Essay/Term paper: Tv violence and children

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Technology

TV Violence and Children


Children from the ages 6-11 spend more time watching television than
they do in the classroom. 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. At this rate, the average American child will see 8,000 murders
before they finish elementary school!
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
formation of values and morals, to all youngsters' minds of all ages, all
socioeconomic levels, and all levels of intelligence. 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 Beasvis 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. I know some who that
are sweet, innocent, full of dreams, hopes, laughter, and life. These kids have
learned about there environment from their parents, not by watching television.
When I am a parent, I will not show programs with bodies flying around the room
and blood spurting ever where. 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. We should remember
the words of the father in Harry Chapin's song "Cat's in the Cradle" when he
comes to realize his son "He's grown up just like me. My boy was just like me."
Violence on the television is a very real problem is our culture. We
most see that it only causes negative effects on our society. It is hard to
tell if the problem is the media or if the problem is in our values as a culture.
We must help turn back the growing culture of violence as quickly as possible.
The human toll on our society is too great to look the other way.