Eddie Eagle - Criticism

Criticism

In 1999 the ABC News program 20/20 did a feature on Eddie Eagle which was highly critical of the program. This feature stated that it did not work to simply "Tell kids what to do" and expect them to follow those instructions implicitly.

The producers had a group of schoolchildren (aged 3 to 10 years old) watch the Eddie Eagle video along with a presentation by a police officer on gun safety. While the children all appeared to understand the message that guns are not toys, when the children were left alone with prop guns (and a hidden camera capturing their reactions), they all proceeded to use them as if they were toys.

In response, gun rights advocates claimed that the children in the segment may have been encouraged to play with the gun and knowing that they would be on television would act in a manner to get attention.

It is also pointed out that the Eddie Eagle program – like many child-education methods – depended on repeated contact with the message. Materials such as coloring books provide this necessary contact. Likewise, teachers and parents are encouraged to talk with their children about the subject. The children in the segment were exposed a single time to the message, as part of a series of lectures, and not given the follow-up materials or support. Rarely does such a method succeed in teaching young children anything.

NRA spokespersons have numerous anecdotal accounts of "saves" made by the program in which children who were in live situations where a gun was found lying around did exactly as the program instructed them to.