Effects of violent media on children - Essay Example

One of the most significant effects of violent media, especially movies, on children is that some of them develop a lack of horror at any form of violence that they witness. This creates a situation where children are more likely to act violently in the belief that doing so is a normal part of life. Furthermore, there are instances where children, instead of behaving in a normal manner, will end up attempting to emulate their heroes in violent movies. This might go to such an extent that they end up causing harm or serious injuries not only to other children but also to themselves.

There have been reports that some children, being more likely to imitate the actions that they seen in movies than adults, begin displaying violent tendencies from an early age with some being reported to have stabbed their friend in what seemed to be normal play (Elizabeth & Morton, 2008). The effect of violence in movies is often a long term among children and this should be a matter of great concern for all individuals in the society because it means that children in coming generations, if still exposed to such content, are most likely to be increasingly violent.

Children, when they see violent content in movies, often have a hard time differentiating what is real from what is not and this creates a dilemma where it is impossible for them to make proper decisions about whether their actions are right or wrong in real life. There are instances where children who have been exposed to a lot of violent movies tend to react in the same manner as those individuals who have post traumatic stress disorder. This is such that children end up feeling as if the violence that is being meted out on the characters in the movies is actually being done on them.

The result is that many of them begin displaying symptoms which are normally associated with those children or individuals who are living in abusive