Re-sensitizing Our Youth
Stakes are high. The audience is restless. The thunderous echo of a motorcycle engine fills the arena as "The Undertaker" approaches the ring, ready to take on his worthy opponent. As boisterous cheers fill the room, he lifts his challenger by the neck with both hands and furiously throws him to the ground leaving his rival seemingly disoriented and writhing in agony. The crowd goes wild with exhilaration while some- where in America an eight-year-old boy, Aaron Auffhammer, is injured on the playground as a result of a classmate's attempt to mimic a wrestling maneuver commonly seen on television. The maneuver known as "The Tombstone" was made famous by "The Undertaker." Someone tripped him. While he was trying to get up, another child picked Aaron up by his feet so that he was upside down. Then slammed his head on to the ground. Thankfully, between a doctor's visit to rule out a concussion and close observations from his parents, Aaron recovered. According to the American Psychological Association website (www.apa.org) it is estimated that American children watch on average three to four hours of television daily. During this time they have witnessed over 25 acts of violence. By the time the children are twelve-year -old they
Another entity that can reorient youth and perhaps has one of the strongest arm -holds on society and youth is the media itself. Although for years, media may have denied the correlation of violence on television and the desensitization of youth they have no doubt offered several effective ways to curve the problem. The first of which being the introduction of the V-Chip. The V-chip is a device that can block transmission of violent programs into homes. The chip would allow parents to prevent a television program from being seen in their homes if a rating system has determined that it had a high level of violent or sexually implicit content. Another offering is the recently introduced TV ratings systems. As stated in the December 23, 1996 issue of Time in an article entitled "Rating Wars" by Richard Zoglin, the system is broken down into six broad rating categories. They are TV-Y which is for shows acceptable for all ages; TV-7, shows with some violence of other material unsuitable for children under 7; TV-G, appropriate for all audiences; TV-PG, parental guidance suggested; TV-14, not suitable for children under 14; or TV-MA, for mature audiences only. The ratings are determined by producers and distributors of the television programs, and would be printed in newspaper TV listing so parents could use them as a guide for determining which shows they will allow their children to watch. Finally, the television media has opted to put disclaimers before the beginning of any program that may contain violence, serving as warning. Included in the disclai
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1050
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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