Media Violence

Media Violence

According to the National Institute on Media and the Family sixty-one percent of television programs contain some sort of violence each day children are watching television containing violence and they are naturally drawn to it. I recently went to Dave and Busters with my little cousins, and they ran directly towards the games in which guns are involved. Needless to say I find it to be very alarming that whenever a child sees a gun they are drawn toward it. Media violence isn’t exactly a new thing it has been around since the coliseum, and today many children are affected at all ages by media violence, but they younger they are the more vulnerable they are as well. Media violence should be censored, and the public should be willing to risk the dangers of censorship.

Violence in the media has always been a problem. The earliest form of violence in entertainment took place way before television and video games; one has to look back to ancient Rome. As many as 50,000 Romans would gather in the coliseum, to watch gladiator fights mock naval battles, and wild animal hunts. Usually, the participants were slaves, prisoners, and volunteers. Spectators would watch and cheer during these gruesome fights, while up to 10,000 people would die.

Now Centuries later spectators no longer watch deadly fight in the coliseum; however, we are still exposed to graphic violence from television, video games, and other media outlets. One has to wonder how this exposure to violence changes human behavior. In 1982, The American Psychological Association conducted a study about the effects of media violence. The fifteen year long study tested childhood exposure to media violence on numerous girls and boys who are now men and women. This study has shown that the boys that are now men are more likely to push, grab, or shove their spouses. They are also more likely to be in jail for an aggressive crime. This study has also shown that the girl that are now women in their mid-twenties have thrown something at their spouses in response to someone making them mad. These women reported having punched, beaten, or choked another adult four times the rate of other women their age. Seven years later before the APA had their results Albert Bandura a psychologist and the former president of APA wanted to get a first hand look at media violence and the affects on children. Bandura Created the "Bobo Doll Experiment." During this experiment, several child participants observed an adult modeling aggressive behavior towards a plastic Bobo doll; they punched, kicked, and used toys as weapons against the dolls. After the children viewed the modeled behavior, they were put into a room full of toys that they could not touch. Since the kid could not touch the toys, they became very aggressive. After sitting in that room for a little while the children were then moved to a room where they could play with the doll identical to the ones shown in the video. Eighty-eight percent of the children imitated the aggressive behavior shown by the model in the video. Eight months later in 1990, Eighty-eight percent of the kids were gathered again and 40% of those kids were still using their aggressive behavior shown the first day of the study.

Studies similar to the APA and Bandura are out to prove that American media is the most violent on earth. Other countries in the world such as Japan also have a lot of violence, but there are differences. In Japanese films, the Japanese film directors' follow-up violent actions with horrible consequences. Where as American media no consequences are given 75% of the time, which leads kids to believe violence is acceptable.

In 1995 statistics show that children watched an average of 8,000 murders and 100,000 acts of violence on television before they finished elementary school. The National Institute on Media and the Family reported that by the time a child turns eighteen years old he or she will witness on television 200,000 acts of violence including 40,000 murders. Watching this kind of violence makes children scared and unsure of their surrounding. They are scared that their environment is unsafe. Lawmakers are trying to inform parents about what their children are watching. In 1998, President Bill Clinton made a law stating that the V-chip will be installed on all televisions. After the installation of the V-chip children that are exposed to media violence should decrease, if the parents care.

Then in 2002 cable television introduced parental controls. Parents are now able to block certain television shows and channels they do not want their children to watch. It is also very simple to unblock the shows and channels with a simple four of five number pass code, which allows parents to view television show they would not allow their children to view.

After doing research on the affects media violence has on children I came across this