Every time someone gets into a car and ventures onto City Streets they run the risk of encountering road rage. Sometimes they will become the victim of senseless acts of violence, and sometimes they will be the aggressor. Every thirteen minutes one person dies in a motor vehicle crash. The main cause of road rage is a sense of uncontrollable anger or violence in the driver. Many times, this violence has been present in the person since childhood, much of this violence can be traced back to acts of violence seen on television as a child. It is hard to believe but road rage and television violence have many similarities. The violence on

Since it can be shown that violence leads to road rage, and the number one source for violence is the television. It must be concluded that something has to be done to limit the amount of violence children see on television. If children are exposed to less violent material when they are young, then they will be less likely to commit acts of road rage when they get older. The best way to limit the amount of violence a child is exposed to would be for the parents to monitor the child’s television intake. Since this is often hard to accomplish, it should be required that the V-chip be installed in every new television set, and a better television rating system be established.

The V-chip is “an electric means of screening out content, particularly violence, that the parents deem inappropriate for their children’s viewing” (Thomas 65). With the V-chip installed in their television set, parents will be able to control what their children watch. The government has already made some steps in the right direction by implementing a television rating system. This rating system shows an appropriate age level for each program at the top of the screen as the program starts. Although this is helpful, this rating system is lacking in several ways. Eron says, “by labeling programs with age designations rather than indicating how much violence, sex, or adult language the shows contain, the TV industry may create a boomerang effect in which more children will end up watching the programs with sensitive content” (68). The rating system should instead be based on content, and tell the viewer or the parent exactly what type of questionable material the program contains. In addition to this new rating, the V-chip will allow parents to set their television to not even display shows containing certain questionable content. If the parents are not home, the children will still not be able to view these programs.

Children often behave differently after they have been watching violent television programs. In one study at Pennsylvania State University, around one hundred pre-schoolers were studied before and after they viewed violent programs. Althea Huston, Ph.D., says, “Children that watched the violent television shows, even just “funny” cartoons, were more likely to hit their playmates, argue, disobey class rules, leave tasks unfinished, and were not willing to wait for things than those who watched non violent TV shows” (Thomas 69). Real life studies have provided important facts supporting the idea that “violence from children may be cause by what they watch” (Susson 20). They can show the long-range effects of televised violence. Leonard Eron, Ph. D., as well as his associates from the University of Illinois, found that children who watched many hours of televised violence during their elementary years also have shown a higher level of aggression as they become teens. By observing these children until they thirty years old, Dr. Eron found that “the ones that have been watching violent shows since they were little kids were more likely to have been arrested and prosecuted as adults” (27).

There are many reasons that lead people into rage on the road. One of the main causes is competition between drivers; as they get on the freeway, these drivers s

Some topics in this essay:
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