Do children who view violence on television become more aggressive

Running Head : VIOLENT CHILDREN

Violent Television is a Direct Cause to Violent Children

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The studies are in - of course they have been for some time - and the research shows that the violence viewed on television by children is a direct link to the aggressive nature of the children who watch it most

John Murray et al (2006 ) studied a group of children . The children were having MRIs (magnetic resonance imaging , a specialized radiology procedure that sees soft tissue , like the brain ) while watching violent television programs . The study showed

, Significant violence-related activation was present in all cerebral lobes , with a striking high right hemisphere predominance (p . 29 . The right hemisphere of the brain is where aggression signals are located . In short , it was clear that watching violent programming caused an increase in aggression . The study came to several conclusions , but the most relevant , and simplistic , is that violence is emotionally arousing (p . 33

Television , in fact , shows a wide range of unhealthy s . Jean Seaton (2005 ) wrote that children who watch more television are also more likely to take the media seriously . Seaton concluded that the media helps decide how children are portrayed (i .e . ideal body types , which brand name clothes children think they cannot live without . It is also evident that watching television exposes children to depictions of sexual abuse , abduction , and other frightening s that they are unprepared to deal with

Marianne Hurst (2004 ) published more proof that violent television breeds violent children . She took part in a study of 430 third through fifth grade students in Minnesota from 2000 to 2003 . The research showed that children , who watched violent content on TV , and for an average of about four hours per day , were more violent at the end of each school year . Those same children also performed worse academically , and were by far , more likely to engage in other negative behaviors , like starting rumors (p . 8 . Hurst also noted that cartoons were a big problem According to her , children see a lot of violence in cartoons , including gunplay . Since cartoon characters receive few , if any , consequences for their actions , and since we laugh at the antics of the cartoon characters , it teaches young people that violence is okay

Since we know that violent television does , in fact , cause violent behavior , who is responsible for the emotional well being of children Rebecca Munoz (2007 ) wrote , Considering that studies have linked violence on television to violent behavior in young people , it makes sense that the government would enact some preventive measure in an attempt to keep more of America 's children from becoming residents of juvenile hall . Obviously , she thinks the government needs to do a better job regulating children 's TV . Seaton wrote that adults are the ones responsible . How do our ideas about the `child ' influence the lives children actually live ? One modern answer to the puzzle of the reality of children 's experiences is the entertainments (that we are responsible for providing them...