The effect of TV violence on young people

Some people may argue that it cannot be denied that what appears on screen has no effect because multi-millions of pounds are being spent on advertising. However the purpose of advertising is to persuade people to buy products-it rarely tries to change people's behaviour, and when it does it usually does not work for example the very long-running campaigns trying to persuade people not to drink and drive which had virtually no effect. The government faces a similar problem today with young smokers who seem quite resistant to health messages to help them quit.

There are statistics which include that children watch an average of 28 hours of television per week. It has been said this is continually having a negative effect on them but there is no real sense in which television sells violence as desirable behaviour for the audience other than as entertainment. It is true that children are visual learners and it would be natural for them to imitate what is being seen on TV and try it out while playing, however it cannot be said that all children model all of the behaviour which they see on TV.

Having said this I agree that movies like Home alone may influence children and encourage them carry out violent activities although the majority who watch it find it humorous to watch, but would not consider actually copying it.

I do not agree with the point that aggression which is "ingrained" in a child predicts adult aggression because all adults will have watched violent scenes on TV in their lifetime but they did not all turn out to be violent, and TV violence wasn't necessarily a factor which influenced their behaviour later on in life.

Having taken account of the articles I have found, I do believe that parents should set limits to the amount of television watched by their children, and pay attention to what they are watching as this may reduce any effects which TV violence may have on the children (gnfc.org.uk). In my opinion it is true that children are affected differently by television than being told fairytales because as I have mentioned, children are visual learners and are more likely to remember something which they have witnessed visually.

It is possible that parents may worry that their children may not be able to fit in with their friends if they do not watch popular children's programmes so they let them watch what they like. However parents probably would not be able to make that great an influence because children these days have a mind of their own which is not easily influenced.

According to statistics, researchers have determined that high levels of violence in our society is made worse by children having a regular habit of watching violence on TV although there could be other possible reasons for this. Examples are the social situations in families, type of background and the behaviour of the parents. Parents are an important role model, so their children are more than likely to follow in their footsteps.

Dr Jerome singer suggested that parents should view the television as a stranger in their home which teaches their children to be violent and all sorts of other behaviour, but not too many parents would take on this viewpoint. Some are usually too busy to pay attention to the programmes being watched by their children which may be having a negative effect on them. Parents would also believe that the television can't have that big an influence on children as it does not personally communicate with the child as a person would, even though the effects are probably worse as the television is feeding information spontaneously into the brains of young people.

The article from carelpress.com states that researchers tracked 700 families for 18 years said that it made no difference what programmes were being watched, since an average hour of children's TV contained between 20-25 violent acts. Although this research was based on evidence, 700 families is still a small sample and their situation may not be the same as other people's who were not tracked. Also there is no evidence to support the view that the children pay a lot of attention to these violent acts, imitated them and in turn became violent adults in the future.

In conclusion, there are some studies which suggest that there is a correlation between television violence and it's effect on the behaviour of young people. TV may be able to influence children in which games they play, and some studies may have found some sort of correlation, but there is no real proof suggesting that watching TV leads to children's behaviour becoming more violent both immediately and in the future. Therefore to me it is clear that family and the society in which a child lives have proved to be more effective in influencing the child's behaviour rather than the extent of the violence seen on television.

Bibliography

* Article from www.carelpress.com

* www.gnfc.com

* www.jeannebeckman.com/page18.html

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