Children and Media Violence

Moreover, a national study conducted by the University of California's Center for Communication and Social Policy (1998) that evaluated for the effects of 10,000 hours of broadcast programming, videos, and video games from 1995 through 1997 found that interpersonal violence was often portrayed in either an entertaining or glamorized manner. In addition, it was observed that the heroes in stories were often likely to use violence to resolve problems.

Findings such as those delineated above have led to speculation as to whether media violence does harm to children. The thesis of this paper is that media violence does do harm to children in several different ways. The next section of this paper presents the pertinent research in the area.

Research on the Effects of Media Violence on Children

According to Freedman (2002) it is not media violence itself that harms children but rather their prolonged exposure to it. When exposure is long enough, media violence will, Freedman states, harm children in a variety of ways. First, it will harm children by teaching them that violence

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ol began to fight more frequently and their fighting behaviors were similar to the kind of behaviors they witnessed on the WWF. These included: ..banging heads, throwing opponents to the floor and jumping onto them from furniture, poking their eyes with fingers, pulling their hair, and grabbing their genital areas. Almost half of the responding principals reported that these new behaviors had necessitated first aid within the school, and almost one-fourth reported injuries (including broken bones, loss of consciousness, and concussions) that required emergency room visits or professional medical care. (p.1) Cantor (2002) points out that children become more prone to commit violence not merely by copying the behavior they are shown but also by becoming desensitized to the process of violence. In other words, prolonged exposure to media violence simply flattens or dulls any emotional response children may have when they see violence, be it on television or in real life. On the playground, and presumably outside of school, these psychoemotional effects of media violence have been associated with the finding that children will wait longer before they call an adult to intervene in a physical fight betwee
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Approximate Word count = 2189
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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