Cartoon violence is a topic of great concern among parents and child-care experts. Concern has also been expressed regarding the war-toy advertisements which are shown during televised cartoon programs. It is feared that such violence will have a detrimental impact on the attitudes and behaviors of young children. In terms of attitude, repeated viewing of cartoons and war-toy ads may have the impact of desensitizing children to violence. In terms of behavior, there is evidence that the viewing of televised violence causes children to imitate the actions that they see on the screen. Lilian G. Katz of the University of Illinois, for example, is convinced that "children's exposure to violence on television has long-lasting effects on their behavior" (Katz, 1991, p. 113). The threat of cartoon and war-toy violence has caused many advocate groups in America to seek reforms in the television industry. For example, the NCTV (National Coalition on Television Violence), the NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children), ACT (Action for Children's Television), and the PTA (Parent-Teacher Association), have all been involved in the fight to regulate the amount of violence which is broadcast during children's programming. There are some experts who disagree with the perspective of these groups. For example, some researchers have argued that cartoon violence has a "catharsis" effect which actually helps to relieve violent emotions rather than create them. Nevertheless, the majority of the experts today agree that there is a definite correlation between violence on TV and aggression in children.
A case example of the way in which violent cartoons encourage aggression in children can be seen in the observations of Dr. Lee Salk, a pediatric psychiatrist at New York Hospital's Cornell Medical Center. Salk has reported that, following viewing of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon show, many mothers have seen "thei...