Children and Media Violence (1)
By the time a child is eighteen years old, he or she will witness on television (with average viewing time) 200,000 acts of violence including 40,000 murders (Huston, et al, 1992).
Smith and Donnerstein (1998) found in the three year, National Violence Television Study that:
61% of television programs contain some violence.; 43% of violent scenes contain humor; Perpetrators of violence were depicted as attractive, 44% of the time; No immediate punishment was depicted in nearly 75% of the violent scenes; Many of the violent scenes depicted no harmful consequences.
Young children who see media violence have a greater chance of exhibiting violent and aggressive behavior later in life, than children who have not seen violent media (Congressional Public Health Summit, 2000).
Studies show that when children and young adults play violent video games their aggressive behavior increases (Anderson and Bushman, 2001).
60-90% of the most popular video games have violent themes (Anderson, 2001)
59% of fourth grade girls and 73% of fourth grade boys say that the majority of their favorite video games are violent (Anderson, 2001).
Anderson, C. A. (2001, October 22). The impact of violent video games. Iowa State University: The impact of entertainment media and violence on children and families. Accessed at: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/families/media/program.anderson.html (last visited 2/12/02)
Anderson, C. A. and Bushman, B. J. (2001, September). Effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, and prosocial behavior: A meta-analytic review of the scientific literature. Psychological Science, 12, 353.
Congressional Public Health Summit (2000, July 26). Joint statement on the impact of entertainment violence on children. Accessed at: http://www.aap.org/advocacy/releases/jstmtevc.htm (last visited 2/14/02)
Smith, S. L., & Donnerstein, E. (1998). Harmful effects of exposure to media violence: Learning of aggression, emotional desensitization, and fear. In R. G. Geen & E. Donnerstein (Eds.), Human aggression: Theories, research, and implications for social policy (pp. 167-202). New York: Academic Press.
Huston, A.C. et al (1992). Big world, small screen: The role of television in American society. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press