What has the world come to these
days? It often seems like
everywhere one
looks, violence rears its ugly head. We
see it in the
streets, back
alleys, school, and even at home. The
last of these is a
major source of
violence. In many peoplesÕ living rooms
there sits an
outlet for
violence that often goes unnoticed. It
is the television,
and the children
who view it are often pulled into its realistic world
of violence
scenes with sometimes devastating results.
Much research has gone into showing why
children are so
mesmerized by
this big glowing box and the action that takes place
within it. Research shows that it is definitely a major
source of
violent behavior
in children. The research proves time
and time again
that aggression
and television viewing do go hand in hand.
The truth about television violence and
children has been shown.
Some are trying
to fight this problem. Others are
ignoring it and
hoping it will go
away. Still others donÕt even seem to
care. However,
the facts are
undeniable. The studies have been
carried out and all the
results point to
one conclusion: Television violence causes children to
be violent and
the effects can be life-long.
The information canÕt be ignored. Violent television viewing
does affect
children. The effects have been seen in
a number of cases.
In New York, a
16-year-old boy broke into a cellar.
When the police
caught him and
asked him why he was wearing gloves he replied that he
had learned to do
so to not leave fingerprints and that he discovered
this on
television. In Alabama, a nine-year-old
boy received a bad
report card from
his teacher. He suggested sending the
teacher poisoned
candy as revenge
as he had seen on television the night before.
In
California, a
seven-year-old boy sprinkled ground-up glass into the the
lamb stew the
family was to eat for dinner. When asked
why he did it he
replied that he
wanted to see if the results would be the same in real
life as they were
on television (Howe 72). These are
certainly
startling
examples of how television can affect the child. It must be
pointed out that
all of these situations were directly caused by
children watching
violent television.
Not only does television violence
affect the childÕs youth, but
it can also
affect his or her adulthood. Some
psychologists and
psychiatrists
feel that continued exposure to such violence might
unnaturally speed
up the impact of the adult world on the child.
This
can force the
child into a kind of premature maturity.
As the child
matures into an
adult, he can become bewildered, have a greater distrust
towards others, a
superficial approach to adult problems, and even an
unwillingness to
become an adult (Carter 14).
Television violence can destroy a young
childÕs mind. The
effects of this
violence can be long-lasting, if not never-ending.
For some, television at its worst, is an
assault on a
childÕs mind, an insidious
influence tat upsets moral
balance and makes a child prone
to aggressive behavior
as it warps his or her
perception of the real world.
Other see television as an
unhealthy intrusion into a
childÕs learning process,
substituting easy pictures for
the discipline of reading and
concentrating and
transforming the young viewer
into a hypnotized
nonthinker (Langone 48).
As you can see,
television violence can disrupt a childÕs learning and
thinking ability
which will cause life long problems. If
a child cannot
do well in
school, his or her whole future is at stake.
Why do children like the violence that
they see on television?
ÒSince media
violence is much more vicious than that which children
normally
experience, real-life aggression appears bland by comparisonÓ
(Dorr 127). The violence on television is able to be more
exciting and
enthralling than
the violence that is normally viewed on the streets.
Instead of just
seeing a police officer handing a ticket to a speeding
violator, he can
beat the offender bloody on television.
However,
children donÕt
always realize this is not the way thing are handled in
real life. They come to expect it, and when they donÕt
see it the world
becomes bland and
in need of violence. The children then
can create the
violence that
their mind craves.
The television violence can cause
actual violence in a number of
ways. As explained above, after viewing television
violence the world
becomes bland in
comparison. The child needs to create
violence to keep
himself satisfied
(Dorr 127). Also the children find the
violent
characters on
television fun to imitate. ÒChildren do
imitate the
behavior of
models such as those portrayed in television, movies, etc.
They do so
because the ideas that are shown to them on television are
more attractive
to the viewer than those the viewer can think up
himselfÓ (Brown
98). This has been widely seen lately
with the advent
of the Mighty
MorphinÕ Power Rangers. Young children
cannot seem to get
enough of these
fictional characters and will portray them often.
