Should Sex and Violence on Television or in the Movies Be Restricted - Coursework Example

Should sex and violence on television or in the movies be restricted? Outline of the paper I. Introduction Today, watching television often means fighting, violence and foul language - and thats just deciding who gets to hold the remote control. Sex and violence related programs are increasing in televisions and it should be controlled or prohibited in order to make healthy generation for the future. II. Body a. Brief history of sexuality and violence Sexuality is associated with all living things like the humans and it is necessary for sustaining life on earth history or background. The histories of Adam, Eve, Kane and Abel are better examples of sexuality and violence b. Influence of television programs upon the public The creative community or the television program producers are often blamed for the excessive violence, sex and indecent language on television. Television revenues are mostly generated with the help of the advertisements shown in between popular television programs and television companies will get advertisements only if they were able to tie up the viewers in front of the TV sets. For that purpose they are including more sex and violence related programs even at the prime time. c. Impact of sex and violence related television programs on children Children learn from their surroundings. It is difficult for them to segregate the good and evil. They will try to imitate whatever the attractive scenes they might have come across when watching television programs and sex and violence in television programs can easily derail the development of the children. Physical and psychological problems can cause to children because of sex and violence related contents on television. d. Arguments in favor of sexuality and violence in television programs Some people believe that sex and violence are part of the present society and there is no need to isolate it from the television programs. Such isolation of certain programs may result in unrealistic narration of incidents which may develop more harm than the goods. But such arguments are ridiculous. III Conclusions One of the major causes of developing aggressive behavior among children is the influence of violent television programs upon them. Because of the physical and psychological characteristics, children may not be able to differentiate between the good and evil during their childhood and hence the violent and vulgar scenes on televisions can negatively affect them. We can modify the environmental factors so that the child will get a healthy environment always for his development. By regulating aggressive, violent or vulgar programs in television, we can contribute heavily to the development of the children. Should sex and violence on television or in the movies be restricted? “Today, watching television often means fighting, violence and foul language - and thats just deciding who gets to hold the remote control. ~Donna Gephart” (Quotations about Television, 2010). The influence of television programs upon the children is tremendous. Majority of the children spent lengthy hours in front of the television sets and the television programs have definite influence upon the children. Unfortunately, most of the current television programs are not helping the children in a positive way to develop. Sex and violence on television increases day by day not only in America, but even in other parts of the world as well. Morality and ethical standards are rapidly disappearing from our social life because of the intrusions of violence, terrorism, sexual abuse etc. People became more and more selfish and they started to concentrate more on their own betterment of life rather than thinking of others. Media owners, especially that of television, know these changing trends in life philosophy and attitudes of public and they have created programs filled with sex and violence in order to exploit the changing public life styles. Competition is stiff in most parts of human life at present and television industry is one among them. The entry of new domestic channels and international channels because of globalization increased the competition very much and forced television program creators to fill most of their programs with contents of sex and violence in order to survive in the market. Sex and violence attract people irrespective of their age because of the biological and psychological reasons. Most of the public like to see some hot sex and violence related scenes on television privately, even if they may not like to see such scenes publicly. Some people believe that the excessive sex and violence related materials on television might destroy the future generation and hence it should be controlled whereas some others believe that there is no point in regulating or controlling such items on television. This paper argues in favor of regulating sex and violent materials on television. Brief history of sexuality and violence Sexuality is associated with all living things like the humans and it is necessary for sustaining life on earth. Human sexuality is a hot topic even from the beginning of human life on earth. Holy Bible says that the God created Eve as a companion to Adam. But apart from being a companion, Eve helped Adam to generate children because of the sexual attraction he felt upon Eve. In other words, sexuality is associated with human life even from the beginning of life itself. Bible has also mentioned the first recorded violence in human history. Kane, the elder son of Adam killed his younger brother Abel and from then onwards violence started to follow human life. But, most of the sex relationships and violence were happened in ancient times strictly based on certain ethical laws. But at present these old traditions and norms were forgotten by the public and they have a tendency to break all conventional laws associated with sexuality and violence. Influence of television programs upon the public The creative community or the television program producers are often blamed for the excessive violence, sex and indecent language on television (Cowan, 1980, p.143). This is true up to certain extent. Television revenues are mostly generated with the help of the advertisements shown in between popular television programs. Advertisers will give ads to the television companies only if their programs catch enormous popularity. In order to tie the television viewers in front of the television sets as long as possible, television program