Violent Media Does Not Equal Violent Children

Violent Media Does Not Equal Violent Children

Melissa Baker

ENG 102

February 5th, 2014

Nyra White

Violent Media Does Not Equal Violent Children

        The gun shots rang out and I wanted to hit the floor. For a split second I forgot the gunfire was coming from my son’s video game. I walked into his room and asked him what he was playing. He said, “I’m playing Grand Theft Auto V it’s really cool.” Looking at him curiously I asked, “How can killing someone be so cool?” He stopped playing, looked at me and said, “Mom, I’m not going to become a serial killer okay. You taught me how to be good, stop stressing.” As he continued to play in his epic gun battle, I knew he was okay. I had instilled a healthy morale in him at an early age. He was merely entertaining himself and showed no desire to act on the violence.

So, why are we blaming everything that is wrong with our children on violent media? Studies have consistently found that although violent media may seem repugnant to many of us, it does not harm the human brain or increase the likelihood of violent acts (Perry, 2013). So, what has led us to believe that violent video games and movies have a negative effect on our children? Could it be that we are afraid to look at ourselves or others as the reason our children have behavioral issues? Violent media is not the cause of behavioral problems in children but has been society’s scapegoat for parents and peers.

        Violent media has been around for many generations, take for example Grimm’s Fairy Tales. This collection of fairy tales, from the 1800’s, may make you think of your beloved “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” but the Grimm brother’s original versions are engrossed with acts of cannibalism, incest, rape, torture, and murder (Harris, 2012). Imagine sitting on your mother’s lap as she reads how Cinderella’s step sisters got their eyes pecked out by doves.

Also, who could forget reading Lord of the Flies in school? Golding’s Lord of the Flies recounts how a schoolboy called Piggy was savagely murdered by other children marooned on an island (Wall Street Journal, 2011). However, if you weren’t much of a reader as a child you probably watched your fair share of MGM’s The Looney Toons on Saturday mornings. These cartoons would depict violence between characters as they chased each other around the neighborhood with loaded shotguns. Then again, you may have enjoyed a classic war and western show with lots of gun action, body parts, and other casualties of circumstance.

Whatever the preference, violent media has been around for many years and by the 1970’s more than half of the shows that children watched contained fighting, shooting guns, and murder(“A History of Television Violence: What Has Happened to TV?,” n.d.). Either way, most of us have been exposed to violent media. Whether it was at home or assigned to us to read at school, no restrictions were put into place by the government and there has been no evidence that points to negative changes in our lives from being exposed to it. Even so, some parents and specialists today believe and would argue that these types of media and the more current, video games, are causing negative behavioral changes in children.