With all the technological advances present today, youths are exposed to more violent images than ever before. The content is the most realistic there has ever been, and are made readily available to children of all ages. Has the media gone too far? Can we no longer simply label it entertainment? Must we begin to render the content dangerous? Or are people overreacting, and simply looking for some scapegoat to explain violence and danger in today's society?
Two professors of communication have voiced their arguments in the book titled "Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Mass Media and Society." James Potter believes that television is harmful to children; while there are other factors that, of course, contribute to the impact, television and the media are the major factors in aggressive and violent behavior in children. Potter's view supports technological determinism, which is a theory that states that technology is the driving force that influences society more than any other factor. Jib Fowles, on the other hand, believes that television is not harmful to children. He adamantly states that correlational data can not prove any positive relationships between the amount of violent television programming watched and the violent behavior exhibited by otherwise vulnerable and impressionable children. Family life (how the children were raised, and the morals and values instilled on them by their parents and peers), predisposed personality traits (if they already have aggressive tendencies, or are cognitively underdeveloped), and unreliable experiments (children are not in their natural environments in laboratories where they are forced to watch television for the experiments) overrule the argument that the media has such a major effect on children. What do you think?
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I believe that the violence present on television, in movies, and in video games certainly does play a part in the violence and aggression seen in children today. While I believe this is not the only part, it is certainly a major contributing factor. Showcasing violence like it is a normal part of everyday life gives children the wrong impression. When you see something every day you begin to believe that it is okay. This is most likely why younger children are becoming more and more violent and aggressive. I believe violence should be toned down as much as possible in the media and consequences for such actions should be shown so children understand that violence is not acceptable and is punishable. Parents also have to be the own judge of what they believe is and is not acceptable for their young children to be viewing and monitor their children’s behavior to assure that the violence they see on the television and in video games is not being main streamed into their own actions.
ReplyDeleteI have often wondered if television shows influence the actions and behaviors of children. Shows like Law & Order SVU and Criminal Minds are entertaining to an extent, but can occasionally cross the line. If children and young adults are surrounded by the violent images on the television from day one, it seems to me that they are more likely to commit violence some day in their life. Violent television, and even music, is not teaching positive values or morals; it is simply reinforcing negativity and brutality in children’s minds.
ReplyDeleteI think the violence definitely has an impact on young children. It might not be a bad or good impact but it definitely has one. There was a study done in the 1950s called the Bobo doll experiment. This psychological experiment split kids into two different groups: one in a room with a passive adult the other with an aggressive adult. The passive adult didn't hit the Bobo doll and said nice things to it while the aggressive adult punched, kicked, and yelled at the Bobo doll. The kids were then placed in a room with the Bobo doll and the ones that viewed the aggressive adult punched, kicked, and yelled at the Bobo doll. While this experiment was not on TV I feel that it is the same for TV and music.
ReplyDeleteViolence in the media plays a huge role in young people's behavior. Video games, movies, and tv shows glorify different aspects of violence. Basically, this shows childrent that this is acceptable and tolerated. The video game Grand Theft Auto is a prime example of this. The video game allows the character to kill, beat up, and run over prostitutes, pedestrians, and other people.
ReplyDeleteThe United States has banned a game from Japan called "RapeLay", which is a simulation rape game. The game also forces abortion. The women is stalked by the man and then he uses his force upon her. The game makes rape look acceptable and moral and essentially, fun. Personally, that is sick and disturbing.
http://www.thefrisky.com/post/246-video-game-allows-players-to-rape-and-force-abortions/
I do believe violence on the internet, in movies, on tv and video games influences children. I believe the influence has led to the bad in the children. A new game, that could possibly influence children would be zombies. Even at school, I hear of so many people playing this game. The goal of the game is to keep killing more and more zombies. How horrible? That "rapelay" game just seems horrible as well, I don't know why people would even come up with a game like that.
ReplyDeleteI do think that parents have a responisbilty in the influence over their children. If parents control what their children watch or play they might not get influenced in a violent way. Also, parents can just teach their children not to be violent like the video games, tv shows or movies.
Overall, children are influenced by the violence in videogames, television and movies.
I agree that violence isn't a good things for kids to be seeing, however I don't think that it is the main problem for violence in our world today. Like television, movies, music and books contain violence and there’s really no way to end the violence kids see. While I don't support the violence, I feel as though most of the violence that is seen on television is geared towards an older crowd. Channels such as Disney don't put in the violence that abc would. I feel as though it is up to a parent to censor what a child can see. I've grown up watching shows such as CSI and it hasn’t affected my thinking. If anything, it has showed me how terrible violence is. Therefore, while I think that violence shown on television is bad and can affect young adults in a negative way I don't think it's fair to make the assumption that a show can be responsible for a child’s negative thinking.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely believe that violence in the media has an impact on children today. It is not their fault though. They are exposed to it day to day and in order for them to feel like children, they may act as their violent role models do on t.v. shows and video games. Parents may try to avoid this all together by either removing it from the child's life, or not allowing them to even watch t.v. in the house. The problem with this is that children may become socially awkward, or they may find other ways to go behind their parents backs and watch the shows or play the games. In my gender class we also learned how boys are brought up to play video games that are masculine, hence the violence, and girls are brought up to play with dolls that are feminine. It is in our childrens' upbringing to be exposed to the violence in our world today. As sad as it is, it will never disappear.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the developmental stage of a child's life is a crucial time. I agree with both Potter and Fowle. I think that children do learn a lot from their parent's and how they are raised, but at the same time if the parents don't really censor anything for their children and subject them to everything, then the children will begin to learn from the media because the parents aren't there to let them know what is moral and what is not. As a society, I think we rely too much on the media and let it affect out lives. So in that aspect Potter is right...in the absense of parents or authorities to teach us what is right, we treat things such as violence, drugs, eating disorders etc. to be norms of society or justify them because people on TV do it.
