young for such content.
Do you think Sesame Street kids are too young to be learning about HIV/AIDS?
I've noticed with most (as in at least 90% or so) children of the younger ages, sometimes even up to ten, don't some of these matters with sex education and the like, even issues of everyday adulthood life. You can try to teach them, but most often they won't understand until years later, and by then sometimes they are too embarassed or feeling ridiculous to ask someone about the issue. I know many particular kids that are as old as nine that only remember that they had the teaching, but don't remember anything else, and from there they are lost.
It is inconceivable to me that there are people still out there who think HIV and AIDS are "primarily a homosexual thing." I don't usually like to jump into a discussion by calling people names, but Christian Soldier, you are just plain dumb.
wat is wrong with seasame street having an HIV positive muppet it will teach kids to treat all people the same even those who are infected with the HIV virus andrea aka Hey You
I think that it's a good idea to educate the kids about problems while they are young even if they don't understand, then while they begin to grow they can ask questions which is a sighn of intrest! But even if they aren't interested I believe they should still be informed at a young age so that they already know. I also think it should be informed because it's such a big topic and it should really be taught about. Now a days people are ignorant to the fact that this is a dangerous desease, it's spreading quickly and not to a specific group of people (so protect urself).I don't know, I just think that the muppet thing is a really good idea (just like they say these little kids are our future).
Christian Soldier you really need a dose of reality, welcome to the year 2003!! People are gay and not all gay people have AIDS!!!!!!! And just because people are gay does not make them horrible people! I love the way you try to be "Christan" yet say how horrible someone is for doing something that u don't agree with, real Christian beliefs...lemme tell ya!! It should matter how a person lives there life, whether they do good and really do their best to help people that leads them to heaven not just the fact that they are straight!! Homosexuality is here to stay, so you can live your life wasting your words saying how wrong it is, or you can accept it and see it as a different, not necessarily wrong way, another human lives their life!!....Sorry this has nothing to do w/ the muppet topic, but I had to reply to Christian Soldier and my opinions on that!!
HOW COULD YOU SAY THAT HOMOSEXUALITY IS BAD?! My brother is homosexual and he is one of the nicest people I know. He is one of the few people who has made me stop my attempted suicides! How dare you say that Christian Soldier? In your post you said:
quote: I mean it [homosexuality] is wrong after all according to the Bible, God's word, and shouldn't be encouraged. As long as the kids trust in Jesus everything else will fall into place and they'll end up in heaven, which is all that ultimately matters.
So are you saying that those who think homosexuality is good will go to hell? Ah yes well THAT makes tons of sense. I'm not one to talk though. I'm going straight to hell anyway because I don't believe in God...
Seeing that HIV is primarilly a homosexual thing, I think it's totally bad to have it on a kids' show, because it might lead them to think that homosexuality is good! I mean it is wrong after all according to the Bible, God's word, and shouldn't be encouraged. As long as the kids trust in Jesus everything else will fall into place and they'll end up in heaven, which is all that ultimately matters.
I say the more muppets the better. You could put a gay muppet on there and i wouldn't care. I think the HIV muppet is trying to help children accept people who are different. It not like the muppet is going to be like "hey kids, i had sex with 2 many people, or im a drug user thats how i got aids. Now lets sing a song!" Come on ya'll chill out.
In response to Noisefree -- while I agree with you that society now is sort of twisted and extremely immoral, you have to realize that that's what we have to work with. I'm not sure about putting an H.I.V. positive muppet on Sesame Street in America -- I'm not sure that if I were a parent that I'd let my kid(s) watch it -- but for Africa, I fully support it. Just in case you've been living under a rock, that's the BIG issue over there. At one point in time, it was the twenty-year-olds and up who were affected by AIDs. So we tried to reach the teenagers, the younger generation, to warn them about the dangers of it. Now it's the teenagers and children. So who do we go to next? Who do we warn next? So what if we have to tell little five-year-olds about it? It's better than having them dead later on in life from a disease that we could've warned them about at an earlier age.
I don't think people give children enough credit about noticing their surroundings. Children need to have this sort of information. The details may not necessarily be important, but they at least need to have had the idea that AIDS and HIV patients aren't lepers, nor is their status a bad thing. My little sister knows what gay people are, I think this is too important to ignore.
I think that you could never be to young to learn about sex and the STDs that come along with it. If you teach them young maybe that will prevent them from starting sex at a young age. If they know what could happen.
I think that its a good idea because educating children on these issues are important.. we can't expect to keep HIV out their vocabulary its going to be there they hear it on the news and other places, but they don't know what it means. I think if we educate them on std's and stv's we can help prevent them from making bad decisions later on in life, infact I think we should have sex ed. in the 3rd grade because kids take in more information around that point in life and remeber it and use it so I say bring on the HIV puppet and stop your complaining cause guess what... YOU ANIT GONNA STOP THEM SOO HA!!
do you suggest that we ignore the whole issue all together? prey it away. hope it away. pretend that it doesn't affect millions of people, or their children that had nothing to with the so called, "unnatural and immoral behavior that spawns 90% of the cases"?
sesame street is funded by public broadcasting. i don't think that profit and ratings, of the "entertainment industry" is thier top priority. education, as far as i know, are they're main goals.
The whole concept of an HIV Muppet is the product of the twisted and immoral society of the entertainment industry that wants to brainwash the kids into thinking that HIV - and the unnatural and immoral behavior than spawns 90% of the cases - is something to be accepted.
This is disgusting - and could spell the downfall of this great show.
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