Children begin to notice and react to television in the age when they are unable to distinguish between fact and fantasy and may take watching violence as an ordinary occurrence.
Children are instinctively innocent and will accept imitating a good cause of the hero watched on screen. Since they watch TV a lot, it makes them more vulnerable to negative effects of the played contents. Young children imitate the aggressive acts with their friends as watched on TV.
Gruesome video clips are shown repeatedly which might traumatise adults. Imagine the effect of such content on children. They start believing that violence is as common in real world as it is on screen and that aggression towards others will make them powerful.
Frequent exposure to violence in the media in childhood leads to aggression later in life. The fact remains that children’s exposure to media violence plays an important role in shaping human behaviour.
Unfortunately, there aren’t many children’s shows developed to teach them useful skills and help them learn effectively. The various media channels should realise their responsibility of producing suitable educational content for the sake of the future of young generation.
An effective way of keeping children from being affected by TV violence is to tell them how they can be fooled or hurt by movies etc. It is easier to enforce rules with younger children than with older ones. Moreover, habits established early are easier to maintain. Adults are also supposed to provide the children with some attractive alternatives to TV and teach children how to enjoy a broader range of activities.
ERUM ZEHRA
Karachi