Television Violence

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December 12, 1996

Television Violence

Violence in television, is it turning our children into violent, destructive, and

hateful toddlers. Yes or no? In today's society television plays such a big role in our

everyday lives that it is hard to see if it effects our children's behavior. Television has the

potential of being a very constructive learning tool, if used correctly. On the other hand if

used in a destructive manner it could, hypothetically, turn our children and future leaders

of tomorrow into deadly hate mongers. I believe that television does effect the way people

think and behave.

In a survey given in 1978 at an unnamed college in Washington D.C., when asked

if what was seen on T.V. effected the way they acted ,2% thought it did ,7% didn't know

and ,91% didn't think it effected them at all(2). In 1993 a similar survey was given in

London by the Broadcasting Standard Council( BSC ).

When people were asked if they

thought T.V. effected the way people behaved 41% said yes, 4% left without finishing the

survey, and 55% said that they didn't think it effected the way people acted(14).

As seen in the survey the problem of television violence is being made more aware

to the people of the world. The problem has also grown over the years to a more serious

dilemma making the government start to try and solve the problem by initiating laws in

which television stations must limit violence on T.V.(6). It is still not enough though the

problem must be taken care of promptly before it changes society as a whole. If the

problem is not taken care of swiftly then it could effect the future of the world by having

violence rampage the streets of our towns.

In the past when television was first invented it was a much happier time. people

could walk on our streets without having to care if they were going to make it home alive.

I'm not trying to say that television is the reason that society today is so dangerously

violent, but as violence on television evolved so did the violence on our streets.

In the past there were not as many violent T.V. shows if there were even any. Also T.V.

was more of a family recreation, most families could only afford one T.V. set so when

children watched T.V. they were supervised by their family making violence almost an

impossible thing to see if parents were not interested. Today, there are an average of three

televisions per household so it is harder for parents to make sure their children are

watching suitable programs. This also makes it easier for a child to watch unsuitable

violent television shows(7).

In today's society violent acts occur commonly that can be linked to television or

movies. In December of 1993 a young ten year old child after watching an episode of

Beavis and Butthead went into his two year old sisters room and lit her baby crib on fire.

This not only burnt the house down , gave the ten year old kid serious third degree burns,

but also killed the two year old baby by burning to death(8). Also in October of 1993

after watching a movie intitled ' The Program ' a handful of college kids mimicking a

scene from the movie laid down in the middle of a busy intersection and dodged traffic.

This little sheraid killed two of the kids, gave another two serious injuries which put them

in the critical care unit of the hospital for a month before recovering , and gave one

student a fractured collar bone and multiple fractured ribs(15). Because of these two

incidents and many more television violence has been brought to the attention of the

citizens of the world. It has also grabbed the attention of the United States government.

Since these occurrences the government has strengthened there hold on the collar of the

television stations around the U.S. by making stricter restrictions on T.V. shows(3).

In the future, The government has put together laws that they would like to pass to

limit television violence. Such rules are 1) A set of 1-800 numbers for parents to call to

get information on T.V. shows that contain violence. This way the parents can choose or

limit the viewing of violent programs for there children. 2) Also there would be a count of

violent incidents in a show before each program on the television, this would also allow

parents to regulate children's viewing. 3) Violence warnings would be shown before each

show containing violence ( This is already done with most television stations ). 4) The

government would monitor promotional spots for violent shows. The government would

prohibit a commercial for violent television shows until an hour later in the evening when

children are asleep. 5) There would also be the organization of a presidential commission

to identify other potential solutions to television violence. 6) Finally, there would be a

disallowance of tax deductions for the cost of advertising on violent shows(9). Also there

is anew invention out called the V-chip that would be put into all new television sets. This

invention takes signals sent from the television stations, and then translates them telling

the T.V. if there is violence in the television show being watched. Then if the parents want

to program the T.V. set to not show violent material the T.V. blacks out such material

preventing children to watch(13).

There are many arguments why television can't be completely abolished. One of

these reasons is the constitution. The first amendment states freedom of speech, this is

the biggest reason for television stations to continue delivering violent programs to are

homes through television sets. Any time the government makes a substantial move

towards relieving the problem of television violence the television stations cry out that it

is interfering with their right to freedom of speech(5). This may be true but where in the

constitution does it state that we can not have the choice to choose what are children can

watch. The T.V. stations believe that it is are right to choose what we watch, but the best

way to do this is not by limiting what the stations can show but by screening television

viewing in the home by the parents. Many people feel the same way, in a book intitled

Classroom Combat teaching and television by Maurine Doerken she writes that it is not

the responsibility of the television stations to keep children from watching violent shows,

but is the responsibility of the parents to teach their kids to turn such garbage off

themselves(4). Another argument for the television stations is that children here violent

terms and see violence any way so why take it off the air. This argument states that

children at school hear such terms as 'drop dead out-fit ', and ' break a leg ' so why stop

it on television . They also state that at schools children see fighting and hate between

other students so why don't people try and ban violence at school before they try to ban

anything else(1). Television stations also fight that there is no substantial evidence saying

that violence on television directly effects the way people and children act, and until there

is they refuse to take such violence off the T.V.(11). Although all these reasons if looking

at them from their point of view sound good enough there are also some very good

reasons to put a stop to television violence.

First there are the stated deaths of many adults and children that can be linked back

to a scene from a television show or just the show itself. Included in these are the ones

mentioned earlier in this paper, but there are also more. Such as: In 1990 when the movie

'Natural Born Killers' came out two kids one male one female went on a killing spree

stating they had gotten the revelation after watching the movie, in which to similar people

go around killing person after person just for fun. Also after the movie 'Dracula' was

released three teenage kids in Florida killed a tourist and tried to suck her blood. There are

also many more accounts of incidents such as these all relating to a movie or television

show that contained a violent nature. All these violent occurrences and yet television

stations see no direct relation between them and television? Another thing is that when the

constitution was written there was no such thing as television, so how can that be used as

an excuse to keep violence on television(12). T.V. stations also suggest that it is not there

responsibility to teach children what is right and wrong, but it is the responsibility of the

parents. This may be true but with so many families with two working parents it is almost

an impossible feat to regulate what their children watch, so there has to be some kind of

regulation on the violence to keep the children from getting these horrible ideas in their

head. Television violence is a problem, there is no possible way to say that it isn't. We

have to stop that problem, and the only way to do so is to put tougher restriction's on

television stations.

There is no doubt that television and movies can be used to help children as a

learning tool. In New Mexico, an organization offers entertaining alternatives to television

violence, to families afflicted by violence. This organization puts video's out so parents can

give their children something to watch other than the violent material on television(10).

Organizations such as these are great. They are trying to help the youth of today before

the problem gets to big.

In conclusion, I hope that this information given can help show the problems with

television violence. It is said that by the time children graduate from high school they

would have seen eight-teen thousand murders or other violent acts on television(10).

That is to many acts of violence to not effect the way children or adults behave.

There must be something done before it's to late, and our children grow up violent, non-

caring, hate filled people. We must stop it now or in the future, our future leaders who

are the generation X , who learned from watching television well be terrible people doing

terrible things around the globe. It is not to late we just have to get busy and make things

right, starting now.