1. The Effects of Television
Violence on Children
Presentation by:
Jolene Goh, Rinda Yamashiro &
Jamie Dos Santos

2. How many people own a TV set?
• 99% of American households have
at least 1 TV set.
–54% of children have a TV set in their
rooms

3. How much TV kids watch?
• The average American child
watches 3-5 hours a day.
– Which means 28 hours a week.

4. Violent content
• 57% of TV program contain violence
• Children programming contains 5 times
more violence than prime time television.
• 25% of violent acts involve handguns
• Children’s TV shows contain about 20
violent acts each hour

5. Time of day children are most
likely to watch TV
• Saturday morning cartoon.
• Before they go to school.
• After school.

6. Children...
• can’t tell what is real from fiction
• - lack of real-life experience
• - believe what they see
• are visual learners
• - they imitate what they see

7. How does TV violence mislead
children?
• Violence is often rewarded and seldom
has negative consequences.
• - 73% of perpetrators on TV are unpunished
(National Television Violence Study, 1992)
• - Heroes are rarely unpunished
• - no bleeding, no one gets hurt
• - people killed just disappear

8. • Violence is everywhere.
• “mean world syndrome” (Gurbner),
• violence or abuse is everywhere
• there is no good in this world
• Violence is justified.
• violence by “good guys” is justified and heroic
• a particular character gets beaten up because
he is a “bad guy”
• Violence is funny.
• much cartoon violence used as comic effect
• it’s ok and no big deal for somebody to be
smacked in the head with a hammer

9. Four effects of media violence (by
Ronald Slaby)
• an aggressor effect
• encourages violent behavior
• accepting violence as a way to solve problem
• a victim effect
• increasing fearfulness
• perceives “culture of meanness”

10. • a bystander effect
• leads to callousness
• accepting violence as normal
• dulls the emotion response to violence and its
victim
• an appetite effect
• builds a desire to watch more violence

11. Other effects
• long-range effects (Leonard Eron)
• many hours of television view in elementary
school
• lead higher level of aggressiveness behavior in
teenage years
• children who watched a lot of TV when they
were eight years old
• were more likely to be arrested and prosecuted
for criminal acts
• when they become adults (observed the
children until they were 30)

12. CONCLUSION
• How to rectify the situation
– Movie/Show rating on TV
• TVY
• TVY7
• TVG
• TVPG
• TV14
• TVMA

13. V-chip
• In 1996 Congress requires television
manufacture to install “V-chips” into new
sets.
• Helps parents monitor children viewing

14. What parents can do...
• Talk to your children
• explain to them what they are seeing/experiencing
• watch at least one episode of the programs that your
children watch
• outright ban any programs that are too offensive
• limit viewing hours
• encourage child to spend time on sports hobbies or
with their friends
• draw up enjoyable activities

15. Any Questions?