This paper is going to explain how televised violence can contribute to aggressive attitudes and behavior in children. For the purposes of this paper, I would like to borrow the definition of violence used by the National Television Violence Study (1998). They defined violence as "any overt depiction of physical force--or the credible threat of such force--intended to harm an animate being or group of beings." Since 1985, television ownership has been about 98% (Bushman Anderson, 2001, p.477). As stated by the American Academy of Family Physicians, an estimated 54% of children can watch television in the privacy of their own bedrooms (2004). The amount and influence of violence on television has long been the topic of study and national debate. "For close to 30 years, dating from the 1960s to the Surgeon General's report in 1972, the National Institute of Mental Health report in 1982, and the American Psychological Association's report in 1992, more than 1,000 scientific studies have validated the premise that TV violence influences aggressive behavior in some children" (Shifrin, 1998).
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American Academy of Family Physicians
American Academy of PediatricsIt seems that violence and television are as inseparable as a baby and his pacifier. The National Television Violence Study reported that 61% of all television programs contain some violence (1998). According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the average child will have witnessed 200,000 acts of violence on television alone by the age of 18 (2001).
Television violence is so prominent in today's society that it is hard to shelter children from being exposed to it. The average child will watch an estimated 28 hours of television a week (Simmons, Stalsworth, Wentzel, 1999). Considering that a large portion of the programs a child is exposed to contains violence, it is very likely that a child will reflect violence in his or her attitude and...