Impact of Television Violence on Children

In this day and age, the television has become a regular fixture in every household. When it was first invented, it was primarily used as a medium of information and news and involved into daily fixture of a household used to entertain families at night and children on Saturday mornings. The amount of violence on the small screen at all hours of the day has become a major topic of debate for many people. According to the book Media Now: Understanding Media, Culture, and Technology, “effects on children are a special concern, because youngsters have trouble distinguishing between the real world and the world of the small screen. To the child’s mind, if the coyote character in the Saturday-morning TV cartoon recovers instantly from a bash on the head, then the same should be true for little brother.” It is an interesting point to consider and holds true to video games as well. If a child who has yet to fully develop a clear understanding of social norms and what is and what is wrong, then it is reasonable to assume that seeing an act of violence on the television or in video games may not register as something that does not coexist in the real world. Basically, “with short attention spans, young children are unlikely to associate the legal consequences that emerge in dull courtroom scenes at the end of the show with the eye-catching shootout at the beginning.”

Another major issue mentioned above about violence on television is when it occurs and on what shows. Many people would be interested to know that cartoon shows actually have more violence on them then most adult shows. Specifically, children’s television shows “have about eight acts of violence an hour” which is 3.5 more acts an hour than any adult, prime time show. To round-up the information given in the Media Now book, violence is all over many television shows and is not just a characteristic of adult shows. It is often seen in children shows and is downplayed only furthering confusion for some children on what is right and what is wrong. These statistics and facts have to make you wonder about what children see on television and how they interpret what they see. Media Now also states that “adult viewers who watch violent programs are likely to hold worldviews that match the TV portrayals they see.” It’s an important fact because if adults with fully developed brains see violence on television and relate it to the real world then it is not a stretch to assume the same for children.