Violence on Television: What do Children Learn? What Can Parents Do?

Author Unspecified
Date 1999
Source http://www.apa.org/pi/pii/vio&tv.html
Copyright Copyright (C) 1999 American Psychological Association
Concepts variables
causal graphs
interventions
confounders
experiments
Keywords television
violence

Violent programs on television lead to aggressive behavior by children and teenagers who watch
those programs.

That's the word from a 1982 report by the National Institute of Mental Health, a report that
confirmed and extended an earlier study done by the Surgeon General. As a result of these and
other research findings, the American Psychological Association passed a resolution in February
1985 informing broadcasters and the public of the potential dangers that viewing violence on
television can have for children.

What Does the Research Show?

Psychological research has shown three major effects of seeing violence on television:

Children may become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others

Children may be more fearful of the world around them

Children may be more likely to behave in aggressive or harmful ways toward others.

Children who watch a lot of TV are less aroused by violent scenes than are those who only watch
a little; in other words, they're less bothered by violence in general, and less likely to see anything
wrong with it. One example: in several studies, those who watched a violent program instead of a
nonviolent one were slower to intervene or to call for help when, a little later, they saw younger
children fighting or playing destructively.

Studies by George Gerbner, Ph.D., at the University of Pennsylvania, have shown that children's
TV shows contain about 20 violent acts each hour and also that children who watch a lot of
television are more likely to think that the world is a mean and dangerous place.

Children often behave differently after they've been watching violent programs on TV. In one
study done at Pennsylvania State University, about 100 preschool children were observed both
before and after watching television; some watched cartoons that had a lot of aggressive and
violent acts in them, and others watched shows that didn't have any kind of violence. The
researchers noticed real differences between the kids who watched the violent shows and those
who watched nonviolent ones.

'Children who watch the violent shows, even 'just funny' cartoons, were more likely to hit out at
their playmates, argue, disobey class rules, leave tasks unfinished, and were less willing to wait
for things than those who watched the nonviolent programs,' says Aletha Huston, Ph.D., now at
the University of Kansas.

Real-Life Studies

Findings from the laboratory are further supported by field studies which have shown the long-
range effects of televised violence. Leonard Eron, Ph.D., and his associates at the University of
Illinois, found that children who watched many hours of TV violence when they were in
elementary school tended to also show a higher level of aggressive behavior when they became
teenagers. By observing these youngsters until they were 30 years old, Dr. Eron found that the
ones who'd watched a lot of TV when they were eight years old were more likely to be arrested
and prosecuted for criminal acts as adults.

A Continuing Debate

In spite of this accumulated evidence, broadcasters and scientists continue to debate the link
between the viewing TV violence and children's aggressive behavior. Some broadcasters believe
that there is not enough evidence to prove that TV violence is harmful. But scientists who have
studied this issue say that there is a link between TV violence and aggression, and in 1992, the
American Psychological Association's Task Force on Television and Society published a report that
confirms this view. The report, entitled Big World, Small Screen: The Role of Television in
American Society, shows that the harmful effects of TV violence do exist.

What Parents Can Do

While most scientists are convinced that children can learn aggressive behavior from television,
they also point out that parents have tremendous power to moderate that influence.

Because there is a great deal of violence in both adult and children's programming, just limiting
the number of hours children watch television will probably reduce the amount of aggression
they see.

In addition:

Parents should watch at least one episode of the programs their children watch. That way they'll
know what their children are watching and be able to talk about it with them.

When they see a violent incident, parents can discuss with their child what caused the character
to act in a violent way. They should also point out that this kind of behavior is not characteristic,
not the way adults usually solve their problems. They can ask their children to talk about other
ways the character could have reacted, or other nonviolent solutions to the character's problem.

Parents can outright ban any programs that they find too offensive. They can also restrict their
children's viewing to shows that they feel are more beneficial, such as documentaries,
educational shows and so on.

Parents can limit the amount of time children spend watching television, and encourage children
to spend their time on sports, hobbies, or with friends; parents and kids can even draw up a list of
other enjoyable activities to do instead of watching TV.

Parents can encourage their children to watch programs that demonstrate helping, caring and
cooperation. Studies show that these types of programs can influence children to become more
kind and considerate.

For More Information

If you're Interested in reading more about the research and public issues discussed in this
brochure, you may find the following books and articles helpful:

Comstock, G. (1991). Television in America. Newbury Park, CA; Sage Publications.

