Introduction
In a recent study conducted by British researchers over 11,000 kids born between the years 2000 and 2002, it has been found out that children who spent over three hours watching TV are likely to develop hostile behavior such as stealing, bullying or fighting. There are numerous studies and surveys conducted over the decades which have demonstrated how watching age-inappropriate programs on TV could result in disturbing behavioral pattern in children. A research result shows that by the time a child finishes elementary school, he must have watched at least 8,000 murders on TV if not more. By the time he turns of age, an average American has viewed 200,000 acts of violence on TV. (Norman Herr) Multitudes of research and studies have proved that watching violence on TV leaves a deep-seated impact on the psychology of children and teens. Extensive watching of television violence subjects the children to grow violent streaks. They become aggressive and immune to the chilling content of violence and try applying the violence viewed on TV in real life. Especially children with emotional, psychological, behavioral and anger control problems are badly influenced by the violent shows on TV. The effect of TV violence may become conspicuous in the immediate future or may crop up in later years. This paper will discuss in detail the bad effects of watching too much television on children in general, how violence is promoted by media, the bad effects of TV violence, age and parental education influencing TV viewing and solution to control the exposure to violence.
Bad Effects of TV on Children
In the era of technological predominance, when children get exposure to high tech gadgets at young age, they are likely to incur the bad effects of the technology if allowed to use the gadgets unsupervised. Not only television, children these days spend a lot of time playing video games, using computers or flicking through cell phones. It is difficult for children to avoid television if the television remains 'on' throughout the day as is norm in some families. Many parents try to keep their children busy or engaged by letting them watch TV so that the parents can concentrate on their own work. TV is treated like a substitute babysitter. Usually children stop crying or nagging after their whole attention is grabbed by the idiot box, giving a respite to busy moms and dads. But gradually watching TV becomes an addiction and children cannot be fed or calmed down unless seated in front of TVs. Children who watch TV for hours acquire sleep problem, poor classroom behavior, poor grades, less of physical activity, overweight and antisocial behavior. According to Linda Pagani, a professor at the University of Montreal ""Kids should be doing things that are intellectually enriching: playing with board games, playing with dice, playing with things that will improve their motor skills, reading," but "all that is replaced by sitting on the couch." (Amanda Gardner, 2010)
When children remain busy watching the idiot box, lot of important activities that aid in the intellectual nourishment of the children and enhance their cognitive skill are bypassed. Studies show that engagement in long hours of TV watching hinder the growth of the pre-frontal cortex - the part of the brain that helps in organizing, planning, self-control, attention and moral judgment. A child learns a lot of things by interacting and playing with real people and things. A child develops the ability of using language and social skill through real life interaction with people. For example, TV doesn't engage a child actively in conversation where the child would get the scope of nurturing her language and comprehension skill. If the child would have played with real life friends and people then he would have participated in the active process of talking and listening.
TV takes away the time a child could have spent productively by reading which would have provided intellectual stimuli to hear brain helping her learn reading and writing fast. TV viewing also steals the time a child could have spent doing things that would have stimulated her imagination and analytical thought process, like drawing, jigsaw puzzles and so on. Excessive TV viewing also contributes to sedentary life style, binge-eating and obesity. Children who have unrestricted access to TV sets and computers are prone to watch age-inappropriate programs and play on the computers autonomously without any or less supervision. They skimp on their homework, indulge in porn viewing and practice a lot of unethical habits.
Media Promotes Violence
TV violence is promoted by the media channels as a lucrative way to earn money. There was a time when violence was limited only to imaginative stories on movies and television shows, but these days real life violence can be seen live on TV. Viewers of NBC network news witnessed a live incident of a man murdering his wife at a cemetery in Florida where they both gathered in order to finish the burial process of their teenage daughter who committed suicide. In a similar fashion, the live airing of a state official committing suicide by pulling the trigger into his mouth in Pennsylvania shocked many who were watching the program. The program was retelecast couple of times in uncut version later the same day with the sole purpose of earning more audience.
