Many parents are concerned with the amount of and type of violence that their children are exposed to in the media. Kids Health reports that babies and toddlers under the age of 2 spend an average of two hours in front of the television each day and that children between the ages of 3 and 6 also spend at least two hours watching television each day. The average increases to four hours per day for children between the ages of 8 and 18 with an additional two hours of computer time. According to Kids Health, children of any age can be influenced by the violence they see portrayed on the screen and these influences often manifest in physical ways.
Increased Aggressive Behavior
According to Kids Health, watching violent acts on television and in other media sources can influence children to also behave aggressively. Healthy Children reports that if a child watches an average of three to four hours of noneducational television each day, he will have watched about 8,000 murders by the time he finishes elementary school. The way that violence is used in the media as a problem solving tool sends the wrong message to children regarding to how deal with their problems. Children are incapable of understanding the real consequences of violence because violence in the media is often portrayed as funny or entertaining, says Healthy Children. Children often try to imitate the violent behavior seen on television because they do not understand that real violence has much different consequences than media violence, adds Kids Health.
Increased Fear Of The World
Kids Health reports that children who are exposed to media violence may begin to fear the world around them because they tend to believe that what they see on television and in movies really happens. Most children are not able to make the distinction between what is real and what is fantasy and simply telling a child that what they see is not real will not take their fears away, says Kids Health. Healthy Children encourages parents to keep track of the television programs, movies and other media their children are watching in order to ensure that they are not seeing images that will lead to real life fears.
Increased Confusion Between What Is Right And What Is Wrong
When children listen to their parents tell them certain ways to behave but then see their favorite television or movie characters behaving in different ways, they can become confused as to what is the right way to act. Kids Health states that many acts of violence in the media are perpetrated by the heroes or good guys so children begin to think that as long as its the good guys being violent, it must be all right for them to act violently as well. Healthy Children encourages parents to act as role models for appropriate behavior and to monitor their child's screen time to make sure that he is not being exposed to violent images.
