Are We Teaching Violence?

by David Walsh, Ph.D.

A man walks toward you. You raise your gun and shoot. He falls to the ground gasping, crying, trying to crawl away. You shoot again, but he's not dead yet. So you aim more carefully this time and squeeze the trigger. You hear the bullet whine. The man's face betrays pain and terror as his body convulses violently. Suddenly he is still, finally dead.

A scene from a bad dream? No, this is a scene from an interactive arcade video game titled "Mad Dog McCree". Complete with large screen video, high volume sound effects, and lifelike weapons, children anxiously await their turn in line so they can try their skill at simulated murder. The revenues from this game reached nine million dollars in 1991, and placed it among the top moneymaking video arcade games in the U.S.

Both in video arcades and in our living rooms, America's children are fed a steady diet of increasingly graphic and violent entertainment. Ultraviolent video games are one of the most glaring examples of the exploitation of children for profit. They also represent one of the most dramatic clashes in values between what is healthy for our children and our society, and what our society will allow in the name of making money.

One of the cornerstones of any civilized society is the ability of its members to get along reasonably well and to peacefully resolve differences and conflicts. While that value is necessary for the survival of a democracy, and while it is a value embraced by an overwhelming majority of parents and families, it is not a value of the larger, anonymous society we live in.

The contradictions are painfully obvious: As the nation's concern about violence grows every day, the rate of reported crime in the United States is the highest in the industrialized world. Many of us would never consider vacationing in Northern Ireland because it is perceived to be a dangerous place, but the reality is that the murder rate in Northern Ireland is only half of what it is in our own country. We have a higher percentage of our population in prison than in the former Soviet Union or in South Africa. The violent crime rate among fifteen-year-old males in the U.S. is increasing by thirty-six percent a year, according to a study conducted by the National Crime Analysis Project at Northeastern University.

As our fear of violent crime worsens, leaders from every walk of life speak out. Educators, politicians, physicians, clergy, and parents all decry the violence. Yet while we all say that we hate it, we continue to surround our children with it in their daily lives. As individuals we condemn it; as members of the larger, anonymous society, we love it. Our larger culture fosters it, uses it for entertainment, and sells products with it. Why? Because it is profitable to do so.

From the manufacturers and distributors of weapons, to the media that use violence to entertain, to makers of video games and other toys, entire industries have grown up around violence. A quote from Today's Child magazine describes the daily inundation of the violence industry very well:

"Although violence has always been part of human history, no generation has ever been brought up with so much exposure to wanton, vivid, immediate violence divorced from moral as well as physical consequences."

It keeps rolling on in spite of the fact that the Children's Defense Fund has documented that guns killed fifty thousand children and teens in the twelve years from 1979 through 1991 (approximately the same number of deaths as those of American battle casualties in the Vietnam War). It keeps rolling on even though the National Education Association estimates that more than one hundred thousand students carry handguns to school every single day. Parents who want to raise violence-free children are overwhelmed by a culture in love with it.

Violence As Entertainment

Profit is the engine driving the entertainment industry. Promoters have to catch our attention to reach us with their ads, and programs have to stimulate us to keep us tuned in. At the same time, it is increasingly difficult to capture and hold the attention of the American public. There is so much stimulation that media messages tend to blur together. So the task for advertisements and programs becomes one of standing out from the crowd. Violence can do that. Violence gets our attention. Therefore, it has become a favorite gimmick in the repertoire of those vying for the public's attention.

To make matters worse, the public becomes desensitized to the level of violence over time. The excitement generated by one level of violent entertainment gradually subsides with repetition. So to stimulate the same amount of response, the violence must accelerate to another level. And as we become accustomed to that level, it has to go up still another notch.

The selling of violence as fun is constantly escalating. Many adults have only a partial awareness of how pervasive violence is in the diet of television, movies, music, video games, and toys being fed to America's children. A recent development is the broadcasting of real-life police shows. Instead of simulated violence performed by actors, these new shows have actual footage of real-life crime and assaults, and they are often shown in prime time.

Television Violence

The Center for Media and Public Affairs was asked by TV Guide to conduct a content analysis of a typical day of television programming. The staff of the Center analyzed eighteen hours on ten channels on April 2, 1992. (That day, by the way, was quite ordinary. There was no unusual event of civil disorder on the news. There were no atypical movies aired. It was just another day of television programming.)

The ten channels chosen included the three major networks, Fox, public television, and some popular cable channels. In the 180 hours analyzed there were:

• 1,846 individual acts of violence

• 175 scenes of violence resulting in fatalities

• 389 scenes of serious assault

• 362 scenes of gunplay

• 673 scenes of punching, slapping, or pushing

• 226 scenes of threats involving a weapon

Remember, this was a typical day of American television. What's more, other studies confirm these findings. The National Institute of Mental Health, a federal government agency, found that 80.3% of all TV programs contain acts of violence. The typical program includes 5.21 incidents.

