Watching television never before caused you to think that tomorrow your son or daughter would go on a murderous rampage. But now with all this violence coming from Americans youths we are wondering if maybe we were wrong. Television does cause children to act violently. .
E.B. White foresaw problem s associated with television when it first arrived. Television has become standard in many homes. In 1949, only two percent of homes had televisions. Today, only two percent of homes do not have televisions (Murray, 1993, p.1).
Violence on television has steadily increases in the last 25 years. William Goodwin said "A five year study by the American Psychological Association found that the average child witnesses 8,000 murders, and 100,000 other acts of violence on television by the seventh grade"(Goodwin, 1998, p.45). John Murray agrees with this statement and adds that five violent acts per hour occur during prime time and 20-25 violent acts happen during Saturday Morning children's programming (Murray,1993, p.5). Concluding that children could be watching 95-125 acts of violence on television each week! War cartoons, like GI Joe and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, would bring up the total higher. Elaine Landau adds "a typical war cartoon show averages 41 acts of violence per hour, with an attempted murder every two minutes" (Landau, 1990, p.45)! These violent acts can pose a threat to the mind of our young children.
In 1994, Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders said, "By portraying violence as the normal means of conflict resolution, the media gives youth the message that violence is socially acceptable and the best way to solve problems. After ten years of research, we know that a correlation exists between violence on television and aggressive behavior in children" (Goodwin, 1998, p. 47-48).
There have been many studies done to demonstrate the effects of violence on youths. A study by AACAP found that by result of television violence, children may: become immune to the horror of violence; gradually accept violence as a way to solve problems; imitate violence that they see on television; and identify with certain characters, victims, or victimizers (American, 1999, p.
