Introduction
The increased rate of violence crimes especially those committed by the youth has been attributed to the programs, promos and commercials aired on television. The government has laid strategic plans to try and control the type of programs aired. They have laid a mandate demanding every broadcasting network corporation to use rating systems that regulate the type of programs aired in an attempt of preventing the public from watching violent programs.
However, the initiative is not adequate as some broadcasting corporations have found loopholes in this regulation and manage to air addictive programs which have a violent basis. The mