Ryan Poulos

Violence in T.V.

When children are taught how to tie their shoes, it is because of how their parents showed them. When children are taught how to do math problems it is because how their teachers show them. With all of the role models how does television effect our children? Many adults feel that because they watched television when they were young and they have not been negatively affected then their children should not be affected as well. What we must first realize is that television today is different than television of the past, violence is more prevalent in todays programming unlike the true family programming of the past.

Questions about the effects of television violence have been around since the beginning of television. The first mention of a concern about television’s effects upon our children can be found in many Congressional hearings as early as the 1950s. All of these reports agree with each other about the harmful effects of television violence in relation to the behavior of children, youth, and adults who view violent programming. The only thing that we know about the effects of exposure to violence and the relationship towards juvenile delinquency, scientists gather from correlational, experimental and field studies that demonstrate the effects of this viewing on the attitudes and behavior of children and adults.

Children begin watching television at a very early age, sometimes as early as six months, and are intense viewers by the time that they are two or three years old. In most cases the amount of televised viewing becomes greater with age and then tapers off during teen years. The violence that is viewed is more important than the amount of television that is viewed. According to most families the typical American household has the television set on for more than seven hours each day and children age 2 to 11 spend an average of 28 hours per week viewing. The problem with this is that Programs especially designed for children, such as cartoons are the most violent of all programming. How many times have we all seen the Coyote try to kill the RoadRunner? GI Joe and many other programs also represent violence and the use of deadly weapons. Overall, the levels of violence in prime-time programming have increased a tramendouse amount. Most of this violence is shown during hours that are not generally viewed by the adults therefore violence in the early morning and afternoon is viewed by children and youth.

We get a clearer picture about the effects of TV violence when we know more about the way children watch televised violence. For example, while viewing televised violence, the look of positive emotions of happiness, pleasure, interest or involvement are more likely to hurt another child than those children whose facial expressions indicated disinterest or displeasure. Although there is much discussion about the looks and facial expresions on children during violence, Not all children become aggressive, of course, but the correlations between violence and aggression are positive. Television violence is strongly correlated with aggressive behavior as any other behavioral variable that has been measured. The research question has moved from asking whether or not there is an effect, to seeking explanations for the effect.

There are many factors that influence the relationship between viewing violence and aggressive behavior. It is clear that there is a considerable amount of violence on television and that this violence on TV may cause changes in attitudes, values, or behavior on children and older viewers. Things like gangs and violence in real life all coralate with violence being part of a kids life in T.V. at a young age.

We should remember that although the media certainly has a lot to answer for, it is important to remember that not everything that comes through the TV is bad. Rather, it is overuse and generally a careless attitude by adults that so often leads to regrettable results. Simply watch to see what your kids are watching, and pay close attention to certain shows. Dont alow your kid to watch something he/she is not ready for.

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