The average American child watches three to four hours of television in a single day. That amount of time is over half as much time as children spend in school, and can be up to two times as much time as they spend with their parents on a daily basis. GeorgeGerbner, Ph.D., at the University of Pennsylvania did studies, which show that in one-hour of viewing children's television you are likely to see about twenty acts of violence. The open violence in today's media is, in part, responsible for the violence in today's society.
The violence on TV desensitizes children to violence in their lives. They see violence every day, on the news, or cartoons, even some sitcoms. They are forced to live with it every minute of their lives. A bloodied body, perhaps missing a limb, with several gashes cutting a body open is no uncommon sight for the youth today. A man or woman beating another person to death would not bother them. There is near to nothing these days that will make a person look twice, or be astonished at how graphic a fight scene is able to get. Any sort of violence today no longer fazes the younger generation.
Children today behave in a more violent and aggressive way due to violence in the media. Children watch the characters on TV, their heroes, performing heinous acts of violence and be rewarded for it. This makes children, especially those with learning, behavioral, and emotional problems more likely to imitate what they see. There was a study done at the University of Pennsylvania, which had 100 preschool students observed before and after watching TV. Those who watched the cartoons with a little bit of violence in them were more likely to hit out, argue, disobey, and they were more impatient. Other studies shows that after children watch a violent program they are less likely to call for help, or intervene if they see an argument or fight going on. Television violence causes children to act with little discipline, and to show violent behavior.
