Desensitization In Film

Another effect is desensitizing children to violence, fighting, and hostility. This connects with empathy because desensitizing more or less decreases the empathy and emotion a person has. Desensitizing is a powerful tool and is used in therapy to” reduce or eliminate certain emotional responses through graded and supervised exposure to anxiety…” (Funk 23-39). For movies, desensitization is incidental because no one is decisively changing someone’s emotions, or at least the movie does not to make the audience become psychologically damaged that they end up hurting others and becoming aggressive.

With today’s technology and media presence, a child may watch more violence in thirty minutes than an adult experiences throughout their whole life.

James Holmes went to see the film The Dark Night Rises. He was in the theatre for twenty minutes, left, then came back with full tactical gear on and weapons in hand. He shot smoke and gas canisters on innocent bystanders in the theatre. He then shot into the crowd. He killed twelve people and wounded another seventy people. When he was taken the police station they asked for his name. He identified himself as “The Joker,” the main villain in the movie. James Holmes clearly saw the movie and imitated the

According to the article “Do Violent Movies Make Violent Children?,” Parents can sit and watch movies with their children and discuss or express their thoughts about the particular movie they are watching (McLellan 502). This allows the child to be a participant in the movie. They can critique it and it will make them more aware that it is a fictional movie; it does not happen in real life. Some other suggestions when watching a movie with a child is to talk through the violent or frightening parts, turn off the movie if the child becomes upset, and be an observer of any movie that the child is watching, violent or not (Children and