Children are often presented as violent, dangerous and disrespectful toward adults. In contrast, he says, TV shows in the '50s to the '80s tended to present kids in a more favorable light, and conflicts could be resolved in half an hour by all-wise parents and a little ingenuity. The news media also tend to report violent behavior more than in the past, Turner says. Landmark events such as children murdering their parents occurred in previous decades, but those events were far less likely to receive the barrage of media coverage they get today, he says. Many of those events were kept quiet because those crimes were committed by juveniles.
Movies also affect cultural attitudes toward children.
There seems to be some fascination with kids embodying evil. As popular as some of these films are, you have to think they have an impact on adult perceptions. Overall, Kaak says, adults' negative perceptions may have to do with how they were brought up, and using that experience as a standard. There have always been a few kids who don't do well. The problem comes when we overgeneralize that fact to the entire group.