Cause And Effects Of Violence Among Children

In the month of child abuse awareness, it feels like an obligation to talk about violence among children, and to try to understand its causes and some of the possible effects. In a society where more than ever children are raising themselves, where humanity is anesthetized and violence becomes as normal as breathing, it is necessary to analyze what led to this social immunity towards the problem. It turns out to be compulsory to understand, in order to prevent and reeducate. Children with violent behaviors might result to be adults with violent behaviors. To better understand this phenomenon is this indispensable to define the term ‘violence’. According to the world health organization, violence is defined as “the intentional use of physical …show more content…
In the journal “Media and Risky Behaviors” Escobar-Chavez and Anderson depict that the average American youngster spend approximately one third of their days with some sort of electronic media, and that this exposure engages them in unhealthy behaviors that have a huge societal cost. Media exposure has as cause the absence of parental figures to control it. This exposure however has more effects than causes. In fact, the excessive contact with media set a new whole level of behaviorism issues. On an average 30 minutes of television, there are 17 high calories food ads. Such exposure led to the increment of obesity in children by 18 points from 1999 to 2014. As children are consumers, they can influence the decisions of purchasing certain products in the family, and they certainly are the future adult market. No surprise that the advertisers spends billions of dollars on food marketing. Obesity is not the only effect that derives from the Medias. Smoking, for example, is one of the 10 greatest health concerns of the government. About 65% of new smokers are children and adolescents. Smoking on television is widespread. A lot of studies provide evidences of how children are more intrigued by smoking if they are exposed to it through media. Alcohol abuse is also another effect of this exposure. As for smoking, children and adolescents are curious about alcohol because they see it advertised on national TVs, and their icons are active consumers of it. Early sexual initiation is, again, a main effect of media depicting it as a non-risky practice. Reports show instead that this kind of “promotion” lead to an increment of STIs and teen pregnancies. Last effect, but also cause, of violence exposure through the media is the increment of aggressive and violent behaviors in children and adolescents. Youth’s exposure to violent media is extremely high and, even if