Let us put a stop to TV violence

CHILDREN: Not one parent that I know wants his or her children watching people getting blown away and thrown off cliffs. But the reality of it is that children are eagerly watching such scenes over the television everyday and 365 days per year.

Isn't it time we become seriously concerned of this development? The cycle of more and more violence being portrayed as reality on television will not stop until something is done.

With cartoons like 'Tom and Jerry', we are showing children that violence is humorous and it can't do harm. Some time back, Dr. Andrew Meltzoff - a famous researcher studied learning in infants. One of his studies demonstrated observational learning in 14-month-olds.

After watching an adult on television handling a novel toy in a particular way, the babies were able to imitate the behaviour when presented with the toy 24 hours later.

This study indicates that babies learn imitation very early in life. This is why parents should be more particular with what they allow their susceptible children to view on TV.

Children do learn from television especially when they lack direct exposure or first hand experience with violent grotesque acts. These do take a toll on children and the way they will view life as they grow up.

I know some children who that are sweet, innocent, full of dreams, hopes, laughter and life. These kids have learned about there environment from their parents, not by watching television.

Today, in most homes the television is used as a baby-sitter, so that the parent can do housework, have an adult conversation, or just relax after work. That is why the persons who are the most likely to be harmed by the surplus of TV violence are children.

Violence, it was found, turns out to do a lot of harm when it looks harmless. For example, one of these lessons children learn watching cartoons on television is that there are few consequences to the person who commits violence - or to the victim.

Add to this 'positive' portrayal of negative behaviour the fact that children's programs were least likely to show the bad effects of violence and most likely to make it funny.

Television cartoons often feature dehumanized characters who engage in the destructive acts of violence by fighting our real life social problems.

With acts of violence, kids learn to think that's how they should solve their problems. Some cartoons encourage foul language, drinking and stealing.

With these bad attitudes seen depicted as normal on TV shows, children are led to believe it is cool to have that type of attitude. Is this what we really want our younger generation to believe?

I am confident that if we appoint a National Television Violence Study Group to study in-depth this serious problem, the report will eventually show shocking information about what our children are viewing everyday.

If they analyse television programmes from all channels they will see that a fair amount of programs contain what the researchers call harmful violence.

Worst of all, they would find that in most scenes the violence goes unpunished. In many programs with slug-fests and shoot-outs, the victims miraculously never appear harmed and show no pain whatsoever.

The lesson is clear. We must educate the children that some actions of the TV characters do hurt people, and that violence is never the answer to any problem.

We must teach the next generation how to workout his or her problems with his or her enemy by talking the problem out with the other, and compromising.

There probably will never be an end to the controversy of television violence.

We are getting more and more information and on the effects of television violence.

All of these findings have produced an increasing awareness of the basic problem and of the need for change. We know excessive viewing of television violence is harmful to the viewer. It is time we take a solid stand on the issue and tell the programme producers that we don't want to see them.

There is another side to the story. Our elder society should take a long hard look in the mirror; the values of today's youth are reflections of the values of their elders. We should remember the words in Cat's in the Cradle, - the most famous song of American singer Harry Chapin.

It is the story of a father who does not have enough time to spend with his son, and then his son grows up and does not have enough time to spend with his father. (The song was also used as the music bed for a Northern Ireland Office anti-terrorism advertising campaign in the late 1980s).

It is hard to tell if the problem of television violence is the media or if the problem is in our new social values. Whatever it is, we must help turn back the growing menace as quickly as possible.