Sunday, January 13, 2002		Stressbusters

Children and TV violence
V.K. Kapoor

Television can be powerful influence in developing value systems and shaping behaviour.

• Unfortunately, much of today’s television programming is violent.
  
  

• Hundreds of studies of the effects of TV violence on children and teenagers have found that children may:

— become "immune" to the horror of violence

— gradually accept violence as a way to solve problems

— imitate the violence they observe on television; and

— identify with certain characters, victims and or victimisers

• Extensive viewing of television violence by children causes greater aggressiveness.

• Sometimes, watching a single violent programme can increase aggressiveness.

• Children who view shows in which violence is very realistic, frequently repeated or unpunished, are more likely to imitate what they see.

• Children with emotional, behavioural, learning or impulse control problems may be easily influenced by TV violence.

• The impact of TV violence can be immediately evident in the child’s behaviour or may surface years later, and young people can even be affected when the family atmosphere show no tendency toward violence.

• While TV violence is not the only cause of aggressive or violent behaviour, it is clearly a significant factor.
  
  

• Parents can protect children from excessive TV violence in the following ways:

— Set limits on the amount of time they spend with the televisions; consider removing the TV set from the child’s bedroom

— point out that although the actor has not actually been hurt or killed, such violence in real life results in pain or death.

— Refuse to let the children see shows known to be violent, and change the channel or turn off the TV set when offensive material comes on, with an explanation of what is wrong with the programme.

— Disapprove of the violent episodes in front of the children, stressing the belief that such behaviour is not the best way to resolve a problem.

— To offset peer pressure among friends and classmates, contact other parents and agree to enforce similar rules about the length of time and type of programme the children may watch.

(The writer is a senior Haryana cadre police officer)