I do see a lot of kids doing "The Finger"

I also see this to. But I think its more of the parents fault that they would let that go on. I will raise my daughter with respect and I would ground her if she ever did something like that. Some parents think it is funny, I know some people who thinks its funny for their childern to cuss and do the finger. I think it is really wrong. Parents should deal with this problem instead of letting it get worse.

I haven't really noticed kids under 10 doing this a lot...but given some of the media these days, I wouldn't be too surprised either. I feel like if they are doing this though, it's behind their parents' backs. Any parent seeing a kid do this would be shocked, so I don't think it's necessarily the parents' fault (except maybe letting their kids watch shows and movies with that gesture in it....).

nykel88 those parents that should be setting good examples to their children then do the finger should be paddled like the grown up brats 'they are for doing this to young impressionable children. shame shame on them. If I were young again and had a child that did that she or he would not do it again as i would both explain and give a sharp slap on the seat just to make it take a bit better.I dont think television or movies are asmuch to blame as the parents themselves as kids ape their parents.

I think that its a ugly thing for a child to learn to do. I don't think its anything that anyone should be doing let alone a child. However, as long as parents allow their kids to watch everything and anything on TV kids will pick up all the good and bad that TV and movies put out there.

Friend, I agree Parents need to control, what their child watch and what not. on TV and Internet there are facilities available for Parents controlling what their child watch and not. If child watch something not desirable and behaves in in appropriate manner, Parents must correct their child in suitable way.

The gestures seems to be accepted by communities now a days. In my place parents do the same so no wonder their child age 6 will do the same also. I think a person really adopts what his surrounding brings. Yes for me this is also a tremendous "mutation" of gesture and I am really against this. Change will not start by me unless those parents were educated since they were still child.

I dind't learn the finger from my parents, but I learned it from kids at school. I never used it, because I caught on pretty quickly that it was not a nice thing to say to someone. If a child gives me the finger, I will just ignore them. Often a child will do it for attention, and if we give them the attention, they'll do it again. Better just to ignore something like this, than to give it unnecessary attention.

I carefully supervised my children's television and movie viewing when they were young so they didn't start doing that until they were older and out of my view. They knew it wasn't allowed in my presence and even when I was not there. I heard of one of them doing it once at school but I stopped that pretty quickly. I told them both that people who cursed and used rude gestures were ignorant of proper ways to express themselves and it was a reflection not only on their own character but that of their family. Even now, as adults, they rarely curse or use that gesture. I think parents need to pay more attention and not use the television as a babysitter. I realize people are busy but talking with their children when they can will only make their families better. We need to revise how we think of our children and stop looking at them as little adults and instead as our life's treasures and our future.

I think that movies and television as well as older relatives or friends are the reason for children knowing "the finger" or "the bird" as it is sometimes called. When I was younger, though I had parental guidance I was allowed to watch Rated R films at a young age. I do not think it affected me though and I don't remember if I ever saw a film with the middle finger being used when I was younger.

I've also seen this going on and I agree that it is not right. People are being so disrespectful I've even seen some kids do it to their parents. I know that this is something that my mother or father would have never allowed to be going on, when I was younger. I think that yes children watch to much tv and when they do watch tv they are watching the wrong kind of shows suitable for kids. Sometimes parents allow this too, and this is something I just don't understand and sometimes though, parents don't know that they're children are watching these type of shows. I think not only are kids learning it from the tv shows that they are watching, but they may be getting it from school. So although some parents may have a handle on what their children watch, they may be getting it from school then and I also sometimes I think that they learn it from they're parents. They probably use the finger around their children. I can never understand this either. When I become a parent, I will make it a habit not to do that around them or curse around them either.

Hello nykel, I don't where they got that idea but am not surprised if they are doing that now. with technology being misused in terms of internet use. they do this with out the presence of their parents, are you kidding, they will get scolded for sure. there's still lack of parenting responsibility coming from the parents. come to think of it? is this one of noynoy's platforms? he didn't even clear it up? and now he can never clear it up since he's backing our on debates, boooo

Young couples often think it will be great to raise a family, but they are way to busy. So Other people end up raising their children for them IE T.V. The internet, and they see this stuff out on the street. To be honest trying to hide reality from a child isn't exactly wise. They are smarter then you could amagine given the right credit.

I always recognized this gesture mostly in squatter areas and the street children whom their not attended their parents. Their lack of proper care and love and their surroundings influence them. The parents must drive the viewing of kids in television.Yeah, I agree you on that. So,they don't let their kids watch the show having Parental guidance rating if they can't guide them on watching.

Well, I think that this will depends on how the parents educate their kids or will they let their kids do it. Regardless if they can not see their kids do that gesture, still they need to know. Movies now a days are uncontrollable and I do not know how they rate the movie.Plus the fact that we have pirated cd's that any people can buy for a low cost and we dont have control to those people who are watching the movie. Let us hope that all parents will do more effort on guiding their children. God bless

my 13 year old daughter was lunch monitering a grade 3 class and she told me she couldnt believe the amount of swearing that went on! but i think it depends on the parents and the upbringing. if parents swear like a trucker, then the kid is going to pick it up too.

i think parents are really responsible for those kids. i mean, not blaming the parents totally, but they are the ones should be playing a good role model to their children. parents should not really ignore the tv parental guidance, it is there because shows have scenes not really for the kids and we have to really be watching with them, for proper guidance.

Is it just me or is that the first bad thing every little kid learns? Unfortunately tv an movies aren't the only places they get this stuff from. They also get to go to school where you can't follow to guide them and learn from the kids who have parents that don't care and then they come home wanting to show off the rude things they were taught and the parent gets to clean up the mess. My 10 year old has never used the finger or even known what it was until recently a girl in her class got in trouble for doing it and she decided to show me about it when she got home. *face palm*

At Christmas I was taking my children to the babysitter's for the evening because I had a meeting that I needed to go to. We first went to McDonald's to get some dinner for them and after we got through the drive thru there was a young girl standing in between the doors and she flipped us off. I would guess that she was no older than my daughter (seven years old) and I was utterly offended by it. Why should a child that age know that kind of a thing. It is such a crude gesture and I think that her parents should have been paying attention to her and corrected her for what she did wrong.

I see two sides to this. I think that this is terrible how kids are already using this gesture that everyone knows to mean bad. If it is insulting, and everyone KNOWS that it is insulting, this shows that the kids are purposely using the finger to insult someone. And they probably learned it from the TV, which means there should be stricter TV and movie rules. On the other hand, one would argue that this simple gesture is not harmful at all. It's just a finger, right? How is that supposed to hurt anyone? If sticking out the MIDDLE finger is wrong, why isn't sticking out the ring finger or the pinky finger wrong? Someone once stuck out the middle finger at me, and said, "What? it's just a finger." What's the difference between the middle finger and the ring finger? Why do people make the middle finger out to be such a bad thing? I kind of agree with this. Sticking out a middle finger is nothing bad if you think about it. Really. . .

I do remember how taboo someone doing the finger was when I was a child. It was very serious business to do something like that. It was almost like dropping an F-Bomb and technically it was, considering what it is sign language for. If someone did it, it was like the world completely stopped. In fact, its funny how it has been done so much that it is lost its meaning, much like its verbal equivalent. Still, there are a lot of things that children do. I hate to say this, but television is not always to blame. The parents should look a bit closer to the source to find where their children is actually learning these behaviors. In many ways, entertaining is a toned down version of what reality is. While I do agree parents should monitor the viewing habits of their children, if there was nearly as much swearing on television or movies as there is in real life, then it would be something to get offended by.