Media Violence

According to the National Institute on Media and the Family sixty-one percent of television programs contain some sort of violence each day children are watching television containing violence and they are naturally drawn to it. I recently went to Dave and Busters with my little cousins, and they ran directly towards the games in which guns are involved. Needless to say I find it to be very alarming that whenever a child sees a gun they are drawn toward it. Media violence isn’t exactly a new thing it has been around since the coliseum, and today many children are affected at all ages by media violence, but they younger they are the more vulnerable they are as well. Media violence should be censored, and the public should be willing to risk the dangers of censorship.

Violence in the media has always been a problem. The earliest form of violence in entertainment took place way before television and video games; one has to look back to ancient Rome. As many as 50,000 Romans would gather in the coliseum, to watch gladiator fights mock naval battles, and wild animal hunts. Usually, the participants were slaves, prisoners, and volunteers. Spectators would watch and cheer during these gruesome fights, while up to 10,000 people would die.

Now Centuries later spectators no longer watch deadly fight in the coliseum; however, we are still exposed to graphic violence from television, video games, and other media outlets. One has to wonder how this exposure to violence changes human behavior. In 1982, The American Psychological Association conducted a study about the effects of media violence. The fifteen year long study tested childhood exposure to media violence on numerous girls and boys who are now men and women. This study has shown that the boys that are now men are more likely to push, grab, or shove their spouses. They are also more likely to be in jail for an aggressive crime. This study has also shown that the girl that are now women in their mid-twenties have thrown something at their spouses in response to someone making them mad. These women reported having punched, beaten, or choked another adult four times the rate of other women their age. Seven years later before the APA had their results Albert Bandura a psychologist and the former president of APA wanted to get a first hand look at media violence and the affects on children. Bandura Created the "Bobo Doll Experiment." During this experiment, several child participants observed an adult modeling aggressive behavior towards a plastic Bobo doll; they punched, kicked, and used toys as weapons against the dolls. After the children viewed the modeled behavior, they were put into a room full of toys that they could not touch. Since the kid could not touch the toys, they became very aggressive. After sitting in that room for a little while the children were then moved to a room where they could play with the doll identical to the ones shown in the video. Eighty-eight percent of the children imitated the aggressive behavior shown by the model in the video. Eight months later in 1990, Eighty-eight percent of the kids were gathered again and 40% of those kids were still using their aggressive behavior shown the first day of the study.

Studies similar to the APA and Bandura are out to prove that American media is the most violent on earth. Other countries in the world such as Japan also have a lot of violence, but there are differences. In Japanese films, the Japanese film directors' follow-up violent actions with horrible consequences. Where as American media no consequences are given 75% of the time, which leads kids to believe violence is acceptable.

In 1995 statistics show that children watched an average of 8,000 murders and 100,000 acts of violence on television before they finished elementary school. The National Institute on Media and the Family reported that by the time a child turns eighteen years old he or she will witness on television 200,000 acts of violence including 40,000 murders. Watching this kind of violence makes children scared and unsure of their surrounding. They are scared that their environment is unsafe. Lawmakers are trying to inform parents about what their children are watching. In 1998, President Bill Clinton made a law stating that the V-chip will be installed on all televisions. After the installation of the V-chip children that are exposed to media violence should decrease, if the parents care.

Then in 2002 cable television introduced parental controls. Parents are now able to block certain television shows and channels they do not want their children to watch. It is also very simple to unblock the shows and channels with a simple four of five number pass code, which allows parents to view television show they would not allow their children to view.

After doing research on the affects media violence has on children I came across this alarming story of a young girl named Jennifer who actually took her own life after imitated one of her favorite movie. Jennifer was infatuated with the movie “The Man in the Iron Mask.” Jennifer loved the princess that hangs herself in the movie. Jennifer’s mother noticed her re-enacting this scene a couple of times before and never thought anything of it until one day in 2003 when Jennifer acted out the scene and hung herself with a shoelace. Ever since she was four years old Jennifer always re-enacted scenes from movies, and he parents thought she knew pretend from reality. Unfortunately, they were wrong.

Also in 2003, Mario Padilla was found guilty of killing his mother. Padilla and his partner in crime and Cousin Samuel Ramirez were sentenced to life in prison with no parole. The teens claimed they were inspired by the movie “Scream” which came out four years prior to the murder. The teens stated they killed Ms. Costillo Padilla’s mother, to get money to buy the costumes identical to the one the killer wears in the movie “Scream“. The teens were not going to stop at Ms. Costillo they were planning on killing some of their classmates. It’s ironic how people say not to let your children to watch television at a young age, because it does really affect them.

Obviously violent images seen on television inspire children to be violent. The only people that defend media violence are the people that are making top dollar off the violence. Eighty-three percent of the American people wish the entertainment industry would voluntarily cut some of the sex and violence from television, movies and music lyrics. Something should be done about this problem that has over half of the American population worried.

It is believed that when children see teenage killers on television, they think if they kill the “mean” people