English 111, Section 06

23 October 1999

“TV: The Other Parent”

Is it parents’ fault or children’s that they sit hours in front their big glowing box mesmerized, and learning violent behavior as a means of relating to others.

The truth about television violence and children has been shown. Studies have been carried out and all the results point to the same conclusion: Violence on Television affects the behavior of children who are watching it. In fact, violence on TV causes children to be increasingly violent, and the effects could be life-long. “Some psychologists and psychiatrists believe that continued exposure to violence can speed up the impact of the adult world on a child’s life” (Douglas Carter T. V. Violence and the Child). Exposure to violent material can force the child into a kind of premature maturity, and make the child become bewildered and have a greater distrust towards others. It even could make the child have awkward approach to adult problems and they might even develop a desire not to become adults.

Television violence can destroy a young child’s mind, and the effects may be ever lasting. This is made obvious in New York, where a 16-year-old boy broke into a cellar. When the police caught him and asked him why he was wearing gloves, he said that he had learned not to leave fingerprints from TV. And even another case in Alabama where a nine-year-old received a bad report from his teacher and had plans to send her poisoned candy like he had seen the night before on a TV show (Michael Howe J. A. Television and Children). This proves that after viewing television violence the world, through a child’s eyes, becomes distorted in comparison. The children create violence to help keep them-selves satisfied.

The reason children are so drawn to the violence on TV today is that the characters on TV make it look fun, so the children find it fun to imitate. The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers are a prime example of kids imitating TV characters as fun.

Our government has conducted an experiment where children were left alone in a room with a TV playing a videotape of other children at play, and soon things got out of hand. The kids who had just seen commercial violence accepted much higher levels of aggression than other children did. And in other research conducted, it was found that U.S. children feed off each other’s aggression, academic problems, unpopularity with peers, and violence. And this promotes the violent behavior in children today.

It has been found that kids who watch more television are more likely to solve their problems with violence rather than kids who don’t, and sit down to talk their problems out. But as much violent programs that there are out in the TV world there were (and maybe still are) those programs that teach the right way to resolve things. Like the once popular TV series “Little House on the Prairie”. Michael Landon taught the moral values of solving problems without the use of violence.

Fixing this problem isn’t easy, it will never go away, and in time will get worse. About the only way to correct this ever-growing problem is to stop it where it starts: in the home. The parents should take up the responsibility to be more into what their kids watch. The parents are the role models for the children so if the parents can teach the children that violence isn’t necessary, along with keeping a close eye on what they watch, then maybe this problem soon wouldn’t be as bad as it is now. After all the children are everyone’s future rulers of this world and what would happen if they were all violent?

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