This may sound like a heroic made-for-TV movie shown only on primetime in the hopes of recruiting a mature audience. But it is not. In fact, it is just another Saturday-morning special of GI Joe, "The Real American Hero," that I watched with my brother and cousins. We were religious followers of the show, tuning in every week to see how Sergeant Slaughter, Duke and the rest of the gang would handle the likes of King Cobra and his cronies. GI Joe's early morning time slot encouraged kids, like us, to tune in every weekend. While eating our CheeriosTM and Frosted FlakesTM we got a dose of some real fightin' action, in excess o

Now that the extent to which the television is being watched has been established, and with some idea of just how much violence there is on an average day, it is time to look at an even more telling tale. Yes, we said that children may be subjected to more than six hundred acts of violence in a three-hour time period, but who's to say that these acts are in any way severe? Well, the truth is that while many acts are subtle in their appearance, they still have an overwhelming effect over time. This is not to mention the fact that the major acts of violence add up as well. By the time a child of today's world reaches the age of eighteen he will have witnessed over 8,000 simulated murders on the television. That is an average of 1.22 murders per day, counted from birth. What you see here is a repetitive bombardment of violence and violent material upon children. Seeing this every day gives it the same effect as eating, or sleeping; it's nearly habitual, which is a truly sad state of affairs. Getting into a habit of seeing murders and violence on television, is an obvious sign that should lead us to believe that it will influence children in a negative way.

f fifty violent scenes for the morning: there is more than enough to fill the appetite. The truth is, violence on television is on every single day. It takes its toll on society, especially children. The damage done by violence on television is detrimental and confirmed by statistics, case studies, and personal experiences.

The amount of studies showing that violence is a factor in the lives of children is just too large in number to even compare the reports that oppose it. To be honest, I have only shared a few statistics and studies with you. I could have rattled off a thousand; it is just not necessary though. I believe that you can agree with me when I say that violence on television is detrimental to the lives of children and that it has a bad influence upon them. You should agree with me, and if you do not, well I can not wait to hear about your child in the police blotter.

This may seem a little preposterous, or maybe even dumb. Regardless, the truth is that GI Joe partly formed my identity as a young child and the only reason I was able to later tell the right from wrong was because I had parents to tell me. My parents would often try to sit with me and watch a few shows, not for just their pleasure but rather to tell me what was fake and not to be repeated. Many children go without the parental supervision when watching television, and it leads to a lack of knowledge from determining right from wrong. They eventually forget the real and the fantasy, the violent and the non-violent. Now do not get me wrong, there are measures that prove and a few studies that show that with proper supervision children will not be affected by television violence.

1.Bajpai, S., & Unnikrishnan, N. (1996). The Impact of Television Advertising on Children. London: Sage Publications.

Fistfights, shootouts, car crashes, rapes... Take your pick. Violence is everywhere on television, sometimes gory

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2348
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)