VIOLENCE ON TELEVISION: HOW IT HAS AFFECTED OUR CHILDREN (Essay Sample)

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VIOLENCE ON TELEVISION: HOW IT HAS AFFECTED OUR CHILDREN
Albert bandura bobo doll experiment confirmed that children learn through observation and imitation. This has led to sociologists asking how violence portrayed on television affects children’s growth and future behavior. Almost every house in the United States has one or more television, irrespective of social class or family income. Hence almost all children, if not all, have access to the television. An average American child watches television for four hours per day. A click can open up to your hundreds of channels, ranging from music to cartoons to news, shows and others. Though they are many watching options deciding what to watch has become a great issue, especially for children.  
It is imperative that television has changed the world by bringing information closer to us and providing us with various entertainment. Though cables and satellite providers have built parental control to help parents choose an appropriate program for their children, some programs still have some degree of violence in them. According to the center for media and public affairs, a typical American child will witness 40,000 killings and 200,000 act of violence on television by the time they are 18 years (media violence 121)
Viewers especially children, tend to copy the things they see on television, and because violence is shown often, it makes people act violently. In Banduras’ experiment, children reacted violently to the bobo doll because they had seen adults being violent towards it. Furthermore, violence has been a part of the entertainment process since ancient times. Violence is found everywhere on television. The news often centers its reports on homicide, rape, assault, and gang-related cases. Because these activities are being promoted daily over charity and goodwill activities, it is hard to see the difference between right and wrong. This could cause people to use violence to seek attention and gaining popularity because they know the public recognized it. Many TV shows are actually based on violence in the form of fighting and murder. When viewers closely follow these shows, they extract the violent messages that are shown and sometimes act them out. Even some of the children’s cartoon display some level of violence. I have a little boy that I make sure I monitor the cartoon he watches closely because these cartoons also use violent language and show some little violence acts.
Children are the most sensitive and vulnerable emotionally to their own feelings; they feel things like no other category of people. Hence, parents should monitor the kind of content that their kids receive from the screen, or else, there will be chances the children will end up criminals or engaged in some sort of violence. According to 15-years research performed by the Surgeon General’s Scientific Advisory Committee on Television and Social Behavior, the major effects of seeing violence on television among kids may cause children to have a fear of the world they live in, children may become less sensitive and compassionate to the pain and suffering of people around them because their hearts are hardened, Finally, children may be more likely to be aggressive towards others.
For parent to reduce children exposure to violent programs, here are my recommendations: Parents should pay attention to the programs their children are watching and watch some with them. Parents should set limits on the amount of time they spend with the television; They should consider removing the television set from the child's bedroom. Parents should make children understand the consequences of violent behavior in real life. Parents can also locate and explore alternatives to media that can be useful in solving conflicts with violence. They can also talk with other parents to find out how other parents protect their children from violent contents in the media. Parents should explain what is right and wrong to their children and turn off or change the channel that shows offensive and violent materials. It has also been found out that parents’ comments during and after children exposure to violent programs can help in reducing impacts of violent programming among children aggressiveness.
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