producers produce programs filled with sex and violence. The thirst for seeing celebrities or heroes in action both sexually and heroically is immense among the viewers and the program producers exploit such weaknesses of the viewers in order to increase the viewership of their programs. They are keeping a blind eye towards the fact that these programs are negatively impacting the society in different ways. After examining prime television programs for a 15 year period between 1976-1990, Cuklanz (1999) concluded that majority of the television channels in America increased the sex and violence related programs during the prime time (Cuklanz, 1999, p.3). Earlier the program producers isolated the prime time from showing sex and violence related topics because of the possibility of people seeing these programs as a family. In other words, prime time programs are normally seen by all people in a family irrespective of young or old. Nobody likes to see sex programs in front of their family members and the program producers deliberately prevented the broadcasting of television programs containing sex and violence during prime time earlier in order to avoid the agony of the family people. But such restrictions were not seen nowadays even during prime time. In fact more sex and violence related contents were broadcasted during prime time in order to catch the attraction of as much as people possible. Impact of sex and violence related television programs on children LABATON (2007) has mentioned that the Federal Communications Commission urged lawmakers to consider regulations that would restrict violent programs to late evening, when most children would not be watching as the “exposure to violent content has been associated with increased aggression or violent behavior in children, at least in the short term” (LABATON, 2007). Children learn from their surroundings. It is difficult for them to segregate the good and evil. They will try to imitate whatever the attractive scenes they might have come across when watching television programs. Many people believe that the sexual exploitation of children takes place in the society mainly because of the consent given by the children to the exploiters. These children in most of the cases were motivated by the vulgar sexual scenes they might have watched on television. Hero worshipping is a human character, especially for the children. Television programs always generate some celebrities and heroes. The activities of these celebrities on television screens can influence the public immensely. Their clothing, mannerisms, actions and appearances can influence the public in different ways. Sexuality and violence are two of the predominant activities these celebrities usually demonstrate on television through different types of programs. For example, in most of the television serials or films, heroes often destroy the evil forces using their muscle power and intelligence. In many of the television programs, it is a common that the hero kills his enemies using machine gun or other weapons. Children may use such dangerous weapons in their real life also when they develop enmity with others. Children may perceive the acts of the heroes in the serials or films as genuine and legal because of their worship towards them. Hot bedroom scenes are another item these celebrities demonstrate on television programs. Such vulgar scenes often serve as a motivation for sexual abuse not only to the children, but also to the adults as well. Gordon, (2009) has pointed out the findings of a research published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine; both direct and indirect viewing had a significant effect on childrens aggressive behavior (Gordon, 2009). It is not necessary that the direct television watching alone may influence the children in increasing their aggressive behavior. Arguments in favor of sexuality and violence in television programs Every coin has two sides. Same way every issue may have more than one dimension. People like Jonathan Freedman of the University of Toronto, has the opinion that no scientific studies have not concluded the influence of television in increasing the violent behaviors among children, beyond doubt yet (Media awareness networks, 2009). Such people believe that sex and violence are part of the present society and there is no need to isolate it from the television programs. Such isolation of certain programs may result in unrealistic narration of incidents which may develop more harm than the goods. But such arguments are ridiculous. It is foolishness to expect a child who grows amidst of violent or vulgar incidents may still be able to become a good citizen of the country. Both heredity and environment can influence the nurturing of a child in to a good citizen. Even though we cannot modify the traits of heredity, we can definitely modify the environment so that the child may develop properly. Conclusions One of the major causes of developing aggressive behavior among children is the influence of violent television programs upon them. Because of the physical and psychological characteristics, children may not be able to differentiate between the good and evil during their childhood and hence the violent and vulgar scenes on televisions can negatively affect them. Heredity and environment are the two major factors which affect the development of a child. Although, we cannot modify the genetic factors, we can modify the environmental factors so that the child will get a healthy environment always for his development. In other words, by regulating aggressive, violent or vulgar programs in television, we can contribute heavily to the development of the children. References 1. Cowan,G. (1980). See No Evil: The Backstage Battle over Sex and Violence in Television. Publisher: Touchstone (March 28, 1980) 2. Cuklanz, L.M. (1999). Rape on Prime Time: Television, Masculinity, and Sexual Violence. Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press (October 7, 1999) 3. Gordon, Serena. (2009). TV May Increase Aggression in Toddlers, Retrieved from http://www.usnews.com/health/family-health/childrens-health/articles/2009/11/02/tv-may-increase-aggression-in-toddlers 4. LABATON, S. (2007, April 26). Moves to Restrict TV Violence. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/26/business/media/26fcc.html?scp=1&sq=articles%20on%20sex%20and%20violence%20on%20tlevisions&st=cse 5. Quotations about Television. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.quotegarden.com/television.html Read More