TV violence

Research has found that most children plug into the world of television long before they enter school.  Children spend more time learning about life through the media than from any other source.

The average child spends approximately 28 hours a week watching television, which is twice as much time as they spend in school.

The average child will see more than 200,000 acts of violence on television including 16,000 murders before age 18.
Recently I went to a movie at one of Dubai's leading cinemas.

It was a great movie but had quite a lot of violence in it. Upon looking around I noticed a lot of families had brought along their little wards, which got me thinking about whether these parents were aware of the harm film violence has on our children.

Imitation

Children are known to imitate behaviour that they are exposed to. Very often my four-year-old niece will surprise me by narrating the dialogue from an advertisement or a line from her favourite cartoon show. Thus there is a great risk of children imitating the violent behaviour that is shown in these movies or television programmes.

Due to the summer heat and lack of extracurricular activities available to children, they tend to spend more time watching television, which is becoming increasingly dominated by violence. I was appalled while watching the Cartoon Network with my nephews who were visiting from the US. Profanity was routinely used, thus making it seem perfectly acceptable to children.

Effects

Hundreds of studies on the effects of television violence on children have found that children may:
1. Become immune to the horror of violence
2. Resort to violence to solve their problems
3. Imitate the violence and the profanity
4. Begin identifying with certain violent characters or victims, thus affecting their emotional well-being

The effects of television violence on children may not always be evident immediately. It can surface several years later.

Aggressive

Longitudinal studies following viewing habits and behaviour patterns of a single individual found that 8-year-old boys who viewed the most violent programmes were the most likely to resort to aggressive and delinquent behaviour by age 18 and serious criminal behaviour by age 30.

Everything that children see or hear in the media affects them in some way. Unfortunately violence has become one of the most popular forms of entertainment, but the price attached to it is creating a whole generation which seems to believe that beating the s*** out of someone is the only way to solve conflicts or getting their own way. Let us think about whether it is actually worth taking our children to the movies and exposing them to all this malevolence just because we want three hours of entertainment.

Also, let us ponder the value that we are adding to our children's lives by allowing them to sit in front of the television so we can get them out of our hair or keep them unrewardingly engaged. If your answer to both of the above is negative, then let's all do our best to keep our children away from the ills of media violence.

Suggestions to parents

What can we do to help reduce the impact of television violence on our children?

- First, parents must pay attention to the kinds of programmes that their children are viewing. Try not to have a television in your child's bedroom. Also, you can preview the programmes before allowing your children to watch them.

- Set appropriate limits on television viewing time and the programmes that are acceptable.

- Co-viewing and commenting on the content helps to diminish its impact since it reduces the chances of children identifying with those characters and imitating their behaviour. If something you don't approve of is shown, you can turn off the television and use this opportunity to discuss with your children about whether the violent acts were the appropriate way of dealing with the situation and what better ways there are to deal with challenging situations.

- Show your disapproval of violent behaviour and teach your children healthy ways to resolve conflicts.

- Set a good example by limiting your own television viewing time.

- Offer your children fun alternatives like playing board games, reading, working on craft activities, practising with a musical instrument or some new dance steps. This will also ensure quality time being spent with your children.
n Ensure that you understand the rating of the movies before you head for a night out at the movies with your little ones.

The writer is a DOH, Dubai and US certified guidance counsellor with an M.Ed degree in school counselling from Boston, USA. She is currently working as co-ordinator ? counselling services, GEMS, UAE.