The Influence of Media Violence on Youth: A Thought Piece

We are surrounded by violence in our lives. It is not necessarily the violence done directly to us or done by us to others; rather it is the presentation of violence for our viewing in practically all sources of media. This is not really surprising. In one form or another, violence has been part of the human history throughout the humanity's existence, because it is an essential part of conflict, and conflict has been partially responsible for the human civilization developing into what it is today. Violence is so pervasive in the media because, on the instinctual, animalistic level, humans are wired to expect it and accept it. At the same time, since the laws of civilized society teach that violence is abhorrent and punish people for using violence on others, the status of the "forbidden fruit" adds excitement to the concept of violence, which, combined with the natural physical excitation it creates, makes violence almost irresistible.

The danger of violence to the modern society is clear, of course. It disrupts normal social interaction, increases negative emotions, often results in economic damages as well as physiological and psychological ones, and generally undermines social stability. Violence remains fascinating to people, though, and news and entertainment media provides an outlet for this fascination through portraying violence. By watching violence, people get their fill of it without actually physically experiencing it on themselves.

It is not surprising that observed violence affects younger people more than older ones. Humans come into this world reacting on a purely animalistic level and learn about the world gradually, acquiring physical, emotional, and social inhibitions as they grow - and generally in the same order listed here. Observational learning and imitation are also the stronger determining factors of human behavior at a younger age. Therefore, the younger the person is, the more likely he or she is to react to observed violence by imitating it and the less likely he or she is to be restrained in the exhibition of violence by psychosocial inhibitions.

It makes sense, therefore, to attempt to reduce violent behavior in society by limiting the exposure of children to it. To that extent, movie and TV rating systems have been created, as well as the rating system used by the video gaming industry. Neither of the three is working particularly well, though, because none of them are strictly enforced. The reality is that only one of them can be practically enforced, and that is the movie rating. The reason it is not enforced rigorously is simple - money. On one hand, movie theater owners are reluctant to lose revenue by restricting access to an NC-17 or R-rated film to everyone under the age of 17, because teenagers - especially in the summer - represent the major part of the moviegoing audience. On the other hand, movie theater owners are not seriously punished if they are found to violate the rules of access to such films.

As to the other two rating systems previously mentioned, they are not practically enforceable because no one but parents or other guardians can do so in the home environment. True, video game stores can refuse to sell an M-rated game to a teenager, but once it is purchased by an adult and leaves the store, it is anyone's guess whether a young person is not going to end up playing this game at some point.

The enforcement of the video game rating is probably more important that the enforcement of the other two, since research consistently shows higher levels of correlation between playing violent video games and exhibiting violent behavior. These findings are not surprising, either. When playing a video game, a person does not simply observe violence, but also almost invariably controls a character in the game that commits violence or is on the receiving end of it. It is much easier to associate personally with such character when it does something that a player intends to do; essentially, the player is watching a version of himself or herself on screen committing or absorbing violence. For some people, especially at a younger age, this can result in the blending of the real and imaginary worlds in the sense that the rules of the real world do not apply in the imaginary one.

The reality of the situation is, therefore, that the best barrier between children and violence is their parents or some other caretakers. Unfortunately, not that many parents are closely involved in this type of monitoring, and not necessarily because they do not care what their children are watching on TV or the Internet or what video games they are playing. More often than not, parents are so overloaded with other tasks, such as work and household, that they simply do not have enough time or energy to check such things closely.

Parents, grandparents, and other caretakers need guidance in these tasks too. After all, who is to judge what constitutes violence and what does not, and what affects children more than other things? Should cartoons portraying violence, like "Tom & Jerry," "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," or "Pokemon," be banned? Should the portrayal of historic events or classical literature, like The Iliad, be off-limits? There are no ready answers for any of these questions, and therefore violence is likely to remain a part of our lives - as a form of entertainment, at least - for years to come.