Violent Media and Children Behavior

Violent Media and Children Behavior

Introduction

This paper intends to discuss the relevance of media and its contributions towards the behavioral development of children. In today' time, the involvement of media in children's life is immense. However, like every other thing; there are positive and negative attributes attached to media exposure as well. The underlying violence within the media is blamed to be contributing to violent behavior within children. Children tend to learn from everything they see and observe; therefore, media is often blamed to produce violent behavior within children. The purpose of this paper is to make the readers aware about the violence in the media and its contribution to violent behavior within children. In order to make the paper more comprehensive, it would include my personal experiences and first hand information related to the development of children and the impact of media. Further, understanding and applying the knowledge of psychology is the essence of this paper. The most important thing that would be kept in mind while writing this research paper is that a variety of perspectives on the topic will be explored in order to make the discussion balanced and fruitful and not one sided at core.

Discussion

The exposure of media to the children is always questionable. We live in a society where media tends to be free and have the right to show whatever they believe needs to be shown. At the same time, the growing trend of terrorism and all other relevant aspects have raised the extent of violence being shown over the media. The children remain most sensitive to each and every thing they observe. Children are most prone to learn negative things more quickly and easily rather than the positive ones. Therefore, parents and immediate care takers of children are always doubtful about the question that whether violence on media contributes towards the violent behavior development within the children. There are intense researches being done over the subject in order to make sure that the children are protected from every negative thing being shown over the media (Tompkins, 2003).

Different researches have shown significant linkage between children having exposure to violent video games, cartoons, movies and other programs over the media; and children having behavioral problems. The exposure of children to violent activities or programs over the media results in violent behavioral development of the children. The fact is not completely established as each child reacts to what they observe differently. For instance, one child would learn being violent through the video game while the other would try to avoid being violent by witnessing the same game. Overall, it depends over the comprehension level and learning style of the children (James, 2001).

I believe children learn from what they see and observe. I have my personal experience in this regard. My niece who is just four years old and I were watching a violent movie. At that point in time; I did not realize the fact that my niece would be so much ...