Televisions Affect on Children

What is violence? Do you think that children who watch violence on television will show violent behavior? What about the terrible tragedies in which kids kill other kids, why? Many studies have been done to answer the question of television violence and its effects on children.

Studies have been done by scientists, pediatricians, and child researchers in many countries over the last thirty years. These studies have tried to find out what it is about television violence that makes it such a big influence on the way kids act and behave.

Television violence causes aggressive behavior in children

A shocking study by television researchers Bandura and Ross was done to get at the truth about the effects of television violence on children. They split a group of kids into Groups A and B. Next, they showed Group A a videotape of a child acting very aggressively with a doll. For example, the girl in the video hit and kicked the doll. The children in Group B were shown a tape in which the same girl was having a tea party with the same doll. Later in the experiment, they put the Group A kids in a room alone with an exact copy of the doll used in the video. Children in Group A responded by hitting and kicking the doll and acted aggressively. The children in Group B were also put in a room alone with the doll and they played very nicely with it. There are similar studies that show how violence on television increases the likelihood that children who watch will demonstrate aggressive behavior towards others. Children imitate what they see on television.

47% of violent television programs show the victim going unharmed, especially in cartoons.

The person in the cartoon or television show gets bowled over by another character and they get back up without being harmed. Children begin to believe that violence doesn’t really hurt others.

73% of individuals who commit crimes in cartoons and children's shows go unpunished in violent scenes

Television shows that allow the character who commits the crime to receive no punishment, teaches children that it is alright to commit a crime because nothing will be done. Criminals and violent acts do not get punished.

Violence is a good way to solve problems

Television is a powerful teacher and if children are always viewing their favorite characters using violence or aggression to get what they want, children will do the same.

Television creates heroes out of the people who commit the crimes

Kids feel that if they copy the criminal they will be a hero, too. The hero that commits the crime is glamorized. There is nothing heroic