by Maggie Mbroh

Created on: March 17, 2009

Television Causes Young Children To Act Violently

After the tragic shootings at Columbine High School in 1999, Former President Clinton asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate whether the motion picture, music and video game industuries advertised and marketed violent material to children and adolescents. Working with industry - provided documents, the FTC determined that despite the fact that their own rating systems found the material appropriate only for adults, these industries practiced pervasive and aggressive marking of violent movies, music and electronic games to children.

Children are greatly influenced by the media. They learn by observing, imitating, and making behaviors their own. For instance, some parents were alarmed when a Ghanaian boy tried to imitate the character of superman, jumped from a storey building and died . Young children can not differentiate between fantasy and reality. They are uniquely vulnerable to learning and adopting as reality the circumstances, attitudes and behaviors portrayed by the entertainment media.

It is not violence itself but the context in which it is portrayed that can make the difference between learning about violence and learning to be violent. Serious explorations of violence in plays like Macbeth and films like Saving Private Ryan treat violence as a human behavior that causes suffering, loss and sadness to victims and perpetrators. In this context, viewers learn the danger and harm of violence by vicariously experiencing its outcomes. Studies show that the more realistically violence is portrayed, the greater the likelihood that it will be tolerated and learned.

Pediatricians and other child care providers have advocated a safer media environment for children by encouraging media literacy, thoughtful and proactive use of the media by children and their parents, responsible portrayal of violence by media producers, and more useful and effective media ratings, but these recommendations should be emphasized vigorously. The distribution of videos and video games, and the exhibition of movies should be limited to appropriate age groups.

If violence is used, it should be used thoughtfully as serious drama, always showing the hurt and loss suffered by victims and perpetrators. Parents should use the v-chip to avoid violent video games in homes where they may be observed or played by young children, and keeping childrens' bedrooms media free.

The use of violence in a comic or sexual context or in any other situation in which the violence is amusing, titillating, or trivialized should be eliminated.

The glamorization of weapon carrying and the normalization of violence as an acceptable means of resolving conflict should be avoided by the media.

Pediatricians and the public should remember that if we do not buy or use entertainment media that are harmful to children, these media will no longer be produced.

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