Why Blame the TV
...television. But even with the recent measures, such as the V-chip and a television ratings system, we must question why television violence continues and the purpose it serves. Certainly repeated violence on television does not expose society to important values and lessons. Children from the ages 6-11 spend more time watching television than they do in the classroom (MAM). The level of violence that they see on prime time television is about five violent acts per hour and the level of violence on Saturday that includes cartoons morning programming is about 20 to 25 violent acts per hour (Parents Television Council). At this rate, the average American child will see 8,000 murders before they finish elementary school (Parents Television Council)! As a child sits in front of baby-sitting television, her eyes are glued to the viewing of shoot em' up rip em' up kind of entertainment. We have to remember that the entertainment media plays an extremely powerful role in the information of values and morals, to all youngsters' minds of all ages. These programs "play" with kids' minds; these programs have a tremendous negative effect on our children. We, as a society, must save our future and take an active role in protecting our children from the violence on our television. Television cartoons often feature dehumanized characters, such as Transformers and the Ninja Turtles, who engage in the destructive acts of violence by fighting our real life social problems. With acts of violence, kids learn to think that's how they should solve their problems. MTV's Beavis and Butt-head encourages fire, smoking, foul language, drinking and stealing. With these bad attitudes seen depicted as normal on TV shows kids are lead to believe it is cool be have that type attitude. Is this what we really want our society, especially our younger generation, to believe? If we truly thought that television had no impact on viewers, why would companies spend billion of dollars on television advertising? If commercials have an effect, then so do the shows that the children watch. For example, youngsters mimic many of the violent acts that they see such as Beavis and But- head. One day, a five year old boy watch his favorite cartoon, Beavis and Butt-head, and sees the characters pull one of their famous arson stunts. And the result, he sets his own house ablaze and his younger sister is killed. Children do learn from television especially when they lack direct exposure or first hand experience with violent grotesque acts. These do take a toll on children and the way they will view life as they grow up. At this point, the parents' role must be to watch television with their children so they can help children understand that violence hurts people physically and emotionally. Our society should take a long hard look in the mirror; the values of today's youth are reflections of the values of their elders. It is hard to tell if the problem is the media or if the problem is in our values as a culture. Just sixty years ago the invention of the television was viewed as a technological curiosity with black and white ghost-like figures on a screen so small hardly anyone could see them. Today that curiosity has become a constant companion to many children. Television has all but replaced written material. Unfortunately, violent television programs are endangering our society. Violent images on television, as well as in the movies, have inspired people to set spouses on fire in their beds, lie down in the middle of highways, extort money by placing bombs in airplanes, rape, steal, murder, and commit numerous other shootings and assaults. It increases aggressiveness and anti-social behavior, makes them less sensitive to violence and to victims of violence, and it increases their appetite for more violence in entertainment and in real life. Media violence is especially damaging to young children, age 8 and under1, because they cannot tell the difference between real life and fantasy (Grossman). Violent images on television and in movies may seem real to these children and sometimes viewing these images can even traumatize them. Despite the negative effects media violence has been known to generate, no drastic changes have been made to deal with this problem that seems to be getting worse. We, as a whole, have glorified this violence so much that movies such as "Natural Born Killers" and television shows such as "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" are viewed as normal, everyday entertainment. It's even rare now to find a children's cartoon that does not depict some type of violence or comedic aggression. What we do not realize though, is that it is the children that are ending up with problems. Unlike most rational, educated adults, many children are gradually beginning to accept violence as a way to solve problems and are imitating what they observe on television. These children do not understand that the violence is shown strictly because the public wants to see it. They cannot grasp the meaning of "ratings" and "entertainment" as well as adults can. The problem isn't the violence in the media though; it is the media's failure to show the consequences of violence, and parents have to control what their children watch. This is especially true of cartoons, toy commercials, and music videos. Children often do not realize that it hurts to hit someone else because they see it all the time on TV. Everyday a cartoon character is beat up, injured, or killed, only to return in the very next episode, good as new. As a result, children learn that there are few, if any repercussions for committing violent acts. Unfortunately, as long as there is an extremely high public demand for violent shows and movies, the media is going to continue on the same path. And because it looks as though the "violence craze" is going to continue for some time, we need to be dependent on parents to reduce the effect that media violence has on children, which can be done in so many different ways. First, parents should limit the amount of television children watch per ...