Media Effects And Effects Of Media Violence On Children

Effects of Media Violence On Children After the Newtown shooting it was reported that the shooter spent vast amount of time playing violent videogames, could some of the recent violent tragedies be a result of overexposure to violence during adolescence? There has been a long disputed issue on whether violence, that is so prevalent in the media, is having effects on children. While it is farfetched to assume that exposure to violent movies creates serial killers, there have been studies that point to correlation between violent media and aggression. The author of this paper will be discussing: How adults generally view the issue of children being exposed to violent media, effects of violence on children, and limiting exposure to violence. …show more content…
Violence is so prevalent in media that it can even be found in 39% of children’s programming (Erwin & Morton, 2008). This is a huge amount of exposure that seems to grow as technology advances through toys, television shows, videogames, and most other forms of entertainment. This exposure is everywhere and in some cases even marketed towards children. This is alarming because of how young children are witnessing these things and the fact that they are still developing can cause a distortion of reality and an acceptance of violence (Erwin & Morton, 2008). These are all the more reason for parents to monitor and approve the media a child is exposed to. Children cannot be expected to understand why violence is bad or why they should not watch something so that responsibility falls on the parents. This is made easier by most movies, games, and shows given age ratings. Aside from monitoring the media, in order to offset the effects of violence it is up to the parents to teach children peace approaches and not tolerating violent or aggressive behavior (Erwin & Morton,