Violence in Entertainment is Effecting Children

Shoot him dead. Kill all these people. These are a couple of phrases a lot of children hear everyday on TV, in music and in the movies. Should it be put to a stop, just toned down or neither? It has not been proven yet, but I believe entertainment influences violence in children.

There are those who say violence in entertainment should be wiped out completely. Others, do not agree with this and say violence should not be as graphic. I feel that rather then tone down or eliminate violence from entertainment, enforcing the rating system is a better alternative.

Enforcing the rating system means not letting underage people into an inappropriate movie for their age group. There are a lot of movie theaters that do not enforce this rule. Kids also should not be able to buy a video game with a mature rating stamped on it. This includes music with parental warnings on it.

Kids look up to movie stars, rappers, rock stars, etc. If they sing about violence or kill someone in the movies, kids might be influenced to resolve conflicts by using violence in a real life situation. Whether it is repeated visual or audio violence, this desensitizes kids.

For example, the movie Natural Born Killers was blamed for the mutilation of a 13 year old girl, in Texas, by a 14 year old boy. NBK was blamed for a lot of crimes, such as, a teenager shot a store clerk leaving her a quadriplegic. Movies aren t the only forms of entertainment being blamed for violence. There is also video games, hardcore rap, trash talk shows, hate rock, and violent TV.

Before we let kids watch or hear something, lets make sure we know what it is and if it is appropriate or not. This is just one step of the many to make our world safer for children. Childhood is the most influential age of a person's life, so why influence them with garbage!