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Children, Media, and Violence Essay

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"The evidence is overwhelming. To argue against it, the link between media violence and teen violence is like arguing against gravity," said Jeffrey McIntyre, legislative and federal affairs officer for the American Psychological Association. As children are exposed to acts of violence in the media through television, video games, music, movies, etc. alarming results are occurring. The main negative effect being an increase in aggression among youth who are regularly exposed to the media and an increase in violent patterns as they mature into adulthood. If not resolved this problem of violence in the media will continue to push children, youth and adults to acts of aggression such as verbal and physical abuse and other more serious …show more content…

A study that supports the personal example above was conducted by Craig A. Anderson PhD, a professor and director at the Department of Psychology at Iowa State University. They examined Japanese and American youth’s behavior after consistently playing violent video games throughout a school year and they found that tendencies toward physical aggression, such as fights, pushing, etc., increased after 3 months into the school year and continued to increase by 6 months into the school year. This study showed that no matter the culture violent video games have the same negative effect and they strongly suggested that the exposure youth have to violent video games be greatly reduced (Anderson).

Probably the most stunning statements and articles I came across were when researching gang violence. In an interview with Readers Digest in 2005 an anonymous gang member from Oakland California made the statement “We played the game by day and lived the game by night,” speaking of the game Grand Theft Auto which is based on gang violence, murder, stealing and sex. Ernest L. Cuthbertson, a police detective in Greensboro, N.C. said “I don’t care what any criminologist or psychologist says, but repeated exposure to any level of violence does alter the psyche of a person.”
What are the solutions to overcoming this negative effect of media violence on the young people?

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