Violence on Television Increases Violence in Children Essay

Violence on Television Increases Violence in Children - Essay Example All these shootings and other violence by children and teenagers have opened a public debate concerning various issues. Some blamed the easy availability of weapons for the shootings while some focused on the problems of bullying and peer abuse in American High schools as the reason behind this violence. However, there were some researchers who looked beyond the obvious and pinpointed the media behind the increase in violence. In this paper, we shall debate on the controversial issue that violence on television increases the violence in children and teenagers and stand by it. According to a research, children in America watch four hours of television daily on an average which implies that television has a powerful influence in developing value systems and shaping behavior. But sadly, most of the programs broadcasted on television are violent nowadays. From the daytime talk shows, most of which are portrayed by unashamed emotional, psychosomatic, and corporeal exploitation by jury gue sts towards each other, to the prime time shows and the WCW (World Champion Wrestling), all these programs proliferate excessive violence and aggressiveness. Most of these programs are watched by a growing number of young children and adolescents who view them along with their parents. As the matter of fact, violence forms the key constituent of the Network news too, as most of it is plagued with explicit renderings of murders, traffic mishaps, kidnappings, international war scenes, and the like. The story is the same everywhere; the good people slaughter the bad people, most often with an arsenal of weapons that has become a humdrum possession for today's T.V. characters (American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry [AACAP] n.pag.). This starts the debate that whether these television programs really affect our children or not. Various studies done to evaluate the impact of T.V. violence on children and teenagers have revealed that children are affected in different ways by these shows. They may become immune or dumb to the horror of violence, or gradually accept violence as the means to sort out problems, or try to imitate the violence shown on television, and identify with certain characters, victims and/or victimizers. Children who become violent watching such T.V. programs will show a range of behaviors including explosive temper tantrums, threats, bullying, aggressiveness, armed assault, and harm to animals and peer groups. In fact, a research done by psychologists L. Rowell Huesmann, Leonard Eron and others also revealed those children who watch long hours of brutal programs during elementary school level tend to show higher level of aggressive behavior when they become teens. They further found that eight years old children, who watch too much of television, are mostly the ones who get prosecuted for criminal behavior as adults (American Psychological Association [APA] n.pag.). Additionally, many children who are overexposed to violence, and spe cially, to pragmatic violence start judging the society as one which is, by and large, hazardous and perilous. This misjudgment makes them fearful towards life as they start considering themselves future victims of violence (AACAP n.pag.). However, researcher David Buckingham stated that â€Å"one may well discover that children who are violent watch a lot of television violence, but this does not prove that violent television causes real-life violence†