TV Violence: The Good and Bad for Our Children

This article posted on Australia's "The Age" website, seeks to explore the impact of media and in particular media violence on children. The author, Patricia Edgar points out that millions of dollars have been spent on research while findings continue to be dubious. Edgar suggests that values are key to affecting behaviour, not children's television viewing habits. She refers to two large studies carried out in the 1960's by Wilbur Schramm and his
colleagues. The results showed that "under some conditions, some television is harmful; for other children under the same conditions, or for the same
children under other conditions, it may be beneficial; for most children, under most conditions, most television is probably neither particularly harmful nor
particularly beneficial."

Edgar argues that the depiction of violence in drama is useful so that children can understand the world in which they are growing up. She views
television as a place where "right and wrong are no longer clear concepts." Edgar describes media as depicting values that are ambiguous and confusing and the backdrop is a "media environment where conflict is heightened and exploited for commercial
advantage."

Edgar's article refers to "child abuse, family breakdown, unemployment and poverty,
isolation, lack of social succes and peer-group pressure" as risk factors for children who are in trouble and who become bullies. She points out that media are not high on the list of influences when other risk factors are absent. What occurs, according to Edgar, is the depiction of a violent world where the media exploit that violence and viewers perceive the world to be a more dangerous place than it actually is.

Edgar suggest that television can have a positive role to play and can be a medium to inspire and inform children in ways that it is used now to promote antisocial values. In 1995, Nelson Mandela, then president of South Africa, sent a message to the first World Summit on Television and Children in
Melbourne. In part, he said: "The future of our planet lies in children's hands. All of you involved in television, which is one of the most powerful
influences on children, have an awesome responsibility on your shoulders."

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