Huston, A.C., Donnerstein, E., Fairchild, H., Feshbach, N.D., Katz, P.A., Murray, J.P. Rubinstein,
E.A., Wilcox, B. & Zuckerman, D. (1992). Big World, Small Screen: The Role of Television in
American Society. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.

Liebert, R.M. & Sprefkin. (1988). The Early Window: Effects of Television on Children and Youth.
New York: Pergamon.

Murray, J.P. & Salamon, G. (1984). The Future of Children's Television: Results of the Markle
Foundation/Boys Town Conference. Boys Town, NE. The Boys Town Center.

National Institute of Mental Health (1982). Television and Behavior: Ten Years of Scientific
Progress and Implications for the Eighties, Volume 1. Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services.

Palmer, E.L. (1988). Television and America's Children: A Crisis of Neglect. New York: Oxford
University Press.

Singer, D.G., Singer, J.L. & Zuckerman, D.M. (1983). Teaching Television: How to Use TV to Your
Child's Advantage. New York: Dial Press.

Singer, D.G., Singer, J.L. & Zuckerman, D.M. (1983). Getting the Most Out of Television: Lesson
Plans for Teachers and Children. Northbrook, IL. Scott-Foresman.


http://www.cmu.edu/CSR/case_studies/tv_violence.html




















Television and other media have always been blamed about showcasing violence to a large extent. Many television
shows are infamous for their violent content. Television violence is about murders, bloodshed, explosions, disaster
and death. TV shows often demonstrate hitting, stabbing, screaming, thus expressing negativity. This destruction
shown on television has a deep impact on the viewers, especially children. Considering the impressionable years
they are in, children are most vulnerable to violence on TV.

It is a point of debate whether television reflects society or behavior of society reflects what is shown on
television. But at some point it becomes a vicious circle. People follow what they see on TV and television shows
are based on what is prevalent is society. Television is bound to have a deep impact on the viewers, especially
children and teenagers. Children tend to follow whatever they see blindly. Television violence influences children
to a great extent because they relate to characters on television.

Television violence affects children of different ages in different ways. The effect depends on their level of
understanding, the way they interpret and process information and their own experiences and upbringing.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), kids under 2 years of age should not watch television and
those older than 2 should not be allowed to watch more than 1 to 2 hours a day of good TV shows. Television, or
any media for that matter can shape child behavior. Audio-visual media have the potential to influence a child's
mind and make the child follow what he/she sees, without much thought. It's high time the elders realize this and
restrict TV exposure of children.

How Television Violence Affects Children
Infants are attracted to watching TV. For them, it's just a play of light and sound, something visual and moving they
enjoy watching. They often miss the program content. They can make sense only out of characters and faces
familiar to them. It is said that if behavior on television is presented to them in simpler ways, they are likely to
imitate it.
When children reach an age of two and half years, they begin to pay more attention to what is shown on TV and
tend to imitate it. At that age children prefer to watch fast-moving characters and are likely to get exposed to
television violence. During the pre-school age, children begin to derive meaning from what they see on television.
Intense scenes and sounds attract them. Cartoon violence draws in the children of that age. It is seen that
preschoolers behave aggressively after watching action and violence on TV.
During their initial years of schooling, children begin to understand what's shown on the television. They are able
to follow the actions of characters and the consequences of the characters' actions. But they tend to think less on
what they see, which results in reactions of a superficial nature. If children identify with a villain, they may start
enacting his behavior. They think of emulating that violent hero. Due to overexposure to TV violence they may
become tolerant to real world violence. Studies say that watching horror movies is sometimes an attempt by
children to get over their own phobias.
When adolescent, they start watching television independently. At that age, they can reason everything they see
but they are not mentally involved. They start idealizing someone and are tempted to act like him. They start
believing that whatever is shown on TV is real. If they are exposed to suicides and crime they may try to imitate
those kinds of behavior.
Children's minds are not mature enough to understand the context of the violence they watch on television. Take
an example of a psychic villain or a murderer who constantly bears a feeling of guilt about his acts. In the first
scenario, a child does not perceive the psychological disorder that has made him a villain. In the second case, a
child fails to understand how empty a murderer's life is. Thus they are unable to comprehend the causes and
effects of evil behavior. They do not understand the nuances of the scenes on television. They wrongly interpret
the wrongdoer and go the wrong way.

