But pronouncements like these are profoundly misleading. Violence among the young is a declining, not a growing, medical problem. As one who has waded through many of these studies I've written a book and too many stories to count on this subject I've seen that they don't, in fact, conclude that movies and television cause youth violence. These same studies almost invariably show that small children who are supervised and well-parented rarely have problems with violence or aggressive behavior, regardless of what they watch. Hardly any of these studies take us much past common sense.
None suggest that TV or movies are responsible for violence.
Besides, there are also scores of reputable studies, including one by psychologists at Brown University, which have found that TV, movies and the Net have no impact on violence or sexuality in the young. Dr. Charles Nelson, a professor of child psychology, neuroscience and pediatrics at the University of Minnesota , said there was no such data. Dr. Steven Petersen, a neurology professor at Washington University Medical School of St. Louis, told reporter Gina Kolata of The New York Times that not only was there no brain research to support the academy's statement, but there was also no logical reason to ban television for the very young. Dr. Hogan, the lead author of the pediatric report, responded to a barrage of criticism from other physicians and researchers by conceding that there were no studies of young children that supported its recommendations. That is, the pediatricians used other research to infer that childrens' brains are harmed when they spend their time gazing at television screens instead of interacting with humans.