What we can extrapolate from these figures is that the average American child will witness approximately two hundred thousand acts of violence on television by the time he/she is eighteen years old. This will include forty thousand murders. The message to our children is that violence is normal -- that it is the American way of dealing with problems, expressing anger, settling arguments, and proving oneself.

The media's often-heard counterargument is that television is merely reflecting the violence already present in our society. When we consider the numbers, however, that argument becomes preposterous. As violent as our society is, television is in no way an accurate reflection of it. Research cited by journalist Britt Robson reveals that TV characters are murdered at one thousand times the rate of American citizens.

Clearly, violence is not a necessary ingredient in producing programs that are popular with children. Nonviolent programs like Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Beakman's World, and others have proven to be extremely popular with young viewers.

Movie Violence

Graphic violence in movies has become more extreme as well. The most obvious example can be seen in the popularity among teenagers of the "slasher" film. Unlike horror films of past generations, today's slasher films portray violence at great length and in graphic detail. 

Even though most of these films are rated "R", I have been told by students that they have no difficulty gaining admission to the theaters. Even if they did, it would simply be a matter of months before the films could be rented as videos or seen on cable TV, and would therefore be accessible to any age child. (Video stores generally will not rent X-rated movies to minors, but will rent R-rated videos if the child has a family membership card.)

Most adults have never seen these movies. Many mistakenly assume these teen films are like the horror movies of years past, which may have been scary, but were not a steady stream of blood, guts, and sadistic cruelty.

In spite of the "R" ratings, slasher movies are aimed at the kids' market. Tie-in books and even toys are based on these films and are marketed to children. Several years ago a Freddy Krueger (the facially deformed killer from the Nightmare on Elm Street series) doll came out and was only removed from stores after strenuous protests by parent groups. R-rated "Action" movies like the Rambo and Terminator series are at least as popular with younger audiences as they are with adults. A line of toys accompanies almost all these films, as do promotions at fast food restaurants frequented by children.

Another disturbing development in the slasher and action movie genres is the combination of violence with humor. Perhaps because they are finding it harder and harder to top themselves for sheer gore, it is becoming more common for the hero to make a wisecrack as he machine-guns the bad guy to death.

Do these movies affect kids? Consider these examples: In the fall of 1993, teenagers were killed and injured while imitating a scene from the movie The Program. In it, a star quarterback proves his toughness by lying down on the white lines in the middle of highway traffic. In a 1992 National Public Radio interview, a gang member told how he was "pumped up" for months after watching The Terminator. He described how he and his friends went around looking for fights so they could be just like the hero of the movie.

Violence and Music

Music is and always has been a very powerful medium. By combining words, rhythm, and sound, the composer can reflect deep emotions. From love ballads to protest songs, music has been shown to move people. It can move them to sing, to dance, and to act. It can communicate love, concern about injustice, and even mindless rage.

Violence as a theme has increasingly invaded this domain as well. Just as violence can sell movies and TV programs, producers have found that it can sell compact discs and cassette tapes. Once again, it is in the music marketed to kids where this is most true.

This is not to say that there isn't good music being produced and marketed to young people. However, there is a growing segment of the music industry that has discovered that violence and bigotry can be profitable. Like in so many other cases, the profits to be made in the music industry become the overriding concern.

Video Games & Other Toys

In 1992 alone, the video game industry in the United States grossed more than $5.3 billion dollars. This is a fast-growing market, and it is overwhelmingly youth-oriented.

Some games are clever, educational, and fun. The technology has wonderful potential to teach and entertain. Unfortunately, the easy sell of violence as a theme has taken over. Nintendo, for instance, at one time had cornered eighty percent of the video market, and in 1989 a study by the National Coalition on Television Violence showed that eighty percent of Nintendo games portrayed violence. Another example is the video game that was the country's most popular in 1993 "Mortal Kombat." As I first learned from my young neighbor, the object of the game is not just to kill your opponent, but to master the skills to do it in more and more vicious ways.

Video games are becoming increasingly realistic thanks to advances in graphics technology. The advertising of these games touts them as both more violent and more lifelike. The ultimate goal is a virtual reality game where the violence is indistinguishable from that of real life.

With violence more and more popular as a theme in entertainment, is it a coincidence that homicide and violent crime rates among youth have steadily climbed as well? The answer from the researchers who have studied the correlation between violent behavior and violent entertainment is clear and unambiguous: the link between the two is indisputable.

Results of these studies are not well known to the American public, but again, that should not come as a surprise. Why would television and other mass media report to us the unmistakable connection between violent entertainment and problems with violence in society when they have so much invested in violent entertainment?

What Can Be Done?

The epidemic of violence sweeping our society is a concern to all of us. But we keep responding to the effects rather than the causes. During the decade of the 1980s, America doubled the size of its prison population, yet the violence rages on. The increase of expenditures in the criminal justice system is accelerating at a rate four times as fast as our expenditures for education. And while we are concerned as a nation with the rapid escalation of costs related to health care, how many Americans realize that the rate of growth in health care costs is only half that of the criminal justice system? Clearly, we have to find solutions to treat the causes of violence, not just its effects.

