Problem of Children Living with Violence - Essay Example

Young children tend to be easily influenced by media for a variety of reasons. Children learn what is acceptable or unacceptable by what the media portrays as opposed to what the child’s parents are teaching (Anderson, Dill, 2002:773). According to Swearer and Doll (2001:25) “parents are no longer the strongest influential partner in a child’s life; it is the media personalities that children utilize to model acceptable or in some cases unacceptable behavior. Movies, music, and video games demonstrate that it is acceptable to murder or harm others.” The mass media also fails to follow through with the fact that a small child can not comprehend the ramifications of being injured during a violent act; it hurts and you may not survive (Swearer, Doll, 2001:25). Small children have difficulty differentiating between reality and fantasy. Many young children who have been brought into emergency facilities for treatment from these media-encouraged accidents tend to express with a shock that their injuries hurt. These children feel invincible. They believe you can get shot, stand up, and go on with your day (Grapes, 2000). Children also need to emulate, by emulating a figure; they learn. When parents are not involved and the media is raising children, it is natural for the child to emulate the media personalities. One of the largest problems with children emulating media figures is that there never seems to be ramifications for the actions. Children do not see that the bullet hurts; instead, they see the bullet hit a personality who does not appear to be in pain (Grapes, 2000).

 Children in general tend to be more emotionally upset by media violence than adults (Steyer, 2002). If a child views something that is overly traumatic, the child may feel a paralytic sense of fear (Steyer, 2002). This is due to children being unable to distinguish what is real and what is fantasy (Steyer, 2002). This is the same principle that the child is scared of a monster in the closet, the child knows that the monster isn’t there but they still have the immature reasoning ability to differentiate that the monster is fantasy and the closet is reality (Anderson, Dill, 2002:775).

“With all this knowledge, what is being seen is an increased number of children who have been exposed to violent media becoming more aggressive or violent in young adulthood” (Huesmann, Moise-Titus, Podoiski, 2003). As children become more violent, the risk for unintentional injuries increases (Gilk, D., Kinsler, J., Todd, W., Clarke, L., Fazio, K., Miyashiro, R., et al.). These trends across all socio-economic borders and include all children (Grapes, 2000). The one constant in all the studies conducted on these media violence studies is that the more time a child spends involved with a  violent form of media, the more aggressive the child becomes.  One particular study followed children from childhood to adulthood. The children who frequently watched media violence became violent adults (Huesmann, Moise-Titus, Podoiski, 2003). The extent of the violent behaviors ranged from road rage to murder (Huesmann, Moise-Titus, Podoiski, 2003). Domestic violence was one of the more prevalent forms of violent outbursts (Huesmann, Moise-Titus, Podoiski, 2003:210).

Educators, parents, and concerned citizens need to take an active role in preventing the impact of media violence on children. To help this process, The Parental Advisory Committee obtained legislation that requires a warning label on all music that contains questionable lyrics (Steyer, 2002). The movie industry has a rating scale that guides responsible adults as to what is appropriate or inappropriate (Steyer, 2002). Video game manufacturers have resorted to a rating system for all games. Television is the newest form of media to adapt age ratings for programming. All these measures are in place to protect children from unwarranted media effects (Grapes, 2000). It is, however, the parent or guardian’s position to be a responsible adult and screen what the child sees, hears, or plays (Grapes, 2000).

Despite these measures that have been taken to censor media from children, children are still being influenced by these media sources (Steyer, 2002). The sad truth is that violence, just like sex, sells. Sales generate revenue, revenue generates salaries, and salaries fuel the politics of media. Many music stores do not require identification from people purchasing music with explicit lyrics. In September 2000, the FTC reported that 80% of violent R-rated movies were aimed at children under the age of 17 (Steyer, 2002). Test marketing of new release movies rated as PG-13 is being test-marketed on children 8-12 (Steyer, 2002). A recent survey also notes that 80% of the popular video games produced by Sega and Nintendo were violent. More importantly, 21% of these games portrayed violence toward women (Anderson, Dill, 2000:785).

Despite media companies taking responsibility for rating systems, the media still denies that the products these companies produce cause violent behavior. One of the arguments for not banning violent media is video games allow kids to identify and belong with kids who are better athletes or more socially polished (Grapes, 2000).