ReplyDeleteI believe that violence in television does play a part in children reacting violently, but not every tv show has that affect. The child would not be acting agressively if they are watching the proper tv shows for their ages, but if they watch channels they are not suppose to be watching, it will surely have an impact on them. Parents should deffinately pay more attention on what the children are watching, and making sure they learn something from it.
ReplyDeleteOur world today consists of movies and television shows that glorify violence and teach the younger generation that there is violence everywhere in life. Most video games, that children begin playing at such young ages, are centered around guns and killing, and points are received by being the most brutal or vulgar player. While I believe that these media portrayals have a large influence on younger children, I do not believe that they are the only reason children have more violent tendencies now then they may have years ago. The biggest thing that causes children to be more violent, in my eyes, is that parents do not speak to their children enough about the topics. It is the parents responsibility to deal with the things that their children watch, and to tell them that these images they see are not realistic or acceptable in real life situations. Negative images are everywhere, and it is important for parents to talk to their children and teach them what is right and wrong in the world of violence and aggression. The increase in violence seen in children, in my opinion, is caused by a combination of violent media and a lack of appropriate parental conversation.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I believe that young children should not be watching violent programs or playing violent videogames. It is up to the parents discretion, but lets think logically; would you want to see your child blowing other people up in a videogame? There is a reason why the rate videogames for age appropriate levels, same goes for television programs. Would you want to see your child watching a violent show when they aren't even old enough to understand what is going on? I hope your answer would be no.
ReplyDeleteLike so many others, I agree that violence in the media is definitely a contributing factor to the violence in today's society. Children see violence everywhere: on tv shows, in video games, and while watching the news. The problem is that by portraying so much violence in the media, this violence seems to be almost glorified. Children look up to their favorite WWE wrestlers or they wish to be like the characters in their video games.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I also believe that parenting is another factor in whether children are brought up to glorify violence. Many parents have become much more relaxed about the type of violence that their children see. They have the attitude that "it's just a tv show/game" and that their child will know that this type of violence is not okay in real life. Until parents start censoring the amount of violence their child is exposed to in the media, children will continue to feel like they can imitate that violence.
I believe that violence in the media does not affect the way a child acts out. It is predetermined through their early childhood and how they are raised which is the influence of how they act. The way that a parent raises the child and the developmental status of the family is a main factor. If there is aggression at home or parent issues, then the violence in the media only adds to the problem. The violence is not the only present reason. No matter if the kids watch television with violence or not, they will always see violence because it is in the paper and regular news as well. Many children who watch violent programs do not outrageously act out, so I do not believe it can be the reasoning of early childhood violence.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that someone's nature to be violent is just purely that--nature. If a child is aggressive or high tempered, they may grow up to be violent. Also, if a child is brought up in a disfunctional home they may learn to be violent through example. I do not think that video games or violent tv shows are the cause of crime or violence. I do however think that aggressive media desensitizes the public and their view on how bad some behaviors truly are. For example, a child may know that hitting their friend is wrong but may not think it is THAT bad because they saw their favorite cartoon character do it on TV earlier. All in all, I think that violence in the media is a factor that could make children more violent, but I definitely don't think it is the cause of violence
ReplyDeleteI don't believe that violence in the media is the only thing that cause children to be violent but, it does have a major influence over them. Children are surrounded by violence on T.V, in the news, video games and even in sports that they start at a young age. Although all of these influence children, they have to have an original state of violence in them which could be from a birth defect or something like a disfunctional home life. Violence in the media does not necessarily create violence in the youth it more so promotes it or arises ones original violence. I do believe that children should be sheltered from the violence in the media more though. A lot of video games and t.v shows should not be allowed to be seen by younger children by any means and needs to be better censored by the media itself and the families of the children.
ReplyDeleteLike many of the other people who commented I feel like violence on television, in movies and video games play a major role in children’s lives. Children are surrounded by all of this violence all the time. By playing a video game where you kill people or watching a movie where there is a lot of violence it can influence or even teach the child that this is the way to behave or acceptable. Young children are very impressionable and by watching this material and being surrounded by it it could lead to them actually committing these violent crimes. I think that ratings on these products have to be enforced more. Also, it will take the parents help, or whoever is providing this violent material to stop it. Violence in the media has to decrease dramatically. Some of these programs and movies might be entertaining but what risk are you taking by exposing these children to them? This is a big issue that has to be handled before anything extreme happens.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I dont think that children should watch violent shows on tv. However, the violent shows are on all the time and are very accessible to the kids. I think that the biggest issue with violence is in video games though. In video games the user actually gets to control the person while they kill people. I think that this has more of an effect on the kid because it is basically like they are the ones actually doing the killing. Although there is a rating system that is used for video games, the kids will still find a way to play them.
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