It would be naive to assert that America's epidemic of violence is simply the result of too much violence in the media; the roots of violence include racism, poverty, and injustice. However, it would be equally naive to deny that those roots include society's promotion of violence for profit.

Asking media leaders to eliminate violence has proven to be a waste of time. At present, they are only rewarded for producing profit. Violence sells, and media violence will continue as long as it is profitable.

First Amendment Controversy

Since voluntary measures have proven to be ineffective, there is a growing sentiment favoring mandatory regulations that would limit media violence. Whenever this discussion is raised, however, there is an immediate First Amendment frenzy, according to Myriam Miedzian, author of the book Boys Will Be Boys. The entertainment industry asserts that any regulations would infringe on First Amendment rights to free speech. Cynics counter that this argument is a smoke screen that is being used to allow the continued exploitation of America's children for profit.

Myriam Miedzian believes that there are solutions that are compatible with First Amendment rights. She asks us to consider that we have a long history of laws and regulations that are meant to protect children. We allow the sale of alcohol, for example, but we prohibit it for children. We allow the printing and sale of pornography to adults, yet we do not consider it a First Amendment infringement when we deny the sale of such material to children. Therefore, laws protecting children from harmful things like alcohol and pornography are not violations of First Amendment rights. When it comes to with radio and television broadcasts, however, the challenge is how to restrict them from children without restricting them from adults as well.

There may be a technical solution. A so-called "parent chip" can be built into television sets so that parents can program the set to receive only transmissions they approve of. Such technology exists today, and could be mass produced. The parent chip could be built into every television. One legitimate concern abut this solution, however, is that it might backfire by freeing up television producers to put more violence on TV. It seems to me, however, that benefits would outweigh the risk.

Such a solution, however, would only work if parents took the responsibility seriously and used it. Unfortunately, many parents have become desensitized as well. They do not realize the impact that media violence has had on them any more than they realize its impact on their children.

The Real Power For Change

Since money drives the machinery spewing out violence, economic pressure may be the best way to stop it. We need to respond in such a way that it becomes unprofitable to exploit America's children. Here are some suggestions:

1. We need to undertake a massive campaign to educate America's parents about what violent entertainment is doing to our children in the same way that this country has educated its citizens about the dangers of cigarette smoking. We need to teach parents in our churches, temples, and mosques. We need to make education on media violence a goal in our PTA meetings. Wherever parents gather, they need to learn that violent entertainment is even more dangerous to their children than not wearing seatbelts. Perhaps federal funds could be earmarked to air TV and other media public service announcements. Just as we have banned advertising of tobacco products on airwaves because they are considered a threat to public health, maybe we should consider the banning of advertisements of violent films and toys.
    

2. We need to advertise violence ratings of movies, music, video games, and TV shows. Organizations have developed the methodology to rate shows and products, and those ratings should be widely distributed. They could be listed in TV Guide, and they should be in music and video game stores.
    

3. We should organize boycotts of advertisers of the most offensive shows. As soon as it hits them in the pocketbook, advertisers will begin to support shows that rebuild our society rather than tear it down.
    

4. Suggestions such as this one raise legitimate fears in many people. Images of book burnings and McCarthy-esque hunts come to mind. Please remember that I am not advocating destroying video or audio tapes or games or prosecuting their creators. I am suggesting that we wake up and not reward advertisers and manufacturers of harmful material with our patronage. If we tell them with our purchasing decisions what we want for our children, they will get the message. The first step is for us to realize what is happening and how we can influence it.
    

5. We need to take a careful look at the toys we are buying for our children. Do the toys we buy reflect someone's market plan? Are we always buying the latest merchandise that ties into a new TV show or movie? We need to buy toys for our children that encourage imaginative, fun play, not toys that encourage modeling of the latest violent storylines from TV or movies.
    

6. We need to take personal responsibility and personal action. We need to prohibit our children from watching inappropriately violent shows. We need to encourage the teaching of nonviolent conflict resolution in schools. And most important, we need to make absolutely certain that we are not modeling violent behavior ourselves.

If a company was selling food to children that was tainted with disease and made them sick, we'd take action in a second. But over time, little by little, parts of our society have been rewarded for poisoning our children with violence. The effects are just as serious, and it is just as vital that we take action.

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This article was excerpted from the book Selling Out America's Children: How America Puts Profits before Values and What Parents Can Do, ©, by David Walsh, Ph.D. Reprinted with permission of the publisher, Fairview Press (formerly known as Deaconess Press). www.fairviewpress.org.

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About The Author

DAVID WALSH, PH.D., is a psychologist who has worked with families for over twenty-three years. He is one of the leading authorities in North America on family life, parenting, and the impact of media on children. He is also a leading voice in addressing the issues of media's impact on brain development in children and is a national speaker on parenting issues. He is the author of Designer Kids: Consumerism and Competition -- When Is It All Too Much? and the founder and president of the National Institute on Media and the Family.

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