Tv_Violence_On_Young_Children

Tv Violence On Young Children Social Learning Theory and T.V. Violence In the United States children watch an average of three to fours hours of television daily (Cantor & Wilson, 1984, p. 28). Television can be a powerful influence in developing value systems and shaping behavior. Unfortunately, much of today's television programming is violent. Studies of the effects of TV violence on children and teenagers have found that children may become insensitive to violence. Consequently, they tend to gradually accept violence as a way to solve problems by imitating the violence they observe on television; and they identify with certain characters, good or bad. Therefore, extensive viewing of television violence by children causes greater aggressiveness (Rosenthal, 1986). Typically, children begin watching television at a very early age, sometimes as early as six months, and are seasoned viewers by the time that they are two or three years old (Murray, 1997). The amount of time that American children spend watching TV is remarkable, an average of four hours a day, 28 hours a week, 2,400 television, children, violence, behavior, bandura, learning, watching, school, likely, violent, tv, hours, time, modeled, wilson, watch, through, theory, social, modeling, individuals, especially, cantor, aggressive, 1984, 1977, preschoolers, others, observer, must, learn, identify, example, chen, attention