More Violence, More Troubled Kids: A Study

Prime time television has changed drastically over the years, and for many not in a positive direction. Today’s content revolves around sex and violence, not only for adults, but also for children. Throughout history there have been many attempts at implementing acts to make prime time television safe for children to watch by limiting the types of shows on air. However, when looking at television shows today it is hard to accept that these acts were implanted. Media Now explains the acts implemented throughout history and the ways they gave parents a better control on what their children are watching. On the other hand, More Violence, More Sex, More Troubled Kids takes a look at a study what was conducted by the Parental Television Control

In order to help regulate the television that children can see the Children’s Television Act of 1990 which set the standard to three hours a week of children’s programming; which was then followed by the Telecommunication Act of 1996 which required the V-chip that enabled the viewers who had one to block the programming that they did not want their children to view. Even with the Telecommunication Act there were only about 20% of the parents who used to chip to regulate what their children were watching (Straubhaar, LaRose & Davenport, 2013, p.245-246). Media Now poses the question of how we can keep sex and violence away from children, especially though television shows. It is hard to do so, since it goes against the First Amendment, which allows for the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press (Straubhaar, LaRose & Davenport, 2013, p. 95). It also gets difficult since the viewer is voluntarily choosing to engage in watching a show that might contain an excessive amount of violence, or sex; which in turn might not be totally appropriate for their age group. At the beginning of each episode that appears on television there is a violence warning, this violence warning helps parents to decide if the show is suitable for their child to watch or not. These violence warnings also help to divert the criticism that there is an

Series like C.S.I. and Law and Order: SVU have on average, more than a million children watching the gruesome acts of rape, murder and assault each week(Fyfe, 2007). Media Now would argue that the reason that there is this high a number of children watching these series are because their parents are not regulating what they are watching (Straubhaar, LaRose & Davenport, 2013, p.245), but that is not the complete issue. Media Now acknowledged the act of the Telecommunication Act of 1996 that would allow parents to block shows that they did not think were appropriate from their children, but what about cartoons? Parents are reluctant to block cartoons from their children because they believe that they are “kid appropriate” More Violence, More Sex, More Troubled Kids indicated that there was a study conducted by the Parental Television Council that found that the cartoons that children are watching are even exposing them to violence. This study indicated that there are “more than 6 instances of violence per hour”. There is no way for children to escape the violence in their television shows, even if their parents are able to block content, they are still receiving violence in the cartoons that they are engaging in. More Violence, More Sex, More Troubled Kids