Media'S Adverse Affect On Youth

Media's adverse affect on youth

We live in a world where we are faced with the threat of violence everyday. We witnessed live the terrible events of 9-11, and the news of the latest school shooting in Minnesota. We pray for the children kidnapped, and mourn when their bodies are found. We hear the latest trial news from child molestation cases. We live in a world where terrible violent acts occur every day, in all walks of life. Thanks to the media we hear and see these events as they occur. Violence is not only being brought into our homes by news anymore, it is being brought in by our entertainment. The television shows, cartoons, advertising, movies, computer and video games we use as entertainment are becoming more violent. This violence is being portrayed as fun entertainment and there is an increasing amount of violence that is being glorified rather than criticized. We are being exposed to more violence in today's media; with this increase in exposure to violence we are seeing an increase of negative effects in our children and adolescence.

To fully understand this we must first look at child development. Children from birth to six change and develop swiftly, the early experiences in their lives lay the foundation for later development. Child Development Scientists indicate that children are most susceptible to negative medial influences between the ages of birth to school age (Center on Media and Child Health, 2005). During this time of their lives they are establishing their personalities and social behavior.

Children between the ages of six and thirty months who viewed interactive educational programs like Dora the Explorer, Blues Clues, Arthur, and Dragon Tales had greater language development, while children viewing non-educational programming had a reduced vocabulary. In addition to increased lingual abilities, children who watched Blues Clues also scored higher on standardized tests (Center on Media and Child Health, 2005). This exemplifies the idea that children react differently to different types of media, as well as supporting the idea that positive programming can produce positive results; whereas neutral or negative programming could result in no or negative effects.

One-year-old children reacted negatively to an object that they saw an actress react negatively to in a video, two-year-old children who watched themselves on a live video for two weeks could locate an object hidden in the room after they saw an adult hide it (Center on Media and Child Health, 2005). Children learn the basics at early ages; hot is hot and cold is cold. The ideas of what is right and what is wrong are also implemented at this time. Girls can be taught at an early age to treat dolls with affection, while boys can be taught to be aggressive towards dolls. The same outcome can be achieved in the opposite order. This goes to show that children learn what they see, and without proper intervention, what will they choose to be the appropriate behavior.

Research has shown how television impacts the cognitive aspect of child development, but also shows how watching television impacts a child's physical health. The incidence of obesity increases for each hour of television watched, even children at four years of age showed a preference for food that they saw advertised in a video than children who had not seen the food advertisement (Center on Media and Child Health, 2005). This again supports the ideas that children are extremely influential, and the media uses these facts as tools to form opinions, for better sales of their products. Companies have researchers working for them that constantly searching for new ways to seize the interest of children for the means of advertising. They use these tactics to increase the number of long-standing customers, for the longer they have a customer the more profits will be made.

In addition to the food preference shown by four year olds, two year old children had a recognized belief about brands promoted by television. These children also displayed the ability to recognize brand logos, this ability increased with television viewing and age (Center on Media and Child Health, 2005). Children are impressionable and this is why parents need to sensor or explain the significance of the programming they are watching. If children as young as two years old can recognize and make opinions of brand names; imagine what else they are learning through the media.

Evidence shows that exposure to violent images on television, movies, video, and computer games have negative effects on children's thoughts, arousal, emotions, and increase their likelihood of exhibiting aggressive behavior, especially in boys (Browne & Hamilton-Giachritsis, 2005). In young children, violence has been shown to bring forth fear responses linked to Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. These behaviors occurred after just one exposure (Center on Media and Child Health, 2005). Children are progressively getting more violent as well as showing more social problems such as, depression, and anxiety. These problems in teens are getting to be more of a problem every year.

Children ages four to six years were shown five minutes of either an aggressive or a non-aggressive film. Those children exposed to the aggressive film were more aggressive with the play dolls provided them after viewing the video (Center on Media and Child Health, 2005).

I notice my own daughter, after watching me play with our family dog in a ruff or aggressive way, will imitate the same play behavior. The same effect is observed when I play with the dog in a caring and affectionate way. She will also be more affectionate and less aggressive. Children in play with their peers will imitate the same behavior they witness from day to day, whether it is viewed in real life situations, on television, in video games or through computer media.

A Global Media Violence Study showed that in urban and rural areas, 93% of children who attended school spent 50% of their relaxation time watching television (Browne & Hamilton-Giachritsis, 2005). In 1981, then chairman of the Federal Communications Commission gave television programs a high mark, and since that time the amount of violence has increased to a 20 year high with 32 violent acts being shown on Saturday morning programming, while there are an average of five acts of violence being committed on programming during primetime (University of Pittsburgh Office of Child Development, 1997). The television