The Effects of Television Violence on Children

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The Effects of Television Violence on Children

• Presentation by
• Jolene Goh, Rinda Yamashiro Jamie Dos Santos

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How many people own a TV set?

• 99 of American households have at
  least 1 TV set.
• 54 of children have a TV set in their rooms

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How much TV kids watch?

• The average American child watches 3-5 hours a
  day.
• Which means 28 hours a week.

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Violent content

• 57 of TV program contain violence
• Children programming contains 5 times more
  violence than prime time television.
• 25 of violent acts involve handguns
• Childrens TV shows contain about 20 violent acts
  each hour

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Time of day children are most likely to watch TV

• Saturday morning cartoon.
• Before they go to school.
• After school.

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Children...

• cant tell what is real from fiction
• - lack of real-life experience
• - believe what they see
• are visual learners
• - they imitate what they see

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How does TV violence mislead children?

• Violence is often rewarded and seldom has
  negative consequences.
• - 73 of perpetrators on TV are unpunished
  (National Television Violence Study, 1992)
• - Heroes are rarely unpunished
• - no bleeding, no one gets hurt
• - people killed just disappear

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• Violence is everywhere.
• mean world syndrome (Gurbner),
• violence or abuse is everywhere
• there is no good in this world
• Violence is justified.
• violence by good guys is justified and heroic
• a particular character gets beaten up because he
  is a bad guy
• Violence is funny.
• much cartoon violence used as comic effect
• its ok and no big deal for somebody to be
  smacked in the head with a hammer

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Four effects of media violence (by Ronald Slaby)

• an aggressor effect
• encourages violent behavior
• accepting violence as a way to solve problem
• a victim effect
• increasing fearfulness
• perceives culture of meanness

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• a bystander effect
• leads to callousness
• accepting violence as normal
• dulls the emotion response to violence and its
  victim
• an appetite effect
• builds a desire to watch more violence

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Other effects

• long-range effects (Leonard Eron)
• many hours of television view in elementary
  school
• lead higher level of aggressiveness behavior in
  teenage years
• children who watched a lot of TV when they were
  eight years old
• were more likely to be arrested and prosecuted
  for criminal acts
• when they become adults (observed the children
  until they were 30)

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CONCLUSION

• How to rectify the situation
• Movie/Show rating on TV
• TVY
• TVY7
• TVG
• TVPG
• TV14
• TVMA

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V-chip

• In 1996 Congress requires television manufacture
  to install V-chips into new sets.
• Helps parents monitor children viewing

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What parents can do...

• Talk to your children
• explain to them what they are seeing/experiencing
• watch at least one episode of the programs that
  your children watch
• outright ban any programs that are too offensive
• limit viewing hours
• encourage child to spend time on sports hobbies
  or with their friends
• draw up enjoyable activities

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Any Questions?