Violence On Tv Violence example essay topic
As adults we think that watching TV won't effect us since we are older, but for younger children when they see someone die or get beat up they think it is cool. Children are very easy to mold into what you want, how many times have you noticed a younger brother or sister imitate their older sibling. TV can have the same effect, for example a 10 year old boys favorite show was WWF wrestling and one day after watching he tried one of the moves on his little sister and killed her. Violence on TV is at an all time high and we need to do something about it to protect the innocence on incoming generations. Since we live in a violent society, we " re constantly hearing arguments that seeing TV violence, particularly as kids, desensitizes us so we accept real violence to the point that it even triggers real violence. Hundreds of studies of the effects of TV violence on children and teenagers have found that children may: o become 'immune' to the horror of violence o gradually accept violence as a way to solve problems o imitate the violence they observe on television; and o identify with certain characters, victims and / or victimizersThis is true to an extent; not all children are effected by all the violence on TV but a large percent are.
There were twice as many violent scenes in entertainment shows in 2001 as there were four years earlier, according to the Broadcasting Standards Commission. More violence is shown before 9: 00 than when most younger children are asleep. There was an average of 5.2 violent scenes per hour on American TV in 2001, compared with 4.1 in 1998, the report said. During Prime time shows, the average amount of violent scenes went up from 1.9 to 3.7 per hour in 2000. This is a huge increase and something needs to be done about it. Television show producers need to understand that children are to easily influenced by the images they see.
According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, extensive viewing of television violence by children causes greater aggressiveness. Sometimes, watching a single violent program can increase aggressiveness. The show on television that has produced the most violent acts is wrestling. There have been countless accounts of kids hurting each other after watching wrestling. Professional wrestling has even influence entire underground scene of backyard wrestling. For example a study was done by sitting two kids in a room for an hour, and after watching the kids had an increased aggression towards each other and tried what they had just seen on TV with each other.
Another large problem with wrestling is at what time the shows are televised. The UPN network's WWF Smackdown time placement is during the so-called 'family hour' which virtually guarantees that kids will make up a large percentage of viewers. Parents need to keep careful eye over what their children watch on TV. The United States has even set up a rating system that shows up before every show to facilitate parents' decisions on whether to allow their children to watch certain programs. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry believes parents can protect children from excessive TV violence in the following ways: o pay attention to the programs their children are watching and watch some with them o set limits on the amount of time they spend with the television; consider removing the TV set from the child's bedroom o point out that although the actor has not actually been hurt or killed, such violence in real life results in pain or death o refuse to let the children see shows known to be violent, and change the channel or turn off the TV set when offensive material comes on, with an explanation of what is wrong with the program o disapprove of the violent episodes in front of the children, stressing the belief that such behavior is not the best way to resolve a problem o to offset peer pressure among friends and classmates, contact other parents and agree to enforce similar rules about the length of time and type of program the children may watch Violence on TV is a trend sweeping over America.
Its sole purpose should only before the entertainment of adults not for children who are very impressionable. TV violence has produced many abnormal mindsets in children. What needs to be done is for parents and TV producers to keep in check how much violence they allow their children to watch or how much violence they place during primetime programming.