CNN Headline News aired an excellent segment last Tuesday on the impact of television and movie violence on our social atmosphere. Despite consistent scientific evidence proving that TV violence breeds real-life violence, nothing has happened. 20 years of monitoring TV violence has shown no downward movement. Solid evidence was presented on CNN that TV accounts for at least half the homicide rate in society around the world. It is a problem whose only obvious solution, censorship, seems unthinkable.
Denial is easier.
Violence in TV, movies, rap and heavy metal music, and computer games may well have more influence on your child than you imagine. Nikki Sixx, guitarist for Motley Crue, thinks parents need to take more responsibility for their children's values, and says he often talks with his young sons about what they are seeing and thinking. The following article contains suggestions on how adults can help children deal with issues of violence. It is reprinted in its entirety from USA Today. These children have three important questions, says Harvard child psychiatrist Lawrence Kutner.