The effects of television violence on young children

The effects of television violence on young children
The impact of television violence may be immediately evident in the child's behavior or may surface years later. According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children, when children see super hero’s beating villains with violence, they learn that fighting is the preferred method to resolve the conflict

The American Psychological Association estimates that the average American child or teenager views 10,000 murders, rapes and aggravated assaults per year on television. Over 1,000 studies and reviews have found that exposure to heavy quantity of television violence increases the likelihood of aggressive behavior. Hundreds of studies on the effects of television violence on children and teenagers have found that children may:

1,Become "immune" to the horror of violence;
2,Gradually accept violence as a way to solve problems;
3,Imitate the violence they observe on television; and
4,Identify with certain characters, victims and/or victimizers.

Violence used to resolve a conflict is evident in the movie "Home Alone". Kevin, the main character, performs numerous acts of violence to defend his home and scare away the intruders. These acts of violence appear to be very real and could potentially hurt someone. The movie however, does not display the harmful effects violence can have on a person. Instead, violence seems to be portrayed as something humorous and children have a reason to laugh at an individual who inflicts deadly force onto another person.

MTV's "Beavis and Butthead" is another example of a program that contains excessive amounts of violence. The program encourages fire, smoking, foul language, drinking, and stealing. Although the message is clear to an adult, that a person will be labeled as a "butthead" if he/she performs these acts, it is not so clear to children. As stated earlier, children are visual learners and because the characters in the program believe that violence is cool way to solve their problems, the children are inclined to perform these acts.

As a result of watching too much violence on the screen, children have been known to use physical or verbal abuse toward others on the playground or at school. Children may also become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others. Viewing violence encourages children to see other people as enemies rather than as individuals with thoughts and feelings like themselves. Children who cannot put themselves in others' shoes may become less desirable playmates (Beckman).