Children grew up with charming fairy tales where good always triumphed over evil. Today the flowers of childhood are wilting before the tsunami of graphic violence flowing into our homes. Murderous monsters; bloodthirsty ghouls; stabbings, shootings and mutilations of human beings; all this and more are now regular viewing for young children. Children are often unable to distinguish between fantasy and reality. A constant barrage of gruesome electronic images can hijack vulnerable young minds. Scholarly studies show that people who frequently view violent images on television or the movies or play violent video games, are compelled to play out those impulses in real life. Other studies link a rise in criminal behaviour to violent media images, and call for a return to healthier and more decent entertainment...
Modern urban lifestyles and parenting methods support this trend towards violence. In the good old days, children spent their free time going out and playing with friends. Parks and safe playgrounds are now a rarity in our cities. Parents today are afraid of letting their children play freely outside without constant supervision. Instead, children are confined indoors for the parents’ convenience and the children’s own safety.
In the security of their homes, children freely explore the murky depths of the internet and video games. Smart children can take advantage of their parents’ lack of awareness of the latest technologies, and secretly view X-rated material at the click of a mouse. Children are spending more time viewing electronic screens, than interacting with other children. This hampers the growth of their relationships with fellow human beings, and affects their overall development into responsible adults. Busy with their own careers and making money, parents have little time to draw their children close and find out what is going on in their lives.
Are violent TV programmes and video games the root cause of escalating violence in today’s world? Or are more complicated factors at play behind our contemporary culture of blood and mayhem? Electronic images aren’t monsters with the power to corrupt normal humans into killing machines. Well-produced TV programmes can educate and inculcate sound moral values in children in a fun way. Video games can develop children’s motor skills and alertness, prevent them from feeling bored and lonely, and falling into bad company. Violence on screens is only a part of a larger problem which makes children today more aggressive.
We like to think of an ideal past when entertainment was clean and innocent. In fact, violence has always been an integral part of human culture, and often an entertaining spectacle for the masses....
My complete essay is published in Sunday Herald
3 comments:
Interestingly, video games come with ratings -- something that is overlooked with impunity in India. We tend to think "games" are something for kids to play with, but as a game developer told me a long time ago, a good proportion of games are actually developed with an adult player in mind. Indeed, most games seem to sport an M for mature tag or say they are 17+ or 18+ or for teenagers. But I've seen kids as young as 10 or 11 buying Grand Theft Auto (clearly labelled M or 18+ on the package) or other games rated for adults, without shopkeepers turning a hair. In England, I once had to show my ID to prove I was above 16 (!) to buy Hitman: Silent Assassin. I wish that would happen here.
Yeah, the cartoons today are more like reality. They should have been as soft as a child's heart, but unfortunately they are not. I am new on Blogger. Follow each other?
Hi Payal and Sayantini. Can't agree with you more. violence is all around us, and children are most vulnerable to gory influences. It certainly helps if shopkeepers etc check for proof of age before selling M rated stuff to youngsters. However, kids have a way of reaching such stuff even if they don't buy it themselves. Rather than rely on rules and policing, adults can reach out and guide young people close to them, to make the right choices. And leading by example is the best way.
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