Television Violence and the Effects

Television violence and the effects it has on young children Steve Sensoli

What has the world come to these days? It often seems like everywhere you look,

violence rears its ugly head. We see it in the streets, back alleys, school, and even at home.

Out of these three, at home is a major source of violence on a daily basis. Many peoples'

living rooms there serve as an outlet for violence that often goes unnoticed. It is the

television, and the children who view it are often pulled into its realistic world of violent

scenes with sometimes devastating results.

Much research has gone into showing why children are so mesmerized by this big

glowing box and the action that takes place on it. Research shows that it is definitely a

major source of violent behavior in children. The research proves time and time again

that aggression and television viewing do go hand in hand. The truth about television

violence and children has been shown. Some people are trying to fight this problem. Others

are ignoring it and hoping it will go away. Still others don't even seem to care. However, the

facts are undeniable. The studies have been carried out and all the results point to one

conclusion: Television violence causes children to be violent and the effects can be life-long.

The information can't be ignored. Violent television viewing does affect children. The

effects have been seen in a number of cases. In New York, a 16-year-old boy broke into a

cellar. When the police caught him and asked him why he was wearing gloves he replied that

he had learned to do so to not leave fingerprints and that he discovered this on television. In

Alabama, a nine-year-old boy received a bad report card from his teacher. He suggested

sending the teacher poisoned candy as revenge as he had seen on television the night

before. In California, a seven-year-old boy sprinkled ground-up glass into the lamb stew

the family was to eat for dinner. These are certainly startling examples of how television can

affect children. It must be pointed out that all of these situations were directly caused by

children watching violent television.

Not only does television violence affect the child's youth, but it can also affect his or

her adulthood. Some psychologists and psychiatrists feel that continued exposure to such

violence might unnaturally speed up the impact of the adult world on the child. This

can force the child into a kind of premature maturity.

Television violence can destroy a young child's mind. The effects of this violence can be

long-lasting, if not never-ending. For some, television at its worst, is an assault on a child's

mind, an dangerous influence that upsets moral balance and makes a child prone to

aggressive behavior as it warps his or her perception of the real world. "Others see television

as an unhealthy intrusion into a child's learning process, substituting easy pictures for the

discipline of reading and concentrating and transforming the young viewer into a hypnotized

nonthinker" (Langone). As you can see, television violence can disrupt a child's learning

and thinking ability which will cause life long problems. If a child cannot do well in school,

his or her whole future is at stake.

Why do children like the violence that they see on television? "Since media violence

is much more vicious than that which children normally experience, real-life

aggression appears bland by comparison" (Door ). The violence on television is

able to be more exciting and more engrossing than the violence that is normally viewed on

the streets. Instead of just seeing a police officer handing a ticket to a speeding violator, he

can beat the offender bloody on television. However, children don't always realize this is not

the way things are handled in real life. They come to expect it, and when they don't see it the

world becomes plain and in need of violence. "Those who had most frequently watched

violent television shows and enjoyed and identified with them, the study found, tended to be

more aggressive" (New York Times). The children then can create the violence that their

mind craves.

The television violence can contribute to actual violence in a number of ways. After

viewing