The debate is over. Over the last three decades, the one overriding finding in research on the mass media is that exposure to media portrayals of violence increases aggressive behavior in children. The National Institute of Mental Health has reported that "in magnitude, exposure to television violence is as strongly correlated with aggressive behavior as any other behavioral variable that has been measured." In addition to increased aggression, countless studies have demonstrated that exposure to depictions of violence causes desensitization and creates a climate of fear.
An oft-quoted statistic still bears repeating: the typical American child watches 28 hours of television a week, and by the age of 18 will have seen 40,000 simulated murders and 200,000 acts of violence. As the evidence linking increased aggression with excessive exposure to violent entertainment has grown, psychiatrists, pediatricians, and other physicians and mental health care providers have joined the call for limits on the amount of violent depictions to which children are exposed.
The American Psychiatric Association joins with other professional organizations in advocating for a significant decrease in violent programming on network and cable television. Television violence has been shown to be a risk factor to the health and well-being of the developing child, the adolescent, and the stability of their families. The APA has encouraged voluntary restraint on the part of the TV industry to decrease TV violence. Since voluntary restraint has been ineffective in protecting our young people from the escalating harm and intrusive assault of TV violence, reasoned regulatory action should be pursued, consistent with constitutional guarantees. (APA Board of Trustees approved 12/93)
In 1996, the National Television Violence Study examined the most extensive body of television programming ever collected for the purpose of content analysis. The study found that the majority of all entertainment programming contains violence. Especially disturbing was that the perpetrators of violence went unsanctioned in 73% of these violent scenes, since the most effective way of reducing the likelihood of young viewers imitating violent behavior is to show such behavior being punished.
Ignoring consequences of violence (including the pain of victims, the victims' families, and the families of perpetrators) or depicting the consequences unreasonably sets in motion a destructive encoding process. Viewers become desensitized and fearful and begin to identify with aggressors and the aggressors' solutions to various problems. With the violent behaviors and attitudes thus encoded, aggression is now all the more likely to appear in personal situations.
Individuals with greater exposure to media violence see the world as a dark and sinister place. Television programs present a narrow view of the world, and the world they present is violent. Thus, people who watch a lot of television are more likely than those who watch less to see the world as being violent and to overestimate their chance of being involved in violence.
Nowhere is the media's distortion of reality greater than in the portrayal of individuals with mental illness. A 1997 content analysis of programming found that television characters with mental illnesses were highly likely to be shown committing acts of violence. In fact, mentally ill characters were 10 times more violent than the general population of television characters, despite mountains of evidence that show that individuals with mental illnesses are no more likely to be violent than mentally healthy individuals.
Children and adolescents are exposed to more media depictions of violence than ever before. Such depictions pervade not only television, but film, music, online media, videogames, and printed material. Commercial television for children is 50-60 times more violent than prime-time programs for adults, as some cartoons average more than 80 violent acts per hour. With the advent of videocassette sales and rentals, pay-per-view TV, cable TV, videogames, and online interactive media, many more children and adolescents have greater access to media with violent content than had ever been available in previous decades. Again, these depictions desensitize children to the effects of violence, increase aggression, and help foster a climate of fear.
The critical period for lasting harm from exposure to depictions of violence is pre-adolescent childhood. Children as young as 14 months model behaviors. Viewers of violent programming can come to perceive the world as more violent than it really is, and a callous attitude toward violence can emerge. Fifty percent of murder victims are between 15 and 34 years old, and 55% of those arrested for murder are under 25 years old. One third of all the violent crimes in the U.S. are committed by individuals under age 21. Violence and the threat of violence simply come to feel like part of the natural background of everyday life.
Adolescents and young people are among the fastest-growing demographic groups in America. Without strong action against the ever-increasing levels of violent entertainment to which they are exposed, the levels of violence already linked to this age group -- in terms of both victims and offenders -- can only be expected to increase.
Corporations that produce and distribute media depictions of violence cannot be allowed to state that they are simply "giving the public what it wants." In a survey commissioned by the American Medical Association, two-thirds of all adults and 75% of adults with children have walked out of a movie or turned off the television because the content was too violent. Clearly, the public doesn't want what the media thinks it wants. While fiercely protective of free speech, Americans still want to be informed about the levels of violent or sexual content in television programs, computer games, music, and movies to which their children could be exposed.
In testimony before Congress, the APA and many other children's advocacy groups have agreed on the necessity of rating systems that not only are explicit as to the specific nature of the content (e.g., violence, sexual situations, adult language), but also must specify the age-appropriateness of the content. Rating systems inevitably involve subjective judgment as well as objective measures, but can be an important tool to help ensure positive and developmentally appropriate models of behavior for our impressionable children.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children be exposed to no more than 1 or 2 hours of television a day. Particularly where young people are concerned, limiting exposure to violence in the media, limiting overexposure to the media in general, and teaching and encouraging critical viewing, listening, videogame-playing, and reading habits can help set the pattern for more positive values, and, ultimately, a less violent, more humane society. Media literacy skills are vital. Rather than allow the media to promote unchallenged the quick fix of violent solutions, conflict resolution skills involving patience and negotiation should be taught.
