Any controversial issue - Essay Example

In this paper, we shall debate on the controversial issue that violence on television causes increases the violence in children and teenagers and stand by it. According to a research, children in America view four hours of television daily on an average which implies that television has a potent influence in developing value systems and determining behavior. But sadly, most of the programs broadcasted on television nowadays are violent. Various studies done to evaluate the impact of T.V. violence on children and teenagers have revealed that children may become impervious to the horror of violence, or slowly start acknowledging violence as the only means to sort out problems, or try to emulate the violence shown on television, and recognize with certain characters, victims and/or victimizers.

Children who become violent watching such T.V. programs will display an array of behaviors including volatile temper tantrums, terrorization, bullying, aggressiveness, armed attack, and harm to animals and peer groups (“Children and TV violence”, 2011). However, researcher Dr. Steve Goodman stated that “one may well discover that children who are violent watch a lot of television violence, but this does not prove that violent television causes real-life violence” (as qtd. . In fact, one theory even claimed that watching media violence may actually help reduce aggression.

According to them, youngsters who watch violent entertainment get the opportunity to explore their violent instincts without hurting anyone through these programs (Kolata, 2002). To counteract the above claims, researchers who focus on television violence claimed that T.V. is the most pervasive system for media violence. Almost 67% of the children programs in America contain violent subjects (Strasburger, 2004, 57-58). On an average, a typical American child views 28 hrs of television per week which implies that he or she has watched around 8000 murders by the time their elementary school is over at the age of 11 and worse than that, these programs show that 75% of the times the murderer escaped unpunished displaying no signs of repentance or liability.

Definitely, these violent programs will make children invulnerable to violence and belligerence, though some may become terrified of living in such a treacherous society (APA, 2004). These facts sufficiently prove that television has a profound effect on children or teenagers in their lifetime. Moreover, the American Psychological Association have been continuously conducting research on television’s effects on viewers and in its 1993 report it had confirmed that there exists strong correlation between increased viewing of violence on television and increasing aggressive attitudes and behaviors.

They added that children’s exposure to violence in the mass media, particularly at young ages, can have harmful lifelong experiences. Furthermore, the 1982 National Institute of mental health study revealed some of the major negative effects of watching violence on television: