The more violence is watched by children, the more they may become less sensitive to the pain and sufferings of others and the more likely they will behave aggressively or harmful towards others.

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The more violence is watched by children, the more they may become less sensitive to the pain and sufferings of others and the more likely they will behave aggressively or harmful towards others.

The effects of violence shown on television towards children may vary depending on the child’s age group, how much television they watch each day and their reactions to what they have been watching.  What children see, they tend to imitate.  And what they see on both broadcast and cable television is violence, real and stimulated (Arnow, 1995:12).  There is a strong correlation between the viewing of violent images and aggressive behaviour among children.  The more a child is exposed to violence on television, there is a greater chance it will have a long lasting effect on their behaviour  (Arnow, 1995:12).

The impact of television on children is easily understood because most infants have the desire and capacity to imitate adult behaviour (Arnow, 1995:14).  Young children tend to mirror adult facial expressions and behaviours.  As the child becomes a toddler, they are incapable of distinguishing reality from fantasy on television.  Parents should continually remind their children that television is not real life (Luke, 1988:124).  Violent television shows; such as wrestling are making kids fight more on the playgrounds and making society generally a more violent place to live(Easterbrook,1999: 1).  The more violence is watched by children, the more they may become less sensitive to the pain and sufferings of others and may be more likely to behave too aggressively or harmful towards others (Luke, 1988:125).

Various violent television shows being viewed by children today are beginning to poison the developing minds of the young.  These shows provoke young children to imitate what they have seen on television and re-enact what they just saw to their fellow classmates.  Even cartoons are beginning to be an influence on young children.  For example; there was the fear that all terrible things that fell on Wile E Coyote (mainly large rocks and anvils) were encouraging children to drop heavy things on their friends and schoolmates (Easterbrook, 1999:1).  It seems that television is the root of what is wrong in our world and always has been.

Violence in the media has increased since the 1980’s and continues to increase (Smith, 1996:34).  By the time the average child (i.e. one who watches two to four hours of television daily) leaves elementary school, he or she will have witnessed at least 8,000 murders and more than 100,000 other assorted acts of violence on television (Smith, 1996:34).  Television violence increases violent and aggressive tendencies in young people and contributes to the growth of violent crime in society.  Essentially, television violence is one of the things that may lead to aggressive, antisocial, or criminal behaviour.  However, it usually works in conjunction with other factors such as age, amount of television being watched, identification of television personalities, belief that television violence is realistic, intellectual achievement and portrayal of violence among children (Smith, 1996:2:35).

Certain topics that will arise are: Does watching too much violence on television lead to teen violence?  How does television violence affect a child as the child matures?  And lastly, What are some solutions that parents could do to prevent children from being affected by television violence?  These topics will be further examined so that one may fully understand the effects and impact television violence can have on children of different ages.

2.1         Does watching too much violence o television lead to teen violence?

In 1982, airtime for violence increased from 1.5 hours per week to 43 hours per week in 1986 (Smith, 1996:35).  And in 1980, most of the children’s programs featured 18.6 violent acts per hour and now have 26.5 violent acts per hour (Smith, 1996:35).  It is evident that the airing of violent programs has increased throughout the years.  57 percent of television programs contain “psychologically harmful” violence that can lead to aggressive behaviour in a child (Spock, 1992:63).  When children are placed in front of the television for a long period of time, their focus cannot be diverted and their gaze cannot be broken as quickly.  The bright colours, quick movements and sudden flashes capture the child’s attention.  Most children find these images captivating which mesmerizes them and draws their attention to the television screen and only the television screen.  If a child is unsupervised, he could watch television constantly or even endlessly.

Watching television is a passive event for both children and adults because they remain completely immobile while watching television (Spock, 1992:64).  Looking at a television screen does not magically remove a child’s energy from within.  Both mind and body become passive allowing the child to concentrate on the vast array of bright and fast moving pictures (Spock, 1992:64).  Children absorb millions of images from the television.  If the child’s television set has cable, their choices can range from between fifty to seventy different channels: all of which show different programs.  The odds are that what the children are watching is most likely violent. (Spock, 1992:65).

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Viewing large amount of television violence does not necessarily cause a child to act more violently, although it can contribute to promoting a view that violence is common in everyday life.  Television violence can also create a heightened fear of being assaulted on the street.  Perpetrators of violent acts go unpunished 73 percent of the time and only 9 percent of violent programs show non-violent solutions (Spock, 1992:66).  As children watch violence more often, they become more fearful of the world around them.

Most children’s television shows contain about 20 violent acts each hour.  These children that watch ...

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