Another reason why television violence
causes violence in
children is
apparent in the big cities. ÒAggressive
behavior was more
acceptable in the
city, where a childÕs popularity rating with
classmates was
not hampered by his or her aggressionÓ (Huesmann 166).
In the bigger
cities, crime and violence is inevitable, expected and,
therefore, is
left unchecked and out of line.
Much research into the topic of
children and television violence
has been
conducted. All of the results seem to
point in the same
direction. There are undeniable correlations between
violent television
and
aggression. This result was obtained in
a survey of London
schoolchildren in
1975. Greensberg found a significant
relationship
between violence
viewing and aggression (Dorr 160),
In Israel 74 children from farms were
tested as well as 112
schoolchildren
from the city of Tel Aviv. The
researchers found that
the city children
watched far more television than their farmland
counterparts. However, both groups of children were just as
likely to
choose a violent
program to watch when watching television.
The city
children had a
greater tendency to regard violent television programs as
accurate
reflections of real life than the farm children. Likewise, the
city boys
identified most with characters from violent programs than did
those living on
the farms (Huesmann 166).
The government also did research in
this area. They conducted
an experiment
where children were left alone in a room with a monitor
playing a
videotape of other children at play.
Soon, things got Òout of
handÓ and
progressive mayhem began to take place.
Children who had just
seen commercial
violence accepted much higher levels of aggression than
other
children. The results were published in
a report. ÒA Sergon
GeneralÕs report
found some Ôpreliminary indications of a casual
relationship
between television viewing and aggressive behavior in
childrenÕÓ
(Langone 50).
In other research among U.S. children
it was discovered that
aggression,
academic problems, unpopularity with peers and violence feed
off each
other. This promotes violent behavior in
the children
(Huesmann 166). The child watches violence which causes
aggression.
The combination
of aggression and continued television viewing lead to
poor academic
standings as well as unpopularity. These
can cause more
aggression and a
vicious cycle begins to spin.
In yet another piece if research children
who watch a lot of
violent
television were compared to children who donÕt.
The results
were that the
children who watched more violent television were more
likely to agree
that ÒitÕs okay to hit someone if youÕre mad at them for
a good
reason.Ó The other group learned that
problems can be solved
passively,
through discussion and authority (Cheyney 46).
The most important aspect of violence
in television is
preventing
it. There are many ways in which it can
be prevented, but
not often are
many carried out. These solutions are
easy to implement,
but are often
overlooked because of commercial purposes.
One such solution is to Òcreate
conflict without killing.Ó
Michael Landon,
who starred in and directed ÒLittle House on the
PrairieÓ managed
to do so in his programs. His goal was
to put moral
lessons in his
show in an attempt to teach while entertaining.
On the
program ÒHill
Street BluesÓ the conflicts are usually personal and
political matters
among the characters. Although some
violence does
occur, the theme
is not the action, but rather its consequences (Cheyney
49).
Perhaps the most important way to
prevent children from watching
television
violence is to stop it where it starts.
The parents should
step in and turn
the set off when a violent program comes on.
The
parents are the
childÕs role models from which he learns.
If he can
learn at an early
age that violence on television is bad, then he can
turn the set off
for himself when he is older. Education
should start
at home.
Fixing the problems of children and
television violence isnÕt
easy. There are many factors that have to be
considered and people to
be
convinced. This problem will, no doubt,
never go away and continue
to get worse as
the years go by. However, there are
measures that can
be taken to
prevent the children from ever being exposed to such things.
After all, whatÕs
the world going to be like when the people who are now
children are
running the world?
Works Cited
Langone, John.
Violence. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1984.
Cheyney, Glenn
Alan. Television in American Society. New York:
Franklin Watts Co., 1983.
Howe, Michael J.
A. Television and Children. London: New
University Education, 1977.
Husemann, L.
Rowell. ÒSocial Channels Tune T.V.Õs effects.Ó
Science News 14 Sept. 1985: 166.
Door, Palmer.
Children and the Faces of Television. New York:
Academic Press, 1980.
Carter, Douglass.
T.V. Violence and the Child. New York: Russel
Sage Foundation, 1977.
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