Does media violence affect children?

Question

discuss

Answer 1

I think that frequent exposure to media violence affects all ages.  One incident broadcast 4-5 times in one day on radio/tv leaves us with the subconcious impression of several incidents having occurred.  The more frequently we experience the exposure to violence, the more "normal" it appears to be and, therefore, more acceptable - a part of our everyday life.  We then become accustomed to, instead of being shocked by, what should be regarded as abnormal behaviour.  Children, have a shorter historical memory than adults and accept what happens around them as normal; they can't compare "how things used to be" with how things are today.

Answer 2

Yes it does . Even violent games can desensitise a child to violence . They see it as acceptable and it gets to the stage where they cannot distinguish wrong from right. Bear in mind the boys that killed Jamie Bulger were brought up to watch such films as Childs Play without fear or shock.

Answer 3

YES it does.

Look at the ever growing number of kids looking for a fight,

hoodies and so on and the ongoing killings in the black population.

Answer 4

Sure it does.

Answer 5

We have had media violence since films were first made. It never affected earlier generations of kids,we watched cowboys and Indians, we never went out and scalped anyone afterwards,gangster films,we never concreted anyone's feet together and dropped them in the river. Personally I think the kids who carry out mindless violence on schoolkids, old people,invalids,our any one they are "CERTAIN" is weaker than themselves, are a sub human species, and is nothing to do with anything they watch on TV!!!

Answer 6

Without doubt.

But I feel that if a kid 'takes it further' by actually being violent afterwards then there is/was something 'wrong' with them in the first place. Same goes for adults, some people are just more susceptible than others.

Answer 7

Are teenagers shooting teenagers now? No points for guessing how they got so desensitized to death & killing. You are what you eat & the menu is high in the nutrients of death, destruction & bloody violence. Look at the role models the media is presenting to our children. Yesterday's role models  displayed traits of good character, human decency, honesty etc. Just watch the old Batman reruns or the old B&W movies. Many of today's heroes are extremely violent & kill without much thought. Sure they often stand for a good thing but they go about it in a much more aggressive way adding legitimacy to the violence. Though some do portray good traits & character many are hard & cynical. On top of that many of today's bad guys are often portrayed as being quite cool. The violence is glorified rather than presented in it's true light.  Look at the traits many kids exhibit today then look at the movies they are watching & the computer games they are playing & tell me these things don't influence them. It's pitifully obvious.

The sad thing is the industry rarely shows the grieving families or the aftermath of the violence they glorify. We are seeing some of that in the news when we have to witness some poor mom weeping because she just lost her teenager to youth violence, but is it really hitting home?

Answer 8

Yes, it does. In fact, research has proven it. Read about psychologist Albert Bandura's Bobo Doll experiment.

http://psychology.about.com/od/profileso...

Answer 9

Children learn what they are taught, it's very simple.  Children are also a product of their upbringing.  They need Adults to teach them the difference between right and wrong, and their exposure to violent, sexually explicit and scary things should be very limited to the point of almost non-existant.  I have a friend that didn't monitor the TV habits of her kids, and her 7 year old was suspended from school for "shooting" at people with pencils (acting like they were guns), he has night terrors and also started rapping things like you see on 8 Mile which is his "favorite movie".  It's sad.