Television Violence and Its Effects on Children Essay -- Argumentative

Television Violence and Its Effects on Children Television violence affects all who view it, but its biggest effect is on children. Children’s minds are like a blank page. Television is writing violence on that page. Television violence is one of the causes of aggression and violent behavior in children. This problem is not new, but in recent years it has gotten worse. In the last few years, violence in television programs has increased greatly. A study in 2000-01 compared to a study done in 1998-99 showed that violence is, in fact, on the rise. Verbal violence, coarse language, alone increased by a staggering 78% (Lavers). How did violence become so prevalent on television? Sadly, violence is what the people wanted to see; it sells. Society has slowly put its guard down allowing violence to creep in. Now we are faced with this detrimental situation which we have created. Young children, starting at about age three, begin to really watch a television program designed for their age. They will begin to imitate what they have seen on the television. Children ages six through about ten often do not fully understand the difference between reality, and what they see on T.V. (Ledingham). With that in mind, consider the violent content in television programs. A recent content analysis, The National Television Violence Survey, had several interesting findings in regard to violence in television programs: 1. 61% of television programs contain some violence, and only 4 percent of television programs with violent content featured an â€Å"antiviolence† theme. 2. 44% of the violent interactions on television involve perpetrators who have some attractive qualities worthy of emulation. 3. 43% of violent scenes involve humor either... ...iolence†. Mar. 1995. Media Awareness Network. 30 Oct. 2002 Kirkey, Sharon. â€Å"Violent TV, Video Games Don’t Make Kid Kill.† 20 May 2002. CanWest Global Communications Corp. 30 Sept. 2002 Lavers, Daphne. â€Å"The Verdict on Media Violence†. 13 May. 2002. Regional Business News. 30 Sept. 2002. Ledingham, Jane. â€Å"The Effects of Media Violence on Children.† The National Clearing House on Family Violence. 13 Sept. 2002 Office of the Surgeon General. 13 Sept. 2002. U.S. Government. 28 Sept. 2002 Virtue Media. 2002. Virtue Media. 28 Sept. 2002