Critical ThinkingRecent attention in the media relating violence and children has created much controversy and debate. Our society has brought much focus on violence in the media and how it has effected children of all ages and races. High school shootings and increasing crime in small towns all over the country has brought forth the question of whether or not children are exposed or desensitized to too much violence in television, movies, news, and other sources. Many people feel this violence is causing children to kill children and good towns go bad.
Many people are also wondering if this violence could be a matter of survival for our society or if it has to do with the way parents are raising their children. However, this topic has not become an item for debate until it began to happen in white upper and middle-class parts of the United States. Many of these factors have been argued through legislature and generally in society since it has begun to plague our nation the past few years. Many debates have focused on the parents and their roles in their children’s everyday actions.
Some people feel that a child’s parent or immediate caregivers are not paying enough attention to what the child is being exposed to in terms of media. Cartoons, video games, movies, and television shows are becoming more violent everyday and people are blaming the media for intoxicating our children’s minds with hatred and gratuitous violence. However, television has allotted a new form of screening what children may or may not be effected by. They have done this by associating a rating system with the television shows that are to be aired on a certain channel. This seems to solve the problem of television violence but what happens when the parents do not see the rating or if they just don’t care? This causes more violence to be welcomed into our homes.
Theaters have an age system for people who want to see movies but are not quite old enough to handle the violence maturely. This works when children under the age of seventeen are not admitted into certain movies unless accompanied by an adult. This is effective but only when the theaters follow the rules and when parents who do accompany their children know which movie is acceptable for their children to see. These systems are effective for TV and movies but what about other forms of media violence such as the news, books, and video games? Video games seem to get increasingly violent and yet parents are still allowing their children to play them, and books are easy to come across as long as you have a library card or a few dollars. The violence in the news seems to be one form of brutality that will not be departing from our society until crime disappears all together. So the parents do have an effect on what their children are exposed to and they have a lot of control over most of the violence their children are witnessing.
Lately, recent crime increases in white upper and middle-class parts of our nation have brought focus to this media violence problem. Many people have stereotyped urban areas as criminally prosperous areas and have only focused on this problem when it began to happen in the areas of our nation where things were supposed to have a lower crime rate. Small towns in our country are beginning to have an increase in crime and many people believe it is due to the violence in the media. The shows that they watch and music they listen to, people are saying, causes them to act out the violence in school shootings and other violent acts such as vandalism and racism. Can the shows, video games and other sources really desensitize these kids and make them extremely violent? In the preceding argument, we said that the parents have much to do with their children and what they are exposed to.
So then why are many children who have close and personal relationships with their parents turn to violence? Enter media violence and what many people believe is corrupting our children’s minds with gratuitous brutality and viciousness. Many people however believe media violence is not to blame for the violent acts occurring all over the country and also believe it has to do more with the parent’s chemical imbalances in the children’s heads. These people feel that some children are mentally incapable of differing between right and wrong and, if the parents are not nurturing enough, have no one to lead them the right way and to positively reinforce them. These are many reasons why people believe our children are becoming more violent towards each other’s and themselves. Is violence a matter of survival for our society? Do we feel it is necessary to have a certain amount of violence in our television shows, our movies, video games, books, and other places? This may be the reason why we have seen an increase in violence in the media. We may feel our need for better entertainment may include unnecessary acts of violence and we may project this onto our children.
This may be why we may not feel it necessary for us to pay attention to rating systems or warnings or maybe why we feel it is normal for our society to be exposed to as much violence as it is. Unjustified violence in our society is becoming a huge problem, however, with our children and their actions towards themselves and especially other children. If we feel it necessary to have a certain amount of violence in our entertainment sources, how much violence is enough and how much violence is too much violence? This would seem to be the main problem because if we do not see the problem as great we will do less to resolve it. Also, if parents are agreeable to excessive violence and see nothing wrong with it, then their children will see that the same way and so will their children and so on, it will be a continuing cycle. So the main argument for this factor has to do with our society and how we react to violence and how we see violence.
Increasing crime and other violent acts may not be due to chemical imbalances, parents, or media; it may just have to do with how our society views violent acts. Altogether, media violence may contribute to violence in children however, It may not be the sole cause as to why children are becoming more violent with school shootings, vandalism, and racism. Television, movies, video games, and other resources may be displaying too much violence that may not be suitable for children. Are parents not paying enough attention to what their children are being exposed to? Is our nation not putting enough effort into resolving this problem? Many of these questions will only be answered if parents get involved with their children and if the media focuses on decreasing violence or create a way more effective for parents to control what their children are exposed to.
Some of the violence that occurs in our society is not even committed by children so this be another way children are getting violent, because if the influence other people have on them. Excessive violence in the media remains a big problem in our nation and has brought attention to children’s actions involving past time activities and parent’s roles. Media violence to some people is to blame for all violent acts that children nowadays are committing. They blame high school shootings and racism on family values and brutality seen on a daily basis on TV or other places. If media violence persists are we as a country to believe that we are all inevitably going to be violent ourselves? This question has a simple answer.
Until our society is peaceful enough to not unvolve violence then violence will be a part of our everyday lives but if we do something to end violence in television, movies and other places our children will have a better environment. This environment will be one where they can live without gratuitous violence and get involved in more positive activities. Media violence is a huge problem that does relate to children being viscous and brutal. Video games, books, web sites, and other sources are making it easier for children to witness violence, become a part of it, and ultimately perform it.
