 Television
violence and its impact on children
By Boniface Mouti
It is a known fact that we live in an era where both parents are often working
and children have more unsupervised time. It is essential that you make time for
children and regularly inform yourself of their day to day experiences,
including while they are at school if they attend.
Violence on television affects children negatively, according to psychological
research. The three major effects of seeing violence on television are: children
may become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others. Children may be
more fearful of the world around them and finally, children may be more likely
to behave in aggressive ways towards others. Since we don't have our own
statistics may be we could borrow some from America and see what they reflect.
The average American child will have watched 100,000 acts of televised violence,
including 8000 depictions of murder, by the time he or she finishes sixth grade
(approximately 13 years old). This is according to American statistics. We may
not be closer to that due to the fact that quite a number of us especially those
leaving in rural areas have not managed to own television sets but one
fundamental fact remains; those of us who have television, have children who
watch TV with unlimited access.
Children often behave differently after they've been watching violent programmes
on television and they tend to think that the world is a mean and dangerous
place. Children who watch violent movies are more often likely to strike out at
playmates, argue, disobey authority and are less willing to wait for things than
those children who watched non-violent programmes. This becomes even more
serious especially for ages six to eight which are very delicate and critical
years in the development of children. This is the age when youngsters are
learning social behavior that will last them throughout their life. However,
even if a child is not aggressive at the age of eight, but watches substantial
amounts of violent programming, he will be more aggressive at 19 than his peers
who didn't watch TV.
According to psychologists who have followed the viewing habits of children for
decades, it has been established that watching violence on television is the
single factor most closely associated with aggressive behavior more than
poverty, race, or parental behavior. As a result children who watch many hours
of violent programmes on television tended to be more aggressive in the
playground and the classroom.
I think it is clear to us now that the causal relationship between televised
violence and antisocial behavior is sufficient to warrant appropriate and
immediate remedial action. There comes a time when the behavior of our children
is sufficient to justify action. That time has come. So what can we do about it?
It has been suggested that like cigarette warnings, we should be able to print
in bold such words as "Watching TV violence can be harmful to the mental health
of children" in black letters on the side of every TV set sold. Since government
won't do it, broadcasters won't do it and TV manufacturers won't do it, you
could make a sign for yourself and for your children and paste it to the side of
your TV set, as a daily reminder before you light up-the screen. It is important
also for the parents and guardians to watch at least one episode of the
programme your child views so you can better understand the content and discuss
it with them. Explain questionable incidents for example random violence that
occur and discuss alternatives to violent actions as ways to solve problems. Let
us try to publicise the facts widely. Teach children to differentiate clearly
between fiction and real life. Teach children not to bully others and make sure
that they do not get examples of violence at home or at school. Banning may not
be an answer but controlling advertising, which pushes things like violence and
cigarettes into the face of children before they have developed the judgement
and ability to look to protecting themselves long term is a legitimate issue.
My message this week is simply this; violence damages your quality of life and
the mental health of society. Take precautions!
Email: rehofo@yahoo.com
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