Speaks Out

A plea to stop the violence — a high school student speaks out

By Christine Mixan
Gross High School, Bellevue

  Then children, the symbol of innocence, commit severe crimes, then something must be going wrong in our society. That “something” is the impact violence in the media has on young people.

  While we may giggle at young children who imitate their favorite TV and movie stars such as Beavis and Butthead or the Terminator, the laughter stops when these imitations begin to turn into realities. For example, a 5-year-old Ohio boy set a fire that killed his baby sister after he watched an episode of Beavis and Butthead.

  This is just one example of many cases in which young people take what they have learned in the media — namely violence — and apply it to real life. We as a society must first admit the correlation between violence in the media and the impact it has on America’s youth. We must then find solutions to correct this problem.

  According to the February 1994 edition of Newsweek, the average American child watches more than 40 hours of television each week. The article also reports that, before graduating from elementary school, a child will see 8,000 murders and more than 100,000 other assorted acts of violence on TV alone.

  Because one-fourth of a child’s week is spent watching television, it is no wonder the result of all that violence will have a profound effect on the child’s behavior. After all, if we all believe “You are what you eat,” then surely the words “You are what you watch” should also ring true.

  According to the June 1994 edition of World Press Review, every child who behaves violently has “observed and internalized unbelievable quantities of violence.” Via TV, 3-year-olds hear about and see the excessive preoccupation with the O.J. Simpson trial, the war in Bosnia, executions in the United States and many other violent acts. The list goes on and on. Gradually, parents and the schools have lost the monopoly on education. The three-generation extended family has now, unfortunately, become the three television household.

  The same children who are watching hours of violence on TV grow up to be the ones who poison our high schools with guns and other weapons. Lawrence Kutner, the author of the article Teens Who Kill and a New York high school teacher, says, “TV violence can cause aggressive behavior and can cultivate values favoring the use of aggression to resolve conflicts at a very early age. These attitudes eventually filter into our grade schools and, eventually, our high schools.”

  Today, teens are not only going to school to learn and prepare for their careers. They are also finding it necessary to learn how to simply survive in an often dangerous environment. We have turned into a nation that tolerates an extremely high degree of violence.

  The February 1994 edition of McCall’s reports that teachers and psychologists notice a dulling and desensitization toward violence in the daily behavior of the young.

  We must also keep in mind that it is especially difficult for younger children to distinguish fantasy from reality.

  First, aided by computerized special effects, killing and maiming are now super-realistic and inventive.

  Second, the entertainment media seem to think that to excite sophisticated children, they must push the violence button. Third, today’s children are not always encouraged to root for the good guys.

  Consider, for example, the Terminator, who not only wastes dozens of adversaries per hour but also feels no remorse, guilt or conflict about doing so. He feels nothing. He is not what we would call a sterling role model.

  That is the major difference between ’90s violence in the media and the situation 50 years ago: today’s lack of conscience. And the scary part is that parent and children alike have become so saturated with violent images that we have become numb, not noticing how excessively they pervade our lives.

  The solution to the problem of the negative impact violence has on today’s youth is simply this: to put conscience and basic morals back into our media programming.

  Jeffrey Sagansky, the president of CBS Entertainment, agreed to be part of the solution when he said, “We have a responsibility to the kids of America. There is a separation of our public responsibility and our job responsibility, and we have to make them coincide more closely.”

  So the next time you chuckle when a small child says, “Hasta la vista, baby,” and uses a toy gun to shoot you down, remember he just might be taking the “game” a little more seriously than you thought.