In America, two-thirds of parents said they are very concerned about violence that children are exposed to in the media. This was stated in a report released by Kaiser Family Foundation a few years ago. The report also mentioned that two in three parents are closely tracking their children’s television viewing and use of electronic media.

Kaiser is a nonpartisan group that conducts health policy research. It released its study just when the impact of violence, sex and adult language used on television, and other media was in the forefront of domestic discussions.

The Kaiser study found that two-thirds of parents said they would support new limits on television content. Some parents have even proposed restricting the violence that could be shown during the early evening. 
 
What media does

Meanwhile, as if to exculpate a single TV set as the only source of violent behavior, psychologists list other likely factors that may determine a person’s predisposition toward aggression. Among them:

• The child’s personality and actual environment can be contributory.
• The child’s own experience with aggression as well as family circumstances can also influence.
• In some social groups, the cultural context can be factored in.

What media does, however, is contribute to long term fear through cultivation. Media can easily sway children’s conceptions of social reality. Through cultivation, kids who watch a great deal of TV will come to perceive the real world as being consistent with what they see on screen. The demarcation between fantasy and reality blurs. Hence, too much exposure to violence could lead one to think and accept that the world is indeed a violent one. Desensitization is what psychologists call it.

We are not certain about local statistics but US studies reveal that two out of three TV programs contain some form of physical violence.

Moreover, a typical hour of television features an average of six different violent exchanges between perpetrators and victims.

Anak TV’s latest brochure enumerates shocking numbers: By the time a child reaches 16, he would have watched 200,000 scenes of violence on TV; of that number, 33,000 would have been of murder. Virtually 80 percent of children’s programs contain some form of violence. An average Filipino child who reaches age 18 would have spent 16,000 more hours watching TV than attending school.

What is most disturbing about all those statistics is that the extent of violence in programs targeted to children is so high. The American average is 14 violent interchanges an hour! A vast percentage of American TV for kids finds their way in Philippine homes!

Children develop a view of the world traditionally through observations of their caretakers, playmates and authority figures. However, because our children are often in the company of television today, more often than with friends or family members, the persuasive power of TV ‘s “perfect world” can become the most dominant force in their early socialization process.

Children now “learn” through observation, hour by hour, from TV and other media that they are exposed to. They learn family models, gender and social interactions, even sex, from media.
It is a question of promoting media literacy, which we profoundly lack in our education system. We need to strengthen Filipino children and youth in their role as consumers of media content so they will know how to use media smartly. While we debate on the contentious “policy area”, we must safeguard the child first.

To err on the side of child sensitivity makes better sense than to err on the side of popularity.