The Role of TV and Movies

More children are watching violent and sadistic television programs and movies, and many authorities say that this is a factor in the increase of violence. In Australia, for example, a survey was taken of the viewing habits of about 1,500 children aged 10 and 11. The Australian film review board rated half of all the films the children had seen as unsuitable. Yet, a third of the children said that they especially enjoyed the violent scenes.

One explained: “I liked the part where the girl chopped off her dad’s head and ate it as a birthday cake.” Regarding another movie, a child said: “I liked it when the alien ate the lady’s head and kept on burping.” Still another child said: “I liked where they chopped a lady up and all white spurted out of her.”

The researchers concluded that as a result of watching this type of material, both children and adults are developing an appetite for violence. They also said that parents are being intimidated or seduced by strong social pressures channeled through their children to allow their children to watch such films.

Britain’s Independent Broadcasting Authority conducted a study of the effect of viewing programs featuring violence. Two million viewers, or 6 percent of the total audience, said that after watching crime programs, they sometimes felt “quite violent.” The Times of London, in its report of the findings, said that children fail to understand that screen violence is not real and have the impression that murder is a “day-to-day affair.” Is it any wonder that so many children are inured to violence and have few qualms about perpetrating it themselves?

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Television violence can promote real-life violence