@Ladyday

Your childs tv viewing is shaped by the adults around him. My own younger children have a preference for certain News programmes influenced by my viewing...it's what they have become used to.
I bet when you put the cartoons on you, like most adult (women) don't actually sit down and view with him.

I bet if you sat him down infront of cartoons with older children who are into them, you would see a change after a while.

ALso most cartoons don't appeal to toddlers, and if you really check them out the humour is mostly adult themed. And the majority of cartoons are directed at older children. If you look at pre-school tv during the daytime you will find that the cartoon format is rarely used. Pre-schoolers require a different stimulant given their attention spans.

What I have noticed is the number of younger children who will quite happily sit down infront of music channels. Noticed this particularly amongst the children of some of my younger female friends, but also amongst children like my own who have teenaged siblings....Not sure this is a good thing. Not because of the context (although this is an issue) but because of the lack and type of stimulation.

I watch cartoons with my kid sister who is 8 years old. What I've noticed about black characters in cartoons is that:

-most of them are into music and dancing
-there is only one of them per popular cartoon
-When they are in a cartoon or kids show, they are most often a best friend of a popular main character...but they otherwise don't really play a big role

However, I have noticed that lately they have begun to make black characters more three-dimensional.

update
my son now does sit and watch childrens cartoons and shows now. he wont sit down all day in front of the telly but he does watch the shows with keen interest. i left him downstairs and i could hear him giggling away

mmmm

thank goodness they still show sesame street. playhouse disney seems to be quite eduational with counting and maths puzzles

As far as im concerned/ and I am concerned/ most of these cartoons are bullshite. They full up the child head with unecessary nonsense. Most have sublimal messages or stereotypes imbedded in them. Im just wary of the whole lot of them. All white faces/ American accent in your child's head. And then we wonder why our children run go pick up white doll. This cartoon channel thing just make it worse because as a youth you were lucky to get a Saturday morning or Sunday Tom and Jerry ( which is another one by the way). Now in some yards the children watching cartoon more than natural playing or reading their book.

Cant be good.