Violence in the Media and how It Effects Young Children

Whether media violence incites children to commit violent acts and display aggressive tendencies is a question that remains a topic of heated social debate. Theorist can argue that media violence shapes children's views of the world as dangerous and predominately violent or that the overexposure to violence leads to desensitization in a world where violence is perceived as commonplace. Social scientists can waiver between correlation and causation involving violence and media effects. The argument most difficult to dispute is that media violence has some negative effect on children. Content analysis reveals that violence is in fact a prevalent element in media and that overexposure of children to television and media outlets allows these effects to influence children and their perceptions of the world. Permeating our lives, it would be difficult to avoid the influence of media violence. …