Yang Sun

Eng 093

11-28-10

Media Violence and Children

Based on a research group created by White House, media violence has been affecting

the kids’ behavior in the society. To find out the media’s effects on kids is the research group’s

goal (NS- infinitive). The rate of violence is higher when kids watch shows containing violence.

Different people have different opinions on media violence. Some people think that less violent

TV shows lead to less violence; the others suggest that children should watch cartoons, the kind

of TV program that contains little violence (appositive), instead of violent TV shows on TV.

However, everyone agrees with that the media violence does affect children somehow.

Watching TV and playing video games are basically the main entertainment for kids

nowadays (Participial). In the article “the children and media violence” by Mifflin, shows that

the research group did an experiment in on elementary school students. They divided students

into two groups and showed violent TV shows to one group while the other group watching

nothing. The result shows that the students watched the violent TV show appeared to be more

violent than the students who did not (Preposition). It shows that the kids watched violent shows

are more prone to violence than those who did not. Violence had decreased after parents

removed the TV sets from kids’ room; kids went outside and play with friends instead. Less TV

and video games time can help kids to become more sociable, because they would not sit in front

of TV every day after school, keep themselves in their room for much time (subordinator). The

TV violence is one of the most important reasons of causing kids to be violent; family
environment, parenting style can be the causes of kid’s violence besides media violence.

(coordinator).

In Torassa’s article, the scholars gave different opinions on the most direct cause of kids’

violence. They came up with the ideas such as kids’ violence is based on the family environment

which means that if a kid lives in a violent family or the family with little supervising would be

more violence than the kids who live in happy families (Relative). Another point, by James

Spencer, is “why a little violence is good for kids”. It says that not all the violence is bad for

kids. The violence between comic and movie are different, because the violent comic is more

like humor. The movie contains more serious violence such as killing and beating. Parents have

to decide what kind of shows kids should be watching, because parents or guardians have the

responsibilities for preventing the kids from becoming violent. Parents are the first teachers for

the kids. If the parents are violent, how would they expect their kids to be nice?

Not all the violence are violent, some are more likely to be humor. For example, “Tom and

Jerry”, one of the most famous cartoons in the world, which it contains lots of fighting. Would

anyone call it a violent cartoon? Probably not, because it never gives us any feeling of violence.

Parents cannot stop the violence shows on TV; however they can choose the appropriate TV

shows for kids to watch. Fighting like a hero is cool, however, the kids might not thoroughly

understand what are they watching (absolute).

To determine the reasons of kids’ violence does not only depend on the different parties

from the three articles (infinitive). Media and Parents are not the only ones to blame for kid’s

violence. Some kids just want to be violence, which might be a genetic cause as well. We cannot

let the parents be fully responsible for it. As the kids are growing up, they changed in response to
the environment. Violence in early stage can be minimized as kids are going through education

and through communicating with other people as well.