by Charles Kerkow

Created on: February 25, 2010   Last Updated: February 26, 2010

Cage fighting and mixed martial arts events are big business in today’s world. While these sports are very entertaining for adults, young children should not be allowed to attend live events or even watch on TV. MMA is a legitimate sport. It is, however, brutal, bloody, violent and real.

Children associate sports with activities with activities that they can go out and participate in with their friends. While a friendly game of baseball or basketball can be great fun for a child, a friendly cage fight can and will lead to major injuries and most likely legal problems.

Today, kids of all ages are watching the MMA events on TV. These are the same kids that are getting kicked out of school and arrested for fighting. A lot of the times, these children do not know why they are in trouble. They were just playing.

Participating in a sport that was on TV. A child is not capable of determining why it is okay to play football but it's not okay to fight. Both are sports, both are on TV and Dad likes both. This is why MMA and cage fighting events that you see on television are usually rated TV-MA.

MA means mature. The person watching these shows needs to be mature enough to process what they are seeing and know that it is not okay to go out and do it.

If your child is into very physical sports such as MMA or cage fighting, professional wrestling may be a good alternative. Wrestling is “sports entertainment. While every feud ends up in a wrestling match, most of the show is focused around the characters and the story.

Even when the end result is a wrestling contest, there is not near the level of violence. Wrestling companies know that a good portion of their audience is going to be children, therefore they make sure that most of their content is okay for kids to watch.

As MMA and cage fighting get bigger and bigger, more children of every age are going to want to watch. Try to think of it like this. Would you let your child watch a pornographic movie? Why not?

Perhaps it's because you don't think that they are old enough to see what goes on in a pornographic film or perhaps it's because you don't want them running out and having sex. If you apply the same principles to MMA and cage fighting, you may feel differently about letting them watch.

Learn more about this author, Charles Kerkow.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.