The trend of promoting violence by media has made real life criminals uber rich. The attempted murder case of Amy Fisher, the 17 years old "Long Island Lolita" had Hollywood agents and producers fighting to acquire right to narrate her story. A famous TV show called 'Hard Copy' aired between the years 1989 to 1999 paid $200,000 for getting hold on to that right. The Fisher incident earned about ten million dollars from books, TV movies, and tabloid shows. There is an array of such violent incidents which were similarly paid including the Menendez murders, Lorena Bobbit cutting off her husband's penis and so on. (Walt Mueller)
Effects of TV Violence on Children
Television presents a make-believe world. TV shows and commercials present violence, drug, alcohol and sex in a positive way. A lot of Hollywood movies show the negative streaks of their heroes in a macho way as if indulging in inappropriate behavior or violence is a cool way to deal with things. Children are impressionable. They cannot differentiate between right and wrong. They learn things by imitating others. Babies learn to talk by copying the sounds, sentences and words they hear from others. They learn everything about the world by imitation and that is why violence on TV is potent enough to influence their mental orientation. When a child views a hero beating up the wrong guy to teach a lesson in a cartoon or television show, he considers that as real and tries to implement that in real life. In New York, when a 16 year old boy was apprehended by the police for breaking into a cellar and questioned as to why he was wearing gloves, his answer gave away the telltale sign of TV violence affecting the children. He replied that he was wearing gloves so that his finger prints could not be detected and he learned the trick from a television show. In California, a 7 year old boy mixed powdered glass into the lamb stew that was cooked for dinner. When enquired of the reason of his action, he said that he wanted to see if the results in real life would be similar to what was shown on TV. In Alabama, when a nine year old boy received poor grade from his teacher, he suggested of taking revenge by murdering the teacher by a poisoned candy as he had seen on TV a day earlier. There are many such shocking instances of negative influence of TV on children ((Howe 72).
Since children cannot distinguish between right and wrong, real and unreal, the impact of television violence is too far-fetched on children. Television violence that is more brutal and atrocious in content than that of real life violence appeals children. For example, instead of traffic police handing out a ticket to a traffic violator, children will get pleasure if the traffic police would have battered the violator bloodily on street. Television shows and movies show a hero with violent streaks in a garb of glamor that dazzle the impressionable minds who begin to look upon the violent heroes as real life idols. In 2008, a fifth grade student Codey Porter died of injuries he suffered while imitating his favorite cartoon character "Naruto". Naruto is so popular among children that the character can be found in television series, video games and toys. (David Schoetz) One of the most violent television shows 'Beavis and Butt-Head' telecast on MTV in the 90's was ragingly popular among teenagers. The pre-show warning would tell the viewers about the characters not being real, but still the characters exhibiting violence by decapitating a praying mantis with a chain saw or setting fire to anything amused children who tried to copy the acts in real life. (Walt Mueller) A five year old boy influenced by the MTV characters on Beavis and Butt-head set his baby sister's bed alight with a cigarette lighter, killing her and burning his home down. In Ohio, three school girls set a house ablaze in their attempt at mimicking a scene from the same TV show.
Scientific Studies on the Effects of TV Violence
Researchers emphasize that too much watching of TV violence and playing violent games on computer may lead to three far-reaching harmful effects: 1) increase in violent streaks and aggressiveness, 2) desensitization to violence meaning becoming numb to the feelings of others and accepting violence as a way to solve problem and 3) an irrational fear of becoming a victim of violence. Researchers believe that children especially aged between 7 and 12 are more likely to get affected by the violence on TV because they are prone to take cartoon, TV and video game violence for real. A series of laboratory experiments done on children have proved that children become aggressive by watching violence on TV or video games. In a study a group of children who were made to watch a TV clip of a violent adult assaulting an inflatable doll showed violent streaks afterwards compared to the group who didn't see the TV clip. There are other studies which proved how violence on TV desensitizes children to real life violence. In one study a group of children were repeatedly made to watch Batman and Spiderman and another group Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood for many weeks and researchers found out that children who watched Batman and Spiderman behaved more aggressively with their friends whereas the group who viewed Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood became very agreeable and sharing in nature.