Primarily, children become insensitive to others' pain. They may become numb on watching something terribly
violent. Secondly, children feel that people around them are all of a violent nature. They think the world around
them is similar to what is portrayed on TV. Due to this, they fear people. They speculate something ill happening to
them. They feel the possibility of frightening incidents taking place in their lives. Influenced by the violence shown
on TV, they may tend to harm others. They might become over-aggressive and rebellious. They can disobey rules.
They may become impatient and refuse to wait for things, they then leave work unfinished thus do not perform
well in school. Television violence can impact children in two distinct ways. Either they develop immunity towards
cruelty or an extreme fear of living in a dangerous society grips them.

Television shows portraying the 'positive' are almost history. Scenes of TV stories are no more depictions of only
the good. Today's wrestling shows, violent movies and intense emotions expressed on TV, are bound to leave a
long-lasting impact on television viewers. Children have to face the after effects of television violence. Today's
children are the future of our society and it's important that they stay away from violence. Violence might make
children timid and pessimistic. It may instill evil feelings in their minds. Television violence creates a wrong picture
of society in the young minds. They make suicidal attempts or may even take to murders. Youth takes to
committing crime leading to youth violence. These harmful effects of television violence need to be curbed.

Parents have an important role to play in preventing their kids from watching the violence that is showcased on
television. Kids should be encouraged to watch children's programs. Parent must use their discretionary powers to
decide which programs their children should watch and which ones they should not. Early exposure to violence on
TV leads to abnormalities in children's behavior. Parents are advised to pay attention to the programs their kids
watch and restrict the time for which their kids can watch TV. They are advised to contact other parents and
collectively implement rules for television watching. Parents need to reject violence in front of their children. They
should explain their kids the reality behind the scenes. It's necessary to call the 'wrong' wrong when television
violence is perpetually projecting it as 'right'.
By Manali Oak
Last Updated: 9/20/2011
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/television-violence-and-children.html





























Do you think the shows today on television have caused more violence? On average,American children
watch four hours of television a day. Unfortunately, many shows on T.V. are now violent. Children may
become immune to the horror of violence, gradually accept violence as a way to solve problems, imitate
the violence seen on T.V., and begin to relate to the victims or criminals in the crime. The biggest problem
is the shows that are violent and seem realistic. These are the shows that most likely will make a child
repeat it's actions.

Violent content on television shows about three to five violent acts per hour. Children's Saturday
morning shows, portray about 20 to 25 violent acts per hour. Research done by the American Psychiatric
Association in 1996 reported that adolescents will have witnessed 16,000 simulated murders and
200,000 violent acts by 18 years old. Statistics show 73% of the time the good guy is usually the one who
is the most violent but always goes unpunished and is usually justified. Think about shows such as 24 and
Blue Bloods. The good guys kill people and it looks really cool when they do it. This is just showing kids it
is okay to just take out a gun and kill someone. It also shows people jumping 10 stories out of a building
and surviving. We all know these things are not okay.

The National Institute of Mental Health has concluded that violence on television does lead to
aggressive behavior by children and teenagers. Obviously this does not happen to all children, but it does
happen to many. A main problem of television violence is the fact the children become numb to the
violence and aggression. This means these kids are desensitized to the violent acts on TV and witnessing
the violence does not effect them anymore. Overexposure to aggressive television shows can make
children think the world is an unsafe place to live. This will make them overestimate the amount of
violent situations they will come into contact with. This will cause a lot of unnecessary stress and anxiety.

The Experiment
A well-known experiment was done by Bushman in 1998. He discovered that when we watch violent
shows, we store in our memory, a perceptual and cognitive representation of the scene. The experiment
was done on 8 year old boys. At a later age, they realized the violent scenarios they stored in their brains
were pulled up and activated when they were adults. This influenced their behavior. They were more
aggressive men. Chronic views of TV violence leads to constantly accessing the parts of the brain where
these memories are stored. This is called primed aggressive constructs. The younger the child is, the
more harmful the violent television shows are.

Parents should determine what age their child is ready to witness violent acts. Although not all children
will react to violent TV shows in a negative way, some will. We want to avoid at all costs anymore crime
coming into this country. I wonder if most criminals today get their ideas off of movies or television
shows. Sometimes when I watch certain shows I joke saying, "That's a good idea to cover up a crime." Of
course I would never do such a thing, but I know some people that watch might seriously think that way.
Do you think that the crime today is from the media and Hollywood? Or do you think it is just how a
parent raises a child with their morals? If a good child knows their rights and wrongs TV shouldn't effect
them at all right? Well for a lot of kids it seems to. So what do you think ?

articles
used: http://www.aacap.org/page.ww?name=children+and+TV+violence&section=Facts+for+Families

http://www.thesuccessfulparent.com/children-and-media/the-impact-of-tv-violence-on-children-and-
adolescents