Rough Draft of Issue Brief

AN EXECUTIVE ORDER TO INCREASE RESTRICTIONS ON MEDIA VIOLENCE

WHAT’S THE ISSUE: An Overlook of Increasing Media Violence in the United States

T.V. Violence:

In American mass media, violence is ubiquitous. When looking at television specifically, the American Psychological Association Commission on Violence and Youth reported that the average American youth will witness more than 200,000 violent episodes on T.V. (including more than 16,000 murders) before age 18, and weapons are shown on an average of 9 times per hour. On average, T.V. programs display 812 violent acts per hour, almost half of which comes from children’s programming.

46% of T.V. violence occurs in children’s shows, particularly cartoons. Saturday morning cartoons alone contain about 20-25 violent acts per hour, 6 times as many as prime time programs. Some claim cartoon violence is harmless and not damaging to the health of children, due to the fact that they are not “real”. In reality, cartoon violence is shown to increase the likelihood of antisocial and aggressive behavior in the youth. Since 67% of these programs typically juxtapose violence with humor, children have developmental difficulty discerning the “real” from the “fantastic.”

Video game violence

In video games, the players are an active participant rather than merely a viewer. 97% of children ages 12-17 play video games, most of which play every day for an hour or more. Some of the most popular video games, including “Call of Duty” and “Grand Theft Auto,” are especially violent, featuring missions with the main goal of brutally murdering others through firearm, warfare, or other weapons. Most games nowadays are “first-person shooter” styled, with realistic graphics and special effects, making shootings and other violent acts appear real.

IMPACT ON YOUTH

Media Violence vs. True Violence

Violence in the media presents a skewed portrayal of true violence. In the media, 75% of violent actions are committed with no remorse, 41% are associated with humor, and 58% involve victims who show no sign of pain. This inappropriate presentation of violence causes the youth to develop false expectations of true violence. Statistical analysis and reports by the National Institute of Mental Health identified these three major effects of media violence:

Aggression:

Over 1000, cross-sectional analyses, lab experiments, epidemiologic studies, reports, and longitudinal studies support the hypothesis that media violence leads to increased actual violence. In particular, certain categories of people including males, delinquents, and children with developmental and emotional disabilities, are particularly sensitive to media violence. Young children are more prone to be influenced by the media and often imitate violent acts on T.V. in their play with peers. In movies, television, and even video games, violence is often rewarded and viewed as “cool” or the ideal way to resolve a conflict. Especially before age 4, many children cannot distinguish between fact and fantasy and thus view violence as simply an ordinary occurrence. Therefore, youth typically accept violence as a way to handle problems.

When looking at video games, the children playing the game are actively participating in the physical violence. Through shooting, fighting, or brutally murdering characters in the game, children are subconsciously impacted psychologically. Constantly being exposed to brutal acts of violence and actively engaging in such acts through video games causes children to automatically think more violently in everyday life, which sometimes translates to actions.

Large-scale studies provide evidence linking frequent exposure to violent media in childhood, with aggression later in life. A report by the US Secret Service and US Department of Education, which examined about 40 incidents of targeted school shootings and school attacks, found that “over half the attacks demonstrated some interest in violence though movies, video games, books, and other media.

The graph below shows the correlation between % of students involved in physical fights and high/low violent game play.

graph1

Desensitization to violence, pain, suffering of others

New research shows that children watching televised violence or playing violent video games become desensitized to the idea of violence over time. In other words, they become “immune” or “numb” to the horror of violence, therefore becoming less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others. Adolescents are exposed to mass scales of violence almost everyday and as a result, they come to see violence as a fact of life and lover time, lose their ability to empathize with both the victim and victimizer. When young children watch characters get shot, stabbed, brutalized, degraded, raped, or murdered on T.V., it is “real” to them and they view it as though it were actually happening. As they are exposed to such violent acts hundreds and hundreds of times, they are essentially desensitized to the violence and don’t have much of a reaction when an act of real violence occurs.