Age, Parental Education and Higher Study Plan Affecting TV Viewing
Studies have shown that children whose parents are highly qualified are less likely to spend hours watching TV than those whose parents are not educated that much. For instance, a study conducted among tenth grade students in 2011 came with the finding that 32% of students whose parents didn't complete graduation watched more TV than those whose parents have bachelor degrees.
Further, research has shown that as students mature, the amount of time spent watching television either declines. For instance, in a study conducted in 2011 it has been found out that 25% of eighth graders watched more hours of TV compared to 10th graders and 12th graders. Similarly, the plan of education almost influences the number of hours spent on viewing TV. Students who have plans to study in college watch less TV than those without any plan of earning college degree. For example, 39% of tenth graders with intention to study in college watch less hours of TV as opposed to 35% students who have no plans of studying higher.
Solution to Curb the Exposure of Children to TV Violence
In the wake of TV violence playing havoc in the minds of children and teenagers, parents are really concerned with their children's welfare. Since TV is an addiction which works like drug on those addicted, it is not very easy to get a child out of TV watching addiction. In such scenarios, parents should act very cautiously and in case of children' reacting violently to banning television at home, medical help should be sought. In order to prevent children from growing an addiction to TV or incurring the negative effects of TV viewing, parents should control the programs their children would be watching. Instead of leaving the children on their own in front of a TV, it is better to sit with the children and watch educational programs that will aid in their mental development. Parents also should restrict the TV programs that their children would be viewing by activating parental control that comes with almost all cable channels these days. They should ban violent programs, movies and Tv shows as much as possible and when required discuss with children about the reasons and consequences of violence. Frank discussion about the violence would inculcate in the children the judgment of distinguishing right and wrong. More importantly, parents should spend as much time as possible with their children and instead of encouraging them to watch TV or play games on computer for hours, parents should take their children out and involve them in real life game like soccer, tennis and swimming which would expose them to the scope of mingling with real life people and friends.
Conclusion:
Watching TV has a far-reaching influence on impressionable minds of children who cannot differentiate between the real and unreal and put themselves and others at risk by imitating the violent actions. Aggressiveness, hyperactivity, low concentration, overweight and lack of sleep are some of the problems incurred out of watching excessive TV. Media also plays a role in encouraging violent shows in order to gather more TRPs and audience. Therefore, parents should be very concerned about what and what not their children would be watching. They should talk to children frankly, control the TV programs and spend as much time as possible with the children in order to help them in their mental development. A lot of problems can be solved if parents instead of using TV as a substitute babysitter spend personal time with their children and watch educational programs on TV together.
Works Cited
1. Herr Norman, Television & Health, Retrieved on 2nd May 2013 http://www.csun.edu/science/health/docs/tv&health.html
2. Gardner Amanda, Kids' TV time linked to school woes, bad habits, May 3, 2010. Retrieved on 2nd May 2013 http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/05/03/kids.tv.school/index.html
3. Howe, Michael J. A. Television and Children. London: New University Education, 1977
4. Mueller Walt, WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT TV VIOLENCE Retrieved on 2nd May 2013 http://www.cpyu.org/Page.aspx?id=76734
5. SCHOETZ DAVID, Boy Mimicking Cartoon in Sandbox Stunt Dies, March 11, 2008. Retrieved on 2nd May 2013 http://abcnews.go.com/US/MindMoodNews/story?id=4430328&page=1#.UYLC6De6bIU
6. The Media Made Them Do it, Retrieved on 2nd May 2013 http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/20/media_influence1.html
7. TV Violence, Spring 2003. Retrieved on 2nd May 2013 http://www.kff.org/entmedia/upload/key-facts-tv-violence.pdf
