By age 12, the average child has witnessed 8000 murders on TV and many more acts of violence. The violence is often accompanied by a smile, the pain of the victims is ignored. Children are unable to differentiate fact from fantasy or evaluate the credibility of the action and lifestyles portrayed. Behavior seen in the media becomes acceptable behavior for the child. Because of this risk, The American Academy of Pediatrics recently recommended no TV for children under two years, no TV in children s bedrooms, and a maximum of two hours of TV watching a day for children of any age.
Domestic violence puts children directly and indirectly at risk for later violent behavior.
Approximately 3.3 million children less than seventeen years old are affected by domestic violence yearly. Exposure to violence in the home either through witnessing domestic violence or being the child victim of verbal, physical, or sexual abuse has long-lasting detrimental effects on the child s development. Children who witness abuse are often also being abused. Mothers who abuse their children are often in an abusive relationship themselves. Fifty percent of men who abuse partners abuse their children.