Many adults worry about children's exposure to violence in our culture.
Child abuse, we have discovered, is more prevalent than most of us would have imagined. It is no longer a well-kept secret. Teachers and other adults are required by law to report any child abuse they know about and are punishable if they don't report it. The effect of television violence on children is also better understood than it was only thirty years ago when the first studies were only emerging. The research shows that television violence can be harmful.