Violence Begets Violence

Violent Television

Most Violent Shows

Stalker

Hannibal

48 Hours

American Horror Story

CSI Vegas

The Walking Dead

Vikings

Family Guy

Game of Thrones

Sons of Anarchy

The Following

Monday Night Football

Boardwalk Empire

Banshee

Note: Violent football has been around since I was a child and pretty much accepted by everyone

University of Michigan Health System

Children and Television, © 2015

Children and youth see, on average, about 2,000 beer and wine ads on TV each year

Kids see favorite characters smoking, drinking, and involved in sexual situations and other risky behaviors in the shows and movies they watch on TV.

An average American child will see 200,000 violent acts and 16,000 murders on TV by age 18

Two-thirds of all programming contains violence.

Programs designed for children more often contain violence than adult TV.

Most violent acts go unpunished on TV and are often accompanied by humor. The consequences of human suffering and loss are rarely depicted.

Many shows glamorize violence. TV often promotes violent acts as a fun and effective way to get what you want, without consequences.

Even "good guys" beating up "bad guys" gives a message that violence is normal and okay. Many children will try to be like their "good guy" heroes in their play.

Children imitate the violence they see on TV. Children under age eight cannot tell the difference between reality and fantasy, making them more vulnerable to learning from and adopting as reality the violence they see on TV.

Repeated exposure to TV violence makes children less sensitive toward its effects on victims and the human suffering it causes.

Virtually since the dawn of television, parents, teachers, legislators and mental health professionals have wanted to understand the impact of television programs, particularly on children. Of special concern has been the portrayal of violence, particularly given psychologist Albert Bandura's work in the 1970s on social learning and the tendency of children to imitate what they see. As a result of 15 years of “consistently disturbing” findings about the violent content of children programs, the Surgeon General's Scientific Advisory Committee on Television and Social Behavior was formed in 1969 to assess the impact of violence on the attitudes, values and behavior of viewers. The resulting report and a follow-up report in 1982 by the National Institute of Mental Health identified these major effects of seeing violence on television:

• Children may become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others.
  
• Children may be more fearful of the world around them.
  
• Children may be more likely to behave in aggressive or harmful ways toward others.
  

The American Psychological Association launched an analysis in 2013 of peer-reviewed research on the impact of media violence and is reviewing its policy statements in the area. Both are expected to be completed in 2014. The results are expected to be the same that was determined before...

Ya know, maybe I am wrong and a majority of the adults don't really care about how we are negatively influencing our children... I have been called a “bleeding heart liberal,” and maybe that is what I really am after all.

So, if I am one of these “bleeding heart liberals” who cares about what happens to our children and a majority of the rest of the adults living in the country, do not care, then I guess writing this article I will keep my mouth shut.

I remember, back in the 60's, when I was going to College that I grew my hair down to the middle of my back and many of my College Professors lowered my grades by 1-2 letters because of the way I wore my hair and the way I was dressed. I wore jean, dark T-shirts, and cowboy boots (even though I was not a “real” cowboy and wasn't trying to be one).

It bother me because I did not expect something like this to happen, especially at College, but what was even more surprising was that when I ventured into town and all the “local” made derogatory about me and those with me. These comments were coming from adults not children or teenagers.

Me and the guys that were with me worked out in the gym lifting weights and spending time on the various strength machines, so we were all in very good physical shape should an altercation develop and it never did except for once. And, in that one time, we kicked their butts and then of them pulled out a firearm... and, we were all frozen in time and space... and, just stood there sweating and wondering... then, the PO-lice arrived and broke it up... but arrested us, even though we did not start anything.

One of the lads that was with us (on our side) was related to the Governor of the State in which we were attending College so the PO-lice had to release us... much to their chagrin.

But, this is how America was back then... especially in the “Bible Belt” South; although, I always wondered why that was especially since Jesus had long hair.

Nowadays, I literally cannot tell one from the other... and, I don't mean males from females, I mean conservatives from liberals; however, the voting records indicate that there are more liberals registered as liberals than there are conservatives registered as conservatives.

But, I wanted to talk about my concern over our children not myself... sorry about that...

So, is there anybody out there who, like me, cares about our children and the future of our children? Of course, this here is a rhetorical question because we all care about our children, but for some reason we just don't seem to think that television shows is really going to do them any harm at all... and, maybe it won't... maybe all them PhD's way up there in Michigan have gotten their brains froze by the winter snows... or maybe not.

When I was younger, not much younger let's say about 25-30 years, I did not care too much about what our children were watching on television... and, probably did not need to even though I paid very little attention to it, because we were not watching the same kind of violent garbage that were are watching these days except for Monday Night Football.

However, maybe this is exactly what we want to create in our children... this violent type of mentality to solve disputes and settle disagreements just in case we get invaded by one of these foreign countries who want to take our lands without paying for it. And, if that is the case, then I think I might reluctantly support this since I am too old to fight myself anymore since I cut off all my long hair.