Media violence and children

Oct 14, 2008 Editorial

In this, the opening decade of the new millennium, our country has witnessed an alarming new phenomenon – an increasing level of violence committed by individuals who are literally children. Various commentators have weighed in on some of the societal factors that may be contributing to this crisis – poverty, racism, unemployment, illegal drugs, inadequate or abusive parenting practices, and real-life adult models of violent problem-solving behaviour, etc.
While all the aforementioned social facts undoubtedly have a nexus with violent behaviour in youths and must be addressed by the authorities and society in general, we would like to highlight the role of the media, especially the electronic media, in the stimulation of violence in youths. We do this because of all the sources and manifestations of violence in children’s lives, this one is perhaps the most easily rectified.
While, to the best of our knowledge, there have been no studies done in Guyana on the causative links between the depiction of violence in children’s programming and their resort to committing violent acts, the point has been conclusively proven in the developed countries from which we import programmes in an indiscriminate fashion.
The studies invariably identify three behavioral changes in children subjected (even though voluntarily) to sustained exposure to violence on television. Children gradually become desensitized to the pain and suffering of others – not just in movies but in individuals around them; they interestingly become more fearful of others in their environment and lastly, as we asserted earlier, they are more predisposed to resort to violence or other aggressive behaviour towards others. The bottom line is that extensive viewing of television or other media violence seems to convince youths that violence is an acceptable means for resolving conflicts and a normal response to frustration and stress. This negative influence can be observed by even parents and other laypersons if they look at children at play nowadays. Play is an essential element in the repertoire of human children for their normal development. Play exercises and utilizes the imagination of children in the development of their cognitive and language development. Studies show that after watching heavy doses of violent programmes, children shift from imaginative play to more imitative play – with the violent acts witnessed on TV as the source of imitation. The toys that are lucrative “spin-offs” of the shows assist immeasurably in the imitative behaviour.
Of recent, with the advent of electronic games such as the Sony Playstations and the PSPs, the violent movies are made interactive and the “play” of the children now becomes virtual “performance” of the acts of violence. It is not surprising that from the early days when children imitated “Cowboys and Indians” the incidence of violence committed by children has skyrocketed.
To address this insidious, burgeoning crisis, there has to be a multi-pronged approach that involves the government, teachers and parents. Firstly government has to get around to establishing broadcasting standards in general and standards for children’s programming in particular. These standards would address content (eliminating the present wild-west we presently have) and establish limits on the amount and type of violence permitted during hours that children were most likely to be viewing TV. A rating system, which could also be used for video games, can be introduced with an accompanying awareness programme for parents.
The training of teachers would have to be broadened to have them observe their charges at play and report to parents and the school authorities, incipient imitative violent behaviour – as they do nowadays with violent behaviour per se. Parents, in the absence of guidelines, have an even more critical role to play. They should be more attentive to what their children are viewing and should establish and maintain those rules that adopt a hard line against violent programming. The games for the various video players are quite expensive and parents are obviously the source of the funding – to which they can therefore establish and enforce the necessary “conditionalities”.
We reiterate that violence in the media is only one of the contributors to violent acts committed by children, which is a complex social problem. However, the media both “affects and effects” the problem and it is the duty of all of us to become involved to create a healthier society.

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Media violence and children

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