But no rating system or skills training can substitute for parental involvement. In 1996, the American Medical Association published the Physician Guide to Media Violence. Included therein were a series of steps that parents can take to limit the media's influence on their children:
By Dr. Jane Ledingham for The National Clearinghouse on Family Violence
We love TV and we watch a lot of it, and yet our pleasure is tainted by a profound unease. What is television doing to us, anyway? Everyone knows people who can't seem to turn off the TV, but there is no agreement on how much TV is "too much." Nor is there any agreement on what is "good TV" and what is "bad" or "dangerous."
People who grew up with TV are usually the most ambivalent about it. They feel guilty about enjoying vulgar, exploitative, violent shows when they could be watching something more edifying like Masterpiece Theatre. They recognize the seductive power of the medium.
And yet, many parents who feel uneasy about TV also admit they use TV as a babysitter. What kind of upbringing are children getting from their electronic nannies?
Children begin to notice and react to TV very early. By the age of three, children will willingly watch a show designed for them 95% of the time and will imitate someone on television as readily as they will imitate a live person (Parke and Kavanaugh, 1977). The average time children spend watching television rises from about two and a half hours per day at the age of five to about four hours a day at age twelve. During adolescence, average viewing time drops off to two to three hours a day (Liebert and Sprafkin, 1988).
Young children do not process information in the same way as adults. Nor do they have the experience or judgment to evaluate what they see. For example, children between the ages of six and ten may believe that most of what they see on TV is true to life. Since they watch a lot of TV, this makes them particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of television.
The results of studies on the effects of televised violence are consistent. By watching aggression, children learn how to be aggressive in new ways, and they also draw conclusions about whether being aggressive to others will bring them rewards (Huesmann and Eron, 1986). Those children who see TV characters getting what they want by hitting are more likely to strike out themselves in imitation.
Even if the TV character has a so-called good reason for acting violently (as when a police officer is shown shooting down a criminal to protect others), this does not make young children less likely to imitate the aggressive act than when there is no good reason for the violence (Liss, Reinhart and Fredrikson, 1983).
In an important study carried out in Canada, children were found to have become significantly more aggressive two years after television was introduced to their town for the first time (Kimball and Zabrack, 1986). Children who prefer violent television shows when they are young have been found to be more aggressive later on, and this may be associated with trouble with the law in adulthood (Huesmann, 1986). Strong identification with a violent TV character and believing that the TV situation is realistic are both associated with greater aggressiveness (Huesmann and Eron,1986). In general, boys are more affected by violent shows than girls (Lefkowitz, Eron, Walder and Huesmann, 1977).
Besides making children more likely to act aggressively, violence on television may have other harmful effects. First, it may lead children to accept more aggressive behavior in others (Drabman and Thomas, 1974). Second, it may make children more fearful as they come to believe that violence is as common in the real world as it is on television (Bryant, Careth and Brown, 1981).
But television is not always a negative influence. There is strong evidence that children's shows that were developed to teach academic and social skills can help children to learn effectively. In fact, research suggests that the positive effects of educational children's shows probably outweigh the negative effects of exposure to TV violence (Hearold, 1986).
If violence on television helps to make children more aggressive, it is still only a small part of the overall problem. Other factors in a child's life may be far more influential than TV. For example, pre-schoolers who were given guns and other "violent" toys to play with were found to commit more aggressive acts than pre-schoolers who had merely watched a television program with violent content (Potts, Huston and Wright, 1986).
Another major factor that determines how aggressive a child will be is how his or her parents behave. If parents ignore or approve of their child's aggressive behavior, or if they lose control too easily themselves, a TV control plan will not help. Similarly, if parents themselves exhibit violent behavior, they serve as role models for their children.
On the other hand, parents who show their children how to solve problems nonviolently and who consistently notice and praise their children for finding peaceful solutions to conflicts will have children who are less aggressive (Singer and Singer, 1986).
When there is an adult present who comments on the action of a TV show, children remember more and are more likely to imitate what they have seen (Gruse, 1973; Watkins, Calvert, Huston-Stein and Wright, 1980). Thus, watching TV with an adult may actually intensify the effect of television on children, whether this effect is positive or negative.
Parents can serve as models of how to watch television, as gatekeepers allowing or denying access to the television and interpreters of the content. However, research has shown that most parents seldom intervene in their children's choices of TV shows, though it is true that when children and parents watch together, it is more likely to be a program that the adults prefer (Peters et al., 1991). This can mean that children are exposed to violence in crime shows and news that the adults have chosen to watch.