Television Influence on Children

Bruno Mori
14 October 2003
Television Influence on Children

Two generations ago children had never watched TV in their childhood. Children played outside more often. Today grandparents tell their grandchildren about their little cars made with bottle caps and a shoe box. Today’s generation of children is developed on technology. Historians say that individuals born “brainless” then society creates their character. One of the things that affect children today is the Television. The TV provides lots of information to the world’s population, some of them are good for a child development; on the other hand, some of them are really prejudice a child’s growth. The Television can generate a bad influence in a child development that contradicts with the education given by the parents.
The point that makes all the harms to appear is the number of channels. In the United States most people have cable TV. Cable TV means lots of channels 24 hours a day playing many different TV programs. There are channels that the targeted audience is children or teenagers such as Noggin and Nick Junior that have a good influence on children. Most channels do not have the same audience target; these channels will not be playing child’s shows the whole day. Usually parents would tune in a specific channel when their children want to watch TV. However, some children change the channel to another. The chance of having a channel in fifty or one-hundred TV channels playing a not recommended for children show is very broad.
Even cartoons’ influence on children can be harm in some ways. Many cartoons have a educative part of it. However many cartoon companies have as a funny part of the show a piano falling on a character or characters being hit by a train; the “superman myth” is caused by these cartoons because cartoons do not die. Moreover, cartoons show characters hitting each other. Most cartoons have violence with a humorous context which means that the person that is watching should laugh at it. Violence is not funny the humor idea over violence in cartoons harms children more than the piano on cartoon characters. Statistics say that only 4% of the shows try to promote an anti-violence theme (Cantor par.5). The change in behavior because of cartoons is common in many children.
Children want to be or do something like their favorite characters do. The violence in the television is identified and justified as a need. The hero is usually as violent as the evil, but he is always rewarded and never punished. Violence is shown as a daily task for the characters of the show creating a reason for it even though there is no real reason for their actions. All this factors influence a children behavior in the society. This can be also danger because these influences create a distortion of reality on children.
In these conditions, television influences people’s perceptions of the real world. “Entertainment violence feeds a perception that the world is a violent and mean place.” (Torr Par.11). The fear that violence is everywhere occurs because of the excess of information about violence that the television provides. Children become confused between real and virtual worlds. Sometimes this can be good because children would be aware that not everybody is friendly, but it will also avoid the friendly because of the fear.
There are many TV shows during afternoon and morning that are not appropriate for children. During this time most children is at home which means that shows have the peak on the viewers of children. Some of these programs really have a bad influence like Jerry Springer that plays in Lansing at 11:00am. Also other shows like Cops that also can bring some bad influences for children are playing the whole day. Some channels have a schedule with many educative shows that are good for the children, but some children would not stick to that channel all the time. According to an analysis TV increases the violent behavior on children regardless the age having a harmer effect on the preschool age (Child Adolec Psychiatry). These shows usually have a warning in the beginning saying that it is not recommended for children and parent supervision is required. However, most children are not supervised by an adult the whole time. The child’s mother would be cooking and the father at work for instance. The contact with this kind of violence on television is in a straight line with violent actions (Chatfield Par.2).
Researches on surveys concluded that “… the average children would see 10.000 acts of violence per year, with 61% of violent acts viewed on TV” (Child Adolec Pyschiatry). The future of society is controlled by the youth. Children are the ones who decide if society will develop or not if the children population has a good influence society would grow. The television does not help society most of the time; the violence rate in society would tend to increase in the long term because the children are becoming more aggressive. Dangerous behaviors may happen due to the television. These influences can cause an increase in teenage smoking, drinking and driving which is illegal by laws. Some statistics about violence and TV are really impressing. If the television was never invented the number of crimes would decrease; “There would be 10,000 fewer homicides in the United States each year, 70,000 fewer rapes, and 700,000 fewer injurious assaults.” (Child Adolec. Psychiatry).
The television makes a child addicted like a videogame. The obsession for TV is common especially on the United States. Today’s children that have this obsession for TV would not develop in other activities. The addiction for television happens mainly because TVs are everywhere. According to the Survey of Parents and Children 40.7% of the kids in the United States have a TV on their bedrooms (Jost par.13). The bedroom is usually the place of a house where a child would stay most of the time. This would increase the obsession. This addiction may be good sometimes because of the educative part of the TV also close captions can help a child on reading skills. However, the TV may be turned on the whole day, and the child may have access for the remote control changing to a non-recommended channel or show.
Advertisements also prejudice a child’s growth. Most advertisements that target children really can change their minds in many aspects. Toy companies want to sell their product as any other company; therefore, advertisements are created to attract the customers. It is easy for advertisement companies to change the mind of a child. Thus, children would have a need and desires that would not exist with out the media. These needs and desires can frustrate children if parents can’t afford the toy or product.
Violent shows with adult content are requested to say in the beginning of the show “Parental Discretions Advised” or “Viewer Discretion Advised”. Do children understand what these messages are trying to say? Statistics of the National Television Violence Study shows that between the ages of 5 to 14 years old only 52% of the children are aware of the warnings, also there is a difference in 5% between the two warnings. (National Television). The difference in percentage of child perception between these two warnings proves that children understand better if an easier language is used. The language used to communicate with the viewers on these warnings is too difficult for children. Shows that have are really not suited for children have a more difficult way to describe these warnings; it looks like made to impress the viewers with difficult vocabulary and long warnings. Television shows must change these warnings to a friendlier message like “This program is not good for children under the age of 18.” something easy that child would understand. Some warnings show only a text; however, these warnings must be narrated by someone for children that cannot read.
Most TV shows have at least some violence sometimes it is hidden somewhere in the show. According to a study, overall 57% of the TV shows on American television contains violence (National Television p.47). The Television is one of the best information systems that the man has ever created. However, it is hard to know where and when to play some kinds of TV shows. The world has many kinds of people with different ages and ideas that can be changed if some additional information is given. Some of these changes can be really dangerous for individuals and society.


Works Cited
Cantor, Joanne. “Television Contributes to Violent Behavior in Children” Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center: Expanded Academic ASAP. Lansing Community College Lib. 06 Oct. 2003 <http://cygnus.lcc.edu:2061/servlet/OVRC;$sessionid$JCC2UKAAAFJ1BJOBNJQQAAA?locID=lom_lansingcc>
Chatfield, Joanne. “Influence of Media Violence on Children” American Academy of Physicians. Nov. 2002. Info Trac Web: Expanded
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Jost, Kenneth. “Will the new regulations make it better?” CQ Researcher. 15 Aug, 2003. CQ Researcher: Expanded Academic ASAP. Lansing Community College Lib. 6 Oct. 2003. <http://cygnus.lcc.edu:2090/cqresearcher>
National Television Violence Study. (1997). (Vol. 1). Newbury Park, CA: Sage Productions, Inc
Toor, James. “Media Violence Harms Children” Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center: Expanded Academic ASAP. Lansing Community College Lib. 06 Oct. 2003 <http://cygnus.lcc.edu:2061/servlet/OVRC;$sessionid$JCC2UKAAAFJ1BJOBNJQQAAA?locID=lom_lansingcc>
Villani, Susan. (Apr 2001). Child & Adolecent Psychiatry. Impact of Media and Adolescents. 392-399