Victimization and Fear

It has also been proven that media violence leads to a feeling of victimization as well as fear. In a study, 10% of high school students sough counseling due to anxiety, pure fear, and nightmares associated with media violence. Another study targeting 3rd-8th graders also reported having trauma symptoms and nightmares as a result of increased viewing of media violence.

PROBLEMS WITH PAST PUBLIC POLICY EFFORTS 

 After research and analysis, there are two main reasons why past public policy efforts to curb children’s exposure to media violence have failed. These reasons must be taken into consideration when implementing new policies in the future.

  1. Legislation and past efforts to restrict children’s access to violent video games are struck down by courts as infringing on children’s First Amendment rights.
  2. There is an apparent gap between what scientific findings suggest and what the U.S. courts and society understand. (Disparity between perspectives)

Policy Proposal:

Policy changes must take into consideration the newfound understanding of the impact of media violence on mental and physical health, specifically of the youth’s. In order to take steps forward in addressing the mass issue of increasing media violence and improve the well being of the public youth and society as a whole, the following measures are strongly recommended.

  1. Increase federal, state, and local restrictions on media violence (and enforce current restrictions)
  2. Improve Media Violence Education

Enforcing and implementing both strategies will address televised violence, as well as violence in video games.

Enforcing Current Restrictions and Increasing Restrictions on Media Violence

Although film ratings and advisory labels are put into place in order to regulate and restrict children of different age groups from being exposed to T.V. or video game violence, this system has proven to be constantly ineffective and unreliable. In more recent years, film and video game ratings have failed to be strictly enforced, causing the youth to disregard or even ignore them. Labels like “parental discretion advised”, “R” attracts children, particularly boys.

The chart below shows that as time passes, the % of underage purchases of R-Rated films and M-Rated Video games increased drastically.

graph2

ENACTING A NEW POLICY:

In order to enforce current restrictions, a strict policy should be enacted in which it is mandatory to show personal identification in the form of a passport, license, etc. before purchasing video games rated “Teen” or “M” for Mature. Similarly, when buying/renting a movie or watching a movie at the theater rated “R,” “NC17”, or “PG13”, individuals must be required to show a form of identification. Failure to comply with policy will result in a hefty fine (can vary depending on situation).

HOW WILL THIS HELP?

Enacting and strictly enforcing such a policy will help to limit the youth’s (specifically adolescents and pre-teens) exposure to media violence. Additionally, such a policy will significantly lessen the impact of violent media on the youth. Children around the ages of 12-17 will not be able to purchase video games rated “M” or get into “R” rated movies at the theater. Thus, they will not consume as much media violence and will be less likely to be impacted mentally, physically, and psychologically.

Improving Media Violence Education

In addition to limiting exposure to violent media and increasing federal, local, and state restrictions on media violence, educational efforts must be developed to help children understand the divide between real and fictionalized violence, the root cause of many psychological and emotional problems amongst the youth.

Implementing Media Education and Literacy Programs

Alongside drug and alcohol education programs, media education programs that focus on processing, dissecting, and analyzing media violence must be developed and implemented in schools, targeting elementary and middle school students. Emphasis should be placed on the unrealistic and inappropriate nature of violence in T.V., films, and video games and include a curriculum centralized on discussing the consequences, complexity, and responsibility involved with true violence.

Media education programs will help younger children properly distinguish the difference between reality and fantasy, which will help their psychological development in many ways:

  • They will less likely be desensitized to the suffering and pain of others, and empathize with victims of harsh violence more strongly.
  • They will less likely see violence as an “ordinary occurrence” or an acceptable method of resolving a conflict or issue
  • They will less likely associate real violence with humor (like that portrayed in media) and thus view real violence with more seriousness.

Through media education programs, children and adolescents can be taught “critical viewing skills” so they can learn to better interpret what they see in the media.

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