Tom and Jerry should be banned - according to some organisations concerned with the amount of violence children see on television these days. Batman, Superman, The Simpsons and Ren and Stimpy are other cartoons which have been called into question. According to American research, between 20 and 25 violent acts are committed every hour on Saturday morning children's programming. Things seem to be a bit better with prime-time television where violence levels run at a mere five acts an hour.
All told, the American Psychological Association estimates the average US teenager views 10,000 murders, rapes and aggravated assaults per year on television.
The impact of television violence has been the subject of debate almost since the inception of television. The amount of violence seems to be on the increase - from news coverage of riots to people being shot dead; then there is the growing number of "real-TV" style programmes, offering everything from car chases ending in accidents to images of families engrossed in violent bust-ups.
If there's so much of it, surely people must enjoy it. So why not give them as much violence as possible? In fact, studies have shown that it isn't necessarily the violence itself which make violent TV programmes popular. According to one researcher, violence happens to meet many of the criteria which ensure a large audience: it can be portrayed visually, the conventions are understood by all, it is the source of attention-drawing action and ensures repeated crescendos of suspense. People who feel the level of violence on television should be lowered significantly say other dramatic devices could be used which would, with a bit of imagination, meet the same criteria - and please audiences.
Following several instances of teenagers shooting their classmates in schools and outside discos in America, there has been a lot of discussion here and in the US about the portrayal of violence. In California, television stations in Los Angeles were flooded with protests when they decided to interrupt children's programmes to show live footage of a man committing suicide on a city freeway. Indeed, it's hard to imagine how something like that wouldn't be very traumatic for an adult, never mind a young child. There are studies which show teenagers are less likely to identify with television characters than children. Those who do believe in the reality of television and identify with violent heroes are likely to be more aggressive. But whether or not high levels of violence on television, and at the cinema also, would provoke someone to go into school and shoot classmates dead is the subject of ongoing debate. Violence is arguably glorified in a lot of films, from Mafia stories such as Goodfellas to the romantic adventure of Thelma and Louise. It even becomes the subject of hilarity in something like Pulp Fiction or the more recent Analyse This. It's possible someone might see fit to read into certain films messages along the lines of: violence is good, it's very funny, blowing a few classmates away is very cool.
However, researchers tend to cite other factors which influence people who carry out violent crimes. The availability of guns, family circumstances and mental health problems are generally considered more important. Some researchers feel violent films definitely have an influence; others have their doubts.
One way or another, teachers in the US are now being trained to be more alert to school children who threaten to commit violence. Pupils heard discussing or planning violence are in some schools being immediately questioned by school police and psychologists and their homes are being contacted to see if there are guns available there.
WHILE NOT all people are affected, and not all are affected in the same way, most researchers agree that screen violence can impact on people's behaviour in three ways. In general terms, these are known as "Direct Effects", "Desensitisation", and the "Mean World Syndrome".
Direct Effects means that people who watch a lot of violence on television may become more aggressive and may develop favourable attitudes about the use of aggression to resolve conflicts. Desensitisation means watching a lot of television may make people, especially children, less sensitive to violence in the real world, less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others, and more willing to tolerate ever-increasing levels of violence in society.
Finally, Mean World Syndrome refers to the notion that people who watch a lot of violence on television may begin to believe their world is as dangerous in real life as it appear on the television. Heavy television viewers (those who watch four hours or more a day) are, research suggests, more fearful of the world around them and more likely to overestimate their level of risk.
Given the concern over Tom and Jerry, what sort of fear must parents have about your typical shoot-'em-up video game, where their children actually "interact" with death and violence? A lot of the research (which has tended to focus on fantasy games with non-human targets) actually suggests video-game violence has no effect on children's aggression - though there is also some evidence that violent video games and cartoons can make children more aggressive in their play.
