Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Violence and Children

Violence is a huge issue in our world. Everywhere you turn there is some kind of violence. In chapter 12 of our text they discuss “Social Learning and Media Violence” and the effects it has on children. Children are exposed to violence everyday through watching TV and playing video games. Even what seems like an innocent cartoon can expose them to some sort of violence. This exposure to violence is causing children to become increasingly aggressive. Our book talks about multiple studies that have been conducted that directly correlates aggressive behavior in children to TV and Media influences. For more information you can read the section of the text on pages 473-475.

Here is an interesting video that discusses this topic:

4 comments:

  1. I definitely agree that something has to be done about these violent video games. I don't even like my boyfriend playing them, let alone a twelve-year-old child. I feel that, if children are not made conscious about the existence of violence, then they will be extremely less likely to act violently in general or towards others.

    ReplyDelete
  2. A friend of mine has a 3 year old son who has been watching his dad play violent video games since he was an infant. I feel that there was a definite negative impact on him due to this. He now constantly talks about guns, bombs, swords, explosions etc etc. My 3 year old sons look at him like he's crazy, especially when he tells them, "I'm shooting you with my gun, Nicholas.' It is amazing to see the difference in a child that is raised with that around them and one that has no concept of violence in that regard.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I also feel there is a much higher in negative consequence to violent video games. When I would babysit, I would watch the news while cooking them dinner, and the young boy would be fascinated by all the violence, instead of nervous and scared.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This concept is similar to the video clip I put in my first post about Banduras experiment with the Bobo doll. The children observe a women acting violently toward the blow up toy and then when they are put in the room with it they act the same way towards the doll that they observed. You guys should check it out.

    ReplyDelete