Violence on Television
The Power Rangers, Batman and Robin, and the six O'clock news; what do all these television programs have in common? They all show violence on television which children tend to imitate. What children observe on television is not beneficial to their lives. They cannot determine if this imitated behavior is right or wrong. Violence on television displays wrong doing to children and infers that the actions characters perform are allowed in society. This is why I feel that violence on television has a detrimental effect on children ages three to ten. I am not saying that all television programming is detrimental to all of today's youth, only that most of the television programming is harmful for those ages three to ten to view. These children do not need to see violence every time they turn on the television. Young people have no idea how to interpret what they watch on television. It is proven that "only five years after television was first introduced in the United States, violent crimes increased 25 percent" (Abelman, 1992, p.5). "The average American preschooler watches more than twenty-seven hours of television per week"(Abelman, 1992, p. 4). With these averages being so high, children should be watching television pro
Abelman, Robert. (1992) Television and the Exceptional Child: A Forgotten Audience. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum. Due to the fact that the number of violent shows have increased on television, I feel that violence on television has a harmful effect on children. The number of teen related homicides have been increasing steadily every year due to violence on television. Even if one life is saved from violent programs not being shown on television during hours that children watch television, then that is sufficient. To resolve this problem I would put the more violent shows, movies, and the news on at a later time when most children are asleep. If we cannot protect society's youth, then what will become of this society in the future? Beckman, Jeanne D. Ph.D. Television Violence: What the Research Says about Its Effect on Young People. (1996, January) [Online]. Available: http://ecrips.ed.uiuc.edu/npin/respar/texts/media/ tvviod96.htlm [1998, March 20]. Dorr, Aimee. (1986) Television and Children: A Special Medium for a Special Audience. California: Sage Publications. "We may expect young children to be able to imitate what they see on television because it is by imitation in play that they gain experience of the roles they are likely to enact in the future"(Noble, 1975, p. 126). When watching a simple show like Cowboys and Indians, in order for the "good guy" to win an Indian must be killed. This is teaching our youth that killing is justified if the bad guy is the one that dies. Children hold the view that, "all the good people have to kill the bad people; you cannot really talk to a bad guy - you must shoot them"(Noble, 1975, p. 86). This type of thinking comes directly from the teachings of television programs such as all Warner Brothers cartoons. With thi
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Approximate Word count = 1215
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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