Children, Television, and Violence

Children, Television, and Violence

Children, Television, and Violence TV violence may influence children more than most people are aware of. The amount of violence on TV is an important topic in today¡¯s society. One of the reasons it should be so important to all of us is because almost everyone in America today has a television set, and because of it¡¯s availability, children are viewing disturbing images everyday from the comfort of their own homes. Television is all about ratings. To keep the viewers from changing the channel, networks will try to do anything. Even the news is displaying more bloody details than people need to see. If there isn¡¯t a murder, rape, or shoot-out on the news, people are let down. They may get bored with the broadcast and change the channel. That is the main reason why kids can be exposed to view acts of violence even while watching a comedy. By putting violence into the equation, networks become more confident that you are not going to change the channel. The networks don¡¯t give a damn about the affects it may have on the children watching, just as long as the ratings are high and the money keeps rolling in. The network broadcasters need to decrease the violence because it often confuses children, and as we all know children are visual learners. This may cause young kids sometimes blur things with the real world that they see on TV. It helps makes this happen by shaping an altered reality. Children do not seem to have a full grasp of the real world and the situations it may involve. An example of one of the ways it can confuse children is through programs that ¡°glamorize¡± violence. Three out of five programs portray violence on television. Even some of the shows I watched as a child could also be considered violent. For example, let¡¯s take GI JOE into consideration. Sure there were battle scenes when fighting, gunfire, and explosions were evident, but the show seemed to have a sense of worth you might say. At the end of every episode, there was some supplemental factor. Some of the star characters or leaders from the show would give kids advise about different situations. Anything from playing with matches to listening to your parents, or adults in general, was discussed. Even their slogan, ¡°Knowing is half the battle,¡± promotes the use of their mind to overcome obstacles. Out of the shows that we see today the violence is always portrayed in a disturbing manner. If you pay attention to these programs, it seems as though half, if not more, of ¡°bad¡± characters shown, do not get caught or never get seen being punished or doing time for what they had done. On the contrary to the bad characters, ¡°good¡± characters are also behaving badly, which, in a sense, is portrayed as heroic. This makes the child want to imitate the character he admires the most. He sees that the actions of his favorite characters are being rewarded, which then causes him to act in the same violent manner. The child learns quickly that violence is an acceptable solution to resolving problems. When kids watch their heroes behave violently day after day they may start to view violence as just an everyday occurrence. In turn, this may cause the children to become desensitized to violence, meaning that to fulfill their craving for the aggression, more and more violence is going to have to be shown. Where will the limits be drawn?