Televisions Negative Effects On Children

6 Pages 1495 Words

Have you ever wondered how television affects your children? As children grow and develop they can be easily influenced by what they see and hear on television. Television is the biggest source of entertainment in the United States today, but it is also the greatest educator towards children. Television has many negative effects on children from their physical, social, and mental health. Television is becoming a plug in drug that can have a drastic affect on your child.
By the age of eighteen the typical American child, he or she has seen 200,000 dramatized acts of violence, and 40,000 dramatized murders (Grossman 1). What kid of impact does this have on one’s child? Well it is a leading cause for children to become more aggressive, in both behavior and attitude. More than one thousand studies demonstrated a cause and effect relationship between media and violence and aggressive behavior in children (Pawlowski 147). Many children are amused by what they see on television, anything from explosions, fights, punching, and any other act a cartoon character performs. According to media scholar George Gerbner more than 90 percent of cartoon programs feature violence. Mr. Gerbner believes that cartoons are “the most controversial and effective demonstrations of power, with humor as the sugar coating pill” (146). What children are seeing in their cartoon shows are portrayed as humorous, and it leads them to believe that after being violent there will be no consequences. Children often imitate what they see in their cartoons they are watching. In one landmark experiment, twelve four year old boys were divided to watch two different cartoons. Six of the boys watched Woody the Woodpecker and the other six boys watched Little Red Hen (Steyer77). The results revealed what type of impact a violent and nonviolent cartoon can have on children. Afterwards it was shown that the children who watched the violent cartoon Woody the Woodpecker were f...