History KidsAreCruel / LiveActionTv

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "Literature/ItsAGoodLife" features the cruel, sadistic, and [[TheOmnipotent omnipotent]] Anthony Fremont, age six. The episode basically shows what would happen if all of the selfish whims of a child were able to be fulfilled due to the child happening to have been born with incredibly strong [[RealityWarper reality-bending]] powers. Anyone who tries to defy him gets killed, or [[AFateWorseThanDeath worse]] sent to some place Anthony refers to as "the cornfield" where they're trapped for all eternity. While he does have the capacity for kindness, his inability to understand the nature of other people's problems means that his attempts to help people end up making things worse.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "Literature/ItsAGoodLife" features the cruel, sadistic, and [[TheOmnipotent omnipotent]] Anthony Fremont, age six. The episode basically shows what would happen if all of the selfish whims of a child were able to be fulfilled due to the child happening to have been born with incredibly strong [[RealityWarper reality-bending]] powers. Anyone who tries to defy him gets killed, or [[AFateWorseThanDeath worse]] sent to some place Anthony refers to as "the cornfield" where they're trapped for all eternity.

[[KidsAreCruel The cruelty of children]] as depicted in {{Literature}}.

%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order.

** In "The Boogeyman," the Unsub turns out to be a young boy named Jeffrey, who would lure other kids into the woods and then beat them to death with a [[BatterUp baseball bat]]. The team is able to stop him before he kills another kid. While in the backseat of a cop car with Jeffrey, Gideon asks him why he killed all those kids, and Jeffrey simply responds with "[[ForTheEvulz Because I wanted to]]."
** In "A Shade of Gray," the team is trying to solve the murder of a young boy named Kyle, and the culprit turns out to be Kyle's older brother, Danny, who got angry at Kyle for [[DisproportionateRetribution accidentally breaking a model airplane]] Danny was working on, and he killed Kyle by ''shoving the plane parts down his throat.''
** "Safe Haven" introduces us to Jeremy, a 13-year-old psychopath who went on a cross-country killing spree by convincing families to allow him into their homes where he would kill them. Later on in the episode, Jeremy's mother is seen talking to his grandmother on the phone about all the awful things Jeremy has done in the past, including putting rat poison into the Thanksgiving turkey, [[KickTheDog killing his neighbour's dog]], and breaking his little sister's arm.

** In "The Boogeyman," the Unsub turns out to be a young boy named Jeffrey, who would lure other kids into the woods and then beat them to death with a baseball bat. The team is able to stop him before he kills another kid. While in the backseat of a cop car with Jeffrey, Gideon asks him why he killed all those kids, and Jeffrey simply responds with "Because I wanted to."
** In "A Shade of Gray," the team is trying to solve the murder of a young boy named Kyle, and the culprit turns out to be Kyle's older brother, Danny, who got angry at Kyle for accidentally breaking a model airplane Danny was working on, and he killed Kyle by ''shoving the plane parts down his throat.''
** "Safe Haven" introduces us to Jeremy, a 13-year-old psychopath who went on a cross-country killing spree by convincing families to allow him into their homes where he would kill them. Later on in the episode, Jeremy's mother is seen talking to his grandmother on the phone about all the awful things Jeremy has done in the past, including putting rat poison into the Thanksgiving turkey, killing his neighbor's dog, and breaking his little sister's arm.
*** Both Jeffrey and Jeremy were lashing out against perceived injustices in their lives; Jeffrey's father was the guidance counselor at the local school, meaning he spent more time with other children than his own son, so Jeffrey targeted his schoolmates out of resentment. As for Jeremy, his mother basically treated him as evil because he apparently consumed his unborn twin in-utero; she even admits when confronted with it that she probably hated him from the moment she learned of what happened to his twin. Thus, Jeremy became the monster his mother believed him to be.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "Literature/ItsAGoodLife" features the cruel, sadistic, and [[TheOmnipotent omnipotent]] Anthony Freemont, age six. The episode basically shows what would happen if all of the selfish whims of a child were able to be fulfilled due to the child happening to have been born with incredibly strong, [[MindOverMatter telekinetic]] powers. Anyone who tries to defy him gets killed, or [[AFateWorseThanDeath worse]] sent to some place Anthony refers to as "the cornfield" where they're trapped for all eternity.

** "Safe Haven" introduces us to Jeremy, a 13-year-old psychopath who went on a cross-country killing spree by convincing families to allow him into their homes where he would kill them. Later on in the episode, Jeremy's mother is seen talking to someone on the phone about all the awful things Jeremy has done in the past, including putting rat poison into the Thanksgiving turkey, killing his neighbor's dog, and breaking his little sister's arm.

* ''Series/DrakeAndJosh'': Megan is the textbook example of this trope, constantly tormenting her two brothers for kicks. It occasionally reaches EnfantTerrible levels, such as in "Vicious Tiberius" and "Helicopter"; the former has her knowingly leaving the two with an aggressive dog, and the latter has her ignoring their serious call for help [[SkewedPriorities over stickers]]. Of course, she is often a KarmaHoudini, mostly due to playing saint next to [[AdultsAreUseless her parents]] and using {{Wounded Gazelle Gambit}}s to make it seem like the two are tormenting ''her''.

