Cartoon Violence, Has it gone too Far

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Cartoon Violence, Has it gone too Far

Aggression. Killing. Revenge. Sound like the latest Scream movie or Keanu Reeves thriller? You may be surprised to hear that this describes the average Saturday morning cartoon. One of the most surprising facts is that the level of violence during Saturday morning cartoons is higher than the level of violence during prime time. There are 3 to 5 violent acts per hour in prime time, versus 20 to 25 acts per hour on Saturday morning (Gerbner,1). Violence on television in general is damaging to society. But the specific targeting of the younger population through the use of cartoons to show violence is destructive and in no way helping to profit the upcoming generation. Violence in cartoons is harmful to children in many ways. Desensitizing children, increasing aggressiveness, and increasing their fear of becoming victims in real life, are all accredited to violence on television.

“Myriad studies show that television violence affect children by desensitizing children to the horror of violence, teaching them to accept violence as a solution to problems, teaching them to imitate the violence they see on the television and leading them to identify with characters seen on television (and thus imitate the characters they identify with) (Parenthood Web).” The amount of violence in television programming is obviously directly related to the amount of violence witnessed by children. The more of a role that television plays in the daily activities the more of a role violence will influence that child. In 1985 alone, 85% of all television programming contained violence, with 92.1% of cartoons aired containing violence. These cartoons generally contain one violent act every three minutes ...

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... and go straight to fighting. Children are becoming more desensitized, more aggressive and more afraid with the huge influx of violence on the glowing television set in all of our homes. Clearly, the children watching television all over the world are learning to embrace violence, often the wrong solution to any problem. Violence in television should not be banned, however, the frequency of the violence in television shows, especially cartoons aimed at kids, should be cut down significantly.

Bibliography:

Work Cited

1. Chen, Walter. http://interact.uoregon.edu/MediaLit/FA/MLArticleFolder/kalin.html, 2000.

2. Gerbner, George. http://www.4children.org/news/1- 97vtch.htm, 1999.

3. Liebert and Sprafkin. Violence in the Media. New York: Basic Books, 1990. pages 115-120.

4. The Parenthood Web. http://www.4children.org/news/1-97vtch.htm, 2001.

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