Violent Television Causes Child Aggression, Study Says
L. Rowell Huesmann, who is the Amos N. Tversky Collegiate Professor of Communication Studies and Psychology, and a senior research scientist at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR), conducted a study of the over fifty years of television use. He believes that the findings of the study prove that violence in the media creates children more likely to act aggressively.
"Exposure to violent electronic media has a larger effect than all but one other well-known threat to public health. The only effect slightly larger than the effect of media violence on aggression is that of cigarette smoking on lung cancer," Huesmann said.
The study says that children in the United States spend three to four hours each day watching television, making the content that they watch a potent influence for future behavior. It is estimated that over half of all television programs contain some form of violence.
"More than 60 percent of television programs contain some violence," Huesmann said, "and about 40 percent of those contain heavy violence."
"Our lives are saturated by the mass media, and for better or worse, violent media are having a particularly detrimental effect on the well-being of children," he concluded.
Also included in the study are the influences of video games on children, which have become more prevalent in recent years.
"Children are also spending an increasingly large amount of time playing video games, most of which contain violence. Video game units are now present in 83 percent of homes with children," he said.
Even though not every child exposed to excessive levels of violent media will become violent, Huesmann cautions that this is not an indicator that high levels of violence are not detrimental for children.
"As with many other public health threats, not every child who is exposed to this threat will acquire the affliction of violent behavior. But that does not diminish the need to address the threat---as a society and as parents by trying to control children's exposure to violent media to the extent that we can." Source:
University of Michigan , "Violent TV, games pack a powerful public health threat", Eurekalert
Published by Kay Jones
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5 Comments
Post a Commentthanks this will help na lot in my school debate
I disagree strongly with the person who posted the KKK comment. They are as closed minded as the people they talk about. I could say that the children who resort to violence are the white children bullied by the over demanding undereducated blacks!! As for the whippings and beatings comment, if they had not been so uppity and stayed in line they wouldn't have needed a whipping. I have no problem with the average black person, I do have a problem with ghetto black people and the ones who feel that they deserve so much more, and are not given the same opportunities as everyone else. I do not think slavery was a particularly great thing but that was way in the past so GET OVER IT! Also when they were freed they had no jobs, homes, and robbed people and beat up innocent whites. Whites are not all to blame take some responsibility!
It's very ironic that this website is talking about how childhood violence is brought about by violence on television and video games and one of the website ads is promoting all "Shooter" type video games. Does that even make sense? We now live in an age where the media that children are absorbing does not only come from the TV and the video games they play, but mainly the websites and online ads they see.
I read your article and got the impression of reporting, not opinion so I gave you a good rating. Violence in any form will effect children and those with more of it or a predisposition for it will surely be influenced. If a child has violence in the home, on television and in video games it is likely they will become desensitized to it. A child who only sees violence on television will be less likely to be effected. Thanks for the thought provoking report!
It always amazes me that people will blame TV, movies and video games for violence. Children learn what they live and they learn through the governments that the way to solve problems is through war. Children that have, as an example, KKK type parents, learn that hatred is cool and with hatred violence becomes acceptable. The sweet, mild-mannered child is the one that resorts to violence in reaction to bullying by the children of the Klan type children's parents. "Spare the rod, and spoil the child" parents teach children that whippings and beatings is socially acceptable, and that went on long before TV was a part of everyday life.