* One episode of ''Series/KenanAndKel'' had Kenan [[ItMakesSenseInContext getting his button shirt and pants lost in a clothing store]]. When a group of kids notice him, they start to ridicule him for being pantless. One of them even calls him a dummy.

* ''Series/DrakeAndJosh'': Megan is the textbook example of this trope, constantly tormenting her two brothers for kicks. It occasionally reaches EnfantTerrible levels, such as in "Vicious Tiberius" and "Helicopter"; the former has her knowingly leaving the two with an aggressive dog, and the latter has her ignoring their serious call for help [[SkewedPriorities over stickers]]. Of course, she is often a KarmaHoudini, mostly due to playing saint next to [[AdultsAreUseless her parents]] and using {{Wounded Gazelle Gambit}}s to make it seem like the two are harassing ''her''.

* ''Series/KyoryuSentaiZyuranger'': Bandora's son Kai was chased off a cliff to his death by a dinosaur...because [[MamaBear the dinosaur]] caught him slashing its eggs open, dumping the insides out, and then throwing the shells in a river [[ForTheEvulz for no apparent reasons]]. Unfortunately, [[MamaBear Bandora]] didn't take her son's death well, and made a DealWithTheDevil for power to [[DisproportionateRetribution exact revenge]] [[PutThemAllOutOfMyMisery upon all of]] [[PhlebotinumKilledTheDinosaurs dinosaur kind]].

* ''Series/DrakeAndJosh'': Megan is the textbook example of this trope, constantly tormenting her two brothers for kicks. It occasionally reaches EnfantTerrible levels, such as in "Vicious Tiberius" and "Helicopter"; the former has her knowingly leaving the two with an aggressive dog, and the former has her ignoring their serious call for help [[SkewedPriorities over stickers]]. Of course, she is often a KarmaHoudini, mostly due to playing saint next to [[AdultsAreUseless her parents]] and using {{Wounded Gazelle Gambit}}s to make it seem like the two are harassing ''her''.

* One episode from ''Series/KenanAndKel'' had Kenan getting his button shirt and pants lost in a clothing store. When a group of kids notice him, they start to ridicule him for being pantless. One of them even calls him a dummy.

* ''Series/CriminalMinds:''
** In "The Boogeyman," the Unsub turns out to be a young boy named Jeffrey, who would lure other kids into the woods and then beat them to death with a baseball bat. The team is able to stop him before he kills another kid. While in the backseat of a cop car with Jeffrey, Gideon asks him why he killed all those kids, and Jeffrey simply responds with "Because I wanted to."
** In "A Shade of Gray," the team is trying to solve the murder of a young boy named Kyle, and the culprit turns out to be Kyle's older brother, Danny, who got angry at Kyle for accidentally breaking a model airplane Danny was working on, and he killed Kyle by ''shoving the plane parts down his throat.''
** "Safe Haven" introduces us to Jeremy, a 13-year-old psychopath who went on a cross-country killing spree by convincing families to allow him into their homes where he would kill them. Later on in the episode, Jeremy's mother is seen talking to someone on the phone about all the awful things Jeremy has done in the past, including putting rat poison into the Thanksgiving turkey, killing his neighbor's dog, and breaking his little sister's arm.
* In the ''Series/NewAmsterdam2018'' episode "The Karman Line," Iggy must deal with a young sociopathic girl who tried to strangle her little brother to death all because he wouldn't let her play with his phone. In one scene, Iggy tries an experiment where he will give the girl some play money everytime she apologizes for something, but the girl just thinks that this means she can do whatever she wants and get away with it as long as she says "sorry," so she starts doing mean things to Iggy, like calling him names, saying that he's fat, and even ''spitting right in his face.'' Towards the end of the episode, the girl does apologize to her brother and promises her parents that she will try to control her anger, but then she walks up to Iggy and reveals that what she just said was all an act.
* In the ''Series/CSICrimeSceneInvestigation'' episode "Cats in the Cradle," the team is trying to solve the murder of an elderly woman [[CrazyCatLady who lived with at least a dozen cats.]] The murderer turns out to be an eight-year-old girl who lived just across the street from the woman. Her motive? She wanted to adopt one of the woman's cats, but the woman refused, making the girl angry. She then grabbed the cat she wanted, handed it to her sister, and told her to run home with it. She then shoved the old woman to the ground and stabbed her in the heart with a pen. She also forced her sister to keep the murder a secret by telling her that "Tattletales burn in hell."

* In the ''Series/CSI'' episode "Cats in the Cradle," the team is trying to solve the murder of an elderly woman [[CrazyCatLady who lived with at least a dozen cats.]] The murderer turns out to be an eight-year-old girl who lived just across the street from the woman. Her motive? She wanted to adopt one of the woman's cats, but the woman refused, making the girl angry. She then grabbed the cat she wanted, handed it to her sister, and told her to run home with it. She then shoved the old woman to the ground and stabbed her in the heart with a pen. She also forced her sister to keep the murder a secret by telling her that "Tattletales burn in hell."