Violence in Media

When you flip the channel on your t.v what do you usually see? Most of the time you would see someone in a fight, someone instigating a fight, or something watching a fight. Violence in television shows and movies has increased greatly from what it used to be before. In the olden days movies and shows had one purpose; either show romance, or comedy. Even though movies and television shows still contain romance and comedy it however, comes in the form of also have violence in them, or as the younger generation calls it "action". There may be the rare occasion in which a movie or a show doesn't contain violence but that however is getting harder to find these days. But, that is not the major problem, sure movies are rated pg 13, 18+ and R rated for a reason but how come we see violence in shows for little kids these days?

When we see violence or "action" in movies and shows that are old enough for teenagers 13+ watch we may let it slip but when it comes to shows that our little brothers, sisters, cousins , nephews/nieces, grand-daughters/sons watch it becomes an issue. Shows and movies showing this type of "action" can really take start to control a little kids mind and maybe is giving them signals that no , being nice to solve problems is not the key, but being violent is. The shows that clearly portray violence in shows for little kids include; Tom and Jerry, Power Rangers, Pokemon much more. Shows also like South Park, Futurama, and The Simpsons also show a great amount of violence. Even though kids from the age of 5-12 should not be watching shows like South Park and so on they also show a wrong path. Here is a clip from Tom & Jerry fighting:

In this particular scene Tom tries to eat Jerry and because Jerry keeps escaping Tom decides he will try to his  him with a rolling pin, along with his claws, and a cookie cutter. The example there showing here is that its okay to fight with one another and hit each other with different types of objects which for a five year old would not be a good idea to watch. The younger you are the , the less understanding you have of certain things that you don't if they are right or wrong. Also in the show Tom and Jerry they show Tom constantly bullying Jerry which now does not seem like a good show for kids to be watching right? Studies also say watching shows like Tom and Jerry , Scooby Doo , Pokemon and so on make a child more aggressive and children tend to act how they see cartoon characters acting as they would if they saw actors or actresses on the screen.

Is violence in cartoon shows one of the main reasons that bullying/gossiping and rumor spreading is happening? Not only is that all happening it gets to such an extreme that some can't take it anymore and sadly, decide to end their life. Many people tend to ask the question " what can we do about it?'. There are some ways parents can prevent from their children to watch these kinds of shows by setting a privacy lock, let your children watch t.v only at certain times when you know what shows are going to be on, and also you could sit by them reading a book or on the computer to see what kinds of shows they are watching. The privacy lock has benefited many parents because you can block from your children, siblings and etc from watching shows that have ratings over pg 13 and over if they are younger. This way whenever they want to watch that certain show you would need to enter a password. These are some ways we can prevent from little kids from being exposed to media violence not only in cartoons but reality shows, sitcoms, movies and video games.

Violence in media has affected many peoples lives and it has obviously not been for the best, with keeping our siblings, kids etc away from media violence we may be saving someones respect, dignity, and even life. Just keep in the mind the more we are exposed to things like these the more we tend to act like what everyone on t.v is doing. Even though we know that most of the time it is acting, kids that are smaller will not know that they are acting and may think that they are doing something for real and that's how they should do things to deal with their problems.