Televised Violence
By Dorothy Gilbert
Teen Scribe  
September  2,  2011 

I believe TV violence does have an effect on the way people act. A prime example of this would be UFC, also known as Underground Fighting Championship. In the past few years I have just started hearing about this UFC. The first time I heard of it, was in my freshmen year. I overheard a couple of boys engaging in a conversation about the most recent fight. As the conversation went on, I also noted that these boys were conducting their own unofficial UFC fights in their garage. This seemed dangerous and obscene to me. 

It is said that most American children watch 3 to 4 hours of television daily. Psychological and Sociological studies have shown that children who watch aggressive behavior on TV will often show more aggressive behaviors themselves. Also these children may become immune to televised violence, thinking it’s not a big deal. They may learn to accept violence as a way of life, imitate behavior shown, or compare themselves with a certain character from a TV show. 

It has been noted that children with learning, behavior, or emotional problems are more likely to be influenced by things they see on the television, such as violence. Depending on the child, effects from televised violence may be prevalent right away or may surface years later. 

In order to protect children from viewing too much violent material, parents can monitor programs their children are watching, watch some with them, limit the amount of television the child is allowed to watch, explain to the child that what they see on TV is merely actors roleplaying but can cause serious problems in actuality, not allow the child to watch shows they know are violent, or verbally disapprove of violence when it is seen on TV. 

I believe to control how much violence affects a person’s life, you must start when they are young. A parent needs to set restrictions for the child’s media intake because as the child grows and gets older, it will be harder to control what they see.