Just this week, after an excruciatingly lengthly day I flipped on my TV, little did I know that MTV would pop up. The scene that appeared was laden with f-bombs(bleeped out) and other vulgarities, I changed the channel so fast I can hardly remember what the TV show was and what the individuals were actually doing. What I do remember clearly is how shocked I was after turning on the TV, all I wanted to do was watch the news or maybe a lighthearted movie. This got me thinking, how many times have children been in this same scenario after a parent or older family member didn’t change the channel? Numerous studies have found correlations between aggressive behavior and violence witnessed on the TV screen, so how could a parent not put on parental controls or take measures to avoid their children’s exposure to this material? Well, according to a study released just two days ago in the Pediatrics Journal, parents have become desensitized to what they see on TV.
My initial thought was, of course this had to be the answer to why children come into contact with material meant for adults, but as always further examination was needed before jumping to such conclusions. The study, conducted on 1,000 parents with children 6 to 18, had the participants successively watch various movie scenes that included violence and sex, according to Variety. As the participants watched more and more scenes they became more and more “desensitized.” The results found came about from asking parents how they would rate a movie after each clip,“after the first movie clip, respondents thought the minimum age to see a movie with that kind of violent content should be 16.9 years old on average and 17.2 years old for sexual content. After watching the sixth and final scene, parents grew more lenient, deeming 13.9 years acceptable for violent films and 14 years old for sexual ones.” The results stated above clearly show a disparity in age requirements after successive watching of scenes.
Courtesy of: http://www.topics-mag.com/edition02/tv-violence-yuko.htm
I see the results of this study as very credible, the sample size was large, bias within the study seems non existent, and it was completed in a timetable appropriate for such research. The study itself claims none of the authors had potential conflicts of interest or financial stake within the study. It is also imperative to note reverse causation can be ruled out, there is a clear cause and effect, not a correlation in the study. Due to chance I can’t definitively say that parents desensitization contributes to children’s access to disturbing material, but it surely looks like a possibility.
Sources:
http://www.apa.org/pi/prevent-violence/resources/tv-violence.aspx
https://www.apa.org/pi/prevent-violence/resources/violence-youth.pdf
http://insidemovies.ew.com/2014/10/20/study-parents-are-desensitized-to-sex-and-violence-in-film/
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2014/10/15/peds.2014-2803.full.pdf+html
My parents were very strict when it came to the television. MTV was blocked on our television until I think I was eleven years old. But with that being said I think at some point parents need to pick and choose what they are going to shelter there kids from, and sometimes television isn’t as high up on the list as it should be.
As a child my parent’s put so many restrictions on not only the television, but also the internet and random books lying around. It was important to them to shield me from the cruelties of reality tv and uncensored language. Even to this day my parents cringe when I’m in the room and unfiltered language is able to be heard. However, I believe that this can be attributed to the generation in which i was born. A lot of parents that are closer in age to me, are more lenient with allowing their children to hear vulgarity.
Are you sure there may not be a third factor involved in all of this? Correlation does not always equal causation, so there may be something else that is coming into play during this study. Growing up, I know my parents always felt the need to protect me. I mean, I was the first child and the only girl, so even though I didn’t understand it back then, I guess it makes sense now. Anyways, I think that eventually, there comes a time where parents need to loosen their grip on their children and let them mature by themselves. It may be true that some parents are becoming desensitized to what they see on TV, but I don’t think that’s always the case.
This is interesting. Growing up, my parents always tried to censor what I watched, whether if it was to avoid cursing, drug use, or violence. Now that we’re in college and are parents are no longer watching over our shoulders, I feel no urge to watch anything that contains everything my parents helped me to avoid. But is this really for the best? Some might argue that less vulgarity we are exposed to, the less likely we’ll be to repeating these actions. However, will this lead us to living naive and sheltered lives?
I don’t think that parents knowingly do not protect their children. I believe at a certain age, the parents are more lenient with what they’re kids watch. Of course the parent isn’t going to let their 6 years old child watch movie with violence or sex scenes, but as they mature, they should be exposed to more things.