Effects of Television Violence on Children

Effects of Television Violence on Children

In our society today, it is extremely important to pay attention to what influences children. One of the biggest influences America’s youth may have is the television. It is possible for children to be pulled into the television’s realistic world of violence with sometimes devastating results. The impact of television violence on youth behavior has been an issue for many years. Violent programs on television lead to negative behavior by children and teenagers who watch those programs.

“There can no longer be any doubt that heavy exposure to televised violence is one of the causes of aggressive behavior, crime and violence in society. The evidence comes from both the laboratory and real-life studies. Television violence affects youngsters of all ages, genders, at all socio-economic levels and all levels of intelligence. The effect is not limited to children who are already disposed to being aggressive and is not restricted to this country. The fact that we get this same finding of a relationship between television violence and aggression in children in study after study, in one country after another, cannot be ignored. The causal effect of television violence on aggression, even though it is not very large, exists. We have come to believe that a vicious cycle exists in which television violence makes children more aggressive and these aggressive children turn to watching more violence to justify their own behavior." said Leonard Eron, before the U.S. Senate Committee (qtd. in Levine 3). Many psychologists believe that children who are heavy viewers of violence on television may lose the ability to empathize, protest and to become distressed by real life acts of violence. Thus, children begin to become less bothered by violence in general and less likely to see anything wrong with it. However, television stations and their executives continue to deny TV's contribution to youth violence.

“Violence on television is damaging to children. Forty years of research conclude that repeated exposure to high levels of media violence teaches some children and adolescents to settle interpersonal differences with violence, while teaching many more to be indifferent to this solution” (Levine 3). Psychological research has shown three major effects of seeing violence on television: Children may become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others, more fearful of the world around them, and may be more likely to behave in aggressive or harmful ways toward others (A.P.A., par. 2).

Many people ask the question, “What are the long-term effects of violent television watching on children?” Research by Dr. James Cantor might help people better understand, the possible damaging effects television has on