There’s an ancient chinese proverb that states “A child’s life is like a piece of paper on which everyone who passes by leaves an impression” (Great-Quotes.com.) People blindly believe that children are easily influenced by violent cartoons on television. From generation to generation parents are always warned not to allow their kids to watch too much violent cartoons. What kids watch- and not just how much- matters when it comes to television viewing (Rochman.) But just how true is that? Research on the negative influences of cartoons on children is inconclusive and complex.
The American Psychological Association believe television violence affects young children negatively after doing many case studies. They believe children can learn aggressive attitudes and behaviors. Children can become desensitized to real world violent behavior. Young kids can develop a fear of being victimized by violence. The American Academy of Pediatrics and American Academy of Adolescent Psychiatry believe that television does influence the behavior of children from as young as one years old (Kalin.) These are all seemingly reliable resources to encourage that belief violent cartoons does affect young children.
But just how much does it affect them? If they affect children at all? Separating other factors that can influence violent behavior is almost impossible. Can you really separate media violence from all the other factors that can influence violent behaviors? (Rochman.) Real life has more of an effect than fantasy violence (Cutler.) For instance, children who have a parent who went to jail are more likely to go to the jail than children who watch the violent animated cartoon Happy Tree Friends.If a child has have abusive parents or siblings, ther...
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...Effect on Children. N.p., 15 Nov. 2009. Web. 06 Nov. 2013.
Frazier, Stacy L., and Others And. “The Effects of Television Violence and Early Harsh Discipline on Children’s Social Cognitions and Peer-Directed Aggression.” (1997): ERIC. Web. 24 Sep. 2013. .
Kalin, Carla. Television, Violence, and Children. Media Literacy Review. University of Oregon College of Education, 10 May 2003. Web. 16 Oct. 2013.
Ledingham, Jane E., Ledingham C. A., & Richardson, John E. (1993). La violence dans les médias: ses effets sur les enfants. Retrieved October 28, 2009, from http://dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/Collection/H72-21-91-1993F.pdf
Rochman, Bonnie. “Study: Fast- Moving Cartoons Like SpongeBob May Impair Kids’ Focus.” Time: Health & Family. Mag., 12 Sep. 2011. Web. 7 Oct. 2013.
According to the article, Violence in the Media, written by the APA, it provides information on how ferocious television episodes can affect a child’s senses, feelings, and attitude. To be more specific, it can make them become numb, frightened, and more pugnacious due to the amount of violent TV they watch. Furthermore, according to the same article, the APA also wrote, “By observing these participants into adulthood, Huesmann and Eron found that the ones who'd watched a lot of TV violence when they were 8 years old were more likely to be arrested and prosecuted for criminal acts as adults.” Psychologists L. Rowell Huesmann and Leonard Eron held a study that concluded that the result of watching violent television can lead to jail and criminal actions. This will also cause a child to become more aggressive and therefore will become a nefarious person. All in all, the American Psychological Association decided that violent television can shape a child’s disposition. In fact, it can also encourage a child to execute bad deeds and crimes when they become
The effect of media on violent behaviour has been the subject of research for many decades, this is mainly due to the fact that researchers have noticed a significant correlation between the violence portrayed in mass media and the violence exhibited in childhood and adolescent behaviour (Pusateri 2006). According to Corrigan (2010, p. 119), “most children view an average of 3-4 hours of tele...
Television has an important influence in the lives of children today. In many households it is the center of activity for the children, or acts as a baby-sitter. What goes on during these shows can have a great influence on a child’s behavior, as children often imitate what they see. Three different types of shows include educational, cartoons, and all a prime-time comedies. A young audience watches all these. Television shows that I viewed included Barney and Friends, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and The Simpsons. Barney and Friends is a show on PBS, and the show is geared at preschoolers. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a cartoon watched mostly by young boys. The Simpsons is a show which airs both at primetime and in syndication during early evening hours, more likely to be geared at an adult audience but children watch it too. Some acts of verbal and physical aggressions in these television shows are included in these programs, which were not really appropriate for children.
In an article written by Kevin D. Browne and Catherine Hamilton-Giachritsis out of Lancet, dated 2/19/2005, Volume 365 in issue 9460, on page 702 a collection of research shows short-term effects increasing the likelihood of aggressive or fearful behavior in younger children, especially in boys. It also shows research stating that there is a very weak correlation directly between media violence and acted out aggression. This article basically states that violent media being watched by children does impression and arouse some, but does not associate strongly with violent acts. This would help explain the fact that millions of kids watch violent television shows and remain nonviolent.
As early as 1958 investigations were being conducted of the effects of television on children. During this time, the researchers found that most of the television content was extremely violent. In almost half of the television hours monitored, the programs main focus contained violence. The common theme that was seen throughout the programs were crime, shooting, fighting, and murder. The universal definition of violence used was, "Any overt depiction of the use of physical force, or the credible threat of such force, to intend to physically harm an animated being or group of beings." In this investigation, Wilbur Schramm concluded that under some conditions, some violent television could effect some children. For the most part, most television is neither helpful or harmful to most kids under most circumstances. As you can see this conclusion is quiet vague, and does not give a lot of crucial information for us to correct and improve. Schramm and his colleagues came up with a solution for parents to provide a warm, loving, secure family environment for their children, and they would have little to worry about.
Television violence causes destructive behavior in children, however; television can be a powerful influence to young viewers in our society. Unfortunately, much of today's television programming are very violent. Many researchers like scientists, pediatricians, and child researchers in many countries have studied to find out what it is about television violence that makes it such a big affect on the way kids act and behave. Sometimes, children think that is a normal thing in our real life, by watching only a single violent program, which can increase aggressiveness on children and become violent, aggressive, and vicious.
Rochman, Bonnie. “Fast-Moving Cartoons Like SpongeBob May Impair Kid’s Focus”. Times Magazine. 12 Sep. 2011:1-2.
Furthermore, television violence causes aggressive behavior in children. Many people believe that children who watch violent television programs exhibit more aggressive behavior than that exhibited by children who do not (Kinnear 23). According to the results of many studies and reports, violence on television can lead to aggressive behavior in children (Langone 50). Also, when television was introduced into a community of children for the first time, researchers observed a rise in the level of physical and verbal aggression among these children (Langone 51). The more television violence viewed by a child, the more aggressive the child is (“Children” 1).
Modern Language Association. “The influence of media violence on youths” psychologicalscience.org, 2003.Web. 5 April, 2011.
Strasburger, V., Jordan, A., & Donnerstein, E. (2010, April). Health Effects of Media on Children and Adolscents. Pediatrics, 125(4), p. 756. Retrieved January 28, 2012, from http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=2009781891&sid=6&Fmt=2&clientId=74379&RQT=309&VName=PQD
According to the Article ?Violence on Television? published by the American Psychological Association at the website http://www.apa.org/pubinfo/violence.html, ?violent programs on television lead to aggressive behavior by children and teenagers who watch those programs.? That's the word from a 1982 report by the National Institute of Mental Health, a report that confirmed and extended an earlier study done by the Surgeon General. As a result of these and other research findings, the American Psychological Association passed a resolution in February 1985 informing broadcasters and the public of the potential dangers that viewing violence on television can have for children. Psychological research has shown three major effects of seeing violence on television: ?children may become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others, children may be more fearful of the world around them, and children may be more likely to behave in aggressive or harmful ways toward others?. Children who watch a lot of TV are less bothered by violence in general, and less likely to see anything wrong with it. The article gave the example that in several studies, those who watched a violent program instead of a nonviolent one were slower to intervene or to call for help when, a little later, they saw younger children fighting or playing destructively.
Nowadays, Parents just put their children in front of the TV and let them watch all the cartoons that they want, assuming that all cartoons are age-appropriate and not violent. On the other hand, recently most cartoons are getting blamed because they contain violence such as Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, and superhero shows. These cartoons are really addicting to watch, even I like to watch a few Tom and Jerry shows with my siblings but there is a difference between an adult watching cartoons and a child watching cartoons. Also, there are educational television programs such as “Dora the Explorer”, “Umizoomi”, “Sesame Street”, and “Curious George”. In “Is Media Teaching Violence?” Brittany Jordan shows that there is evidence of a link between getting exposed to violent TV shows and showing aggressive behavior. Jordan demonstrated how girls and boys usually behave; boys move around a lot and like to hit other kids for no specific reason; girl...
Fisher, Deborah A. "Television Violence Contributes to Aggressive Behavior in Young People." 2007. Opposing Viewpoints. .
Teperman, Jean. "Toxic Lessons What Do Children Learn from Media Violence?" Children's Advocate newsmagazine. Online. www.4chilren.org/news/1-97toxl.htm. Accessed October 23, 2001.
Most American's would agree that children watch a lot of TV. It's common to see a child sitting in front of the TV on a Saturday morning with their Coco Pebbles watching their favorite superhero. This sounds harmless enough. However, many parents and teachers across the country are worried about the cartoons their children are watching. They feel that the cartoons have become too violent and are having negative long-term effects on children. It is common to see young boys pretending to shoot one another, while jumping on the couch and hiding in closets as a sort of make-believe fort. But parents say that children are learning these behaviors from cartoons and imitating them. Others however, disagree, they say that violence in cartoons does not effect children and that children need this world of fantasy in their lives. They say that children would show these same behaviors regardless of the content of the cartoons they watch.