Molly Olsen
08/06/97 12:47 PM
Jennifer Taylor wrote:
 
>I think children should be kept from watching certain shows. Violence on
>TV directly causes violent behavior.
 
Tim Bergfelder wrote:
 
>Since justification for this claim comes purely from anecdotal  evidence
(as is
 usual in these
>cases), let me reply with my own story: [story of watching violence
without ill effects deleted]
 
 I agree with Tim and other posters that purely anecdotal evidence is not
useful in determining
 the effect of TV violence on children.  Yes, children do model behaviors,
and everyone has an
 anecdote about *children* acting out what they see on TV.  But children
are more violent in their
 everyday lives by far than adults are, because they're still working on
power struggles and
 forming identities and other social stuff that adults have outgrown.  And
they go through phases,
 try on personalities and behaviors of all kinds -- it's a very complex
process, and the outcomes
 in adulthood are far from predictable.
 There's no evidence that TV violence causes adults
 to model violent behavior (no matter how old they were when they viewed
it).
 
 In fact, you could argue that because a child modeling the behaviors of
socially incorrect TV
 characters causes the child to be criticized by parents and
 adults, causing the child to eventually stop doing it, it's a learning
experience for the child
 about social mores (as long as the adults hold up their end of the
equation) -- a lesson
 that he/she might not learn without being able to see the material in the
first place.  How will you
 teach your child to discriminate between acceptable behavior and
unacceptable behavior on
 TV?  If he's allowed to model everything he sees, when he starts sneaking
episodes of NYPD
 Blue without telling you at age 8 or 10, you could be in worse trouble.
You'd be surprised how
 many kids believe "if it's on TV, it must be OK."  You have to teach them
out of that, IMO.
 
 Molly Olsen
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----
Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite 
http://www.sa.ua.edu/screensite