Condemning media violence isn't very intellectually fashionable these days. It puts you in the camp of puritans, orthodox pressure groups, censorship advocates, tabloid readers and Shirley Jones. But, increasingly, good conscience forbids any other position. Something profound is happening out there.... The schoolyard killing sprees that have taken place since 1996 are of a sort never before seen: they're not gang or race-related, but random, rural and retributive. The attackers are usually tortured outsiders dramatically evening the score; in virtually every case they're obsessed with violent pop culture (Grierson 1).

The violence in today's mass media is unavoidably corroding the ethics of impressionable children.

Communications technology is expanding through the entire global community. Children everywhere are being born into a world of images and messages, which are largely separated from their home, school and spiritual lives. In society toda

Social scientists and child advocates have been exploring the effects of media for decades, yet it is only recently that the concern has generated a public debate. Historical disagreements concerning the effect of violence revealed in works of art and entertainment have resonated over the centuries. We must ask ourselves whether or not our versions of entertainment exhibits any more violence than past forms of recreation, for example gladiatorial games or public hangings. Plato viewed human life as a pilgrimage from the appearance to reality. He also believed that a piece of art had to be strictly censored when they depicted any form of evil and cruelty. When an artist imitated what was bad, they add to the sum of badness in the world. Both Plato and Aristotle pointed out that we as humans do find delight in representations of objects and emotions that would consider different from real life; most of us agree with Aristotle in refusing to believe that they are corrupt (Bok 3, !

Since television is frequently used by parents as a babysitting device there is a lack of interaction between child and parent. On average, between 1960 and 1992 children lost ten to twelve hours per week of parental time (Bok 54). Children who are more closely identified with either parent are less aggressive; when a child is given the opportunity to spend quality time with their parents their level of aggression is reduced. A clear-cut answer would be to eliminate violent programming from television, but violence sells. From the business prospective, violence sells and more viewers means higher ratings. This is especially the case during prime time, within one hour you can witness 8 -12 acts of violence. This is not just the case for adult programming. The Annenberg School of Communications found that violence in children's programming is at an all time high, with 32 acts of violence per hour. Professor Centerwald of the University of Washington predicted that is television !

Within the years prior to adolescence, changes in their cognitive functioning changes the child's ability of understand and decipher situations in the media. Before the age of eight a child is most likely to interpret situations based on the obvious face value. For younger children, contextual variables appear important in determining the impact of the exposure to violence. When violent actions are either rewarded or not punished, which is the case in electronic games, the probability of imitating the behavior increases. Electronic games differ from other forms of media in that they are interactive, repetitive, and there is a reward. Especially in the recent years computer and other such electronic games have become quite popular. There have been many concerns brought up about the influence of these games and whether or not the games should be censored (Herr 296).

Throughout the world, cultural, social and economic patterns of transformation

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Approximate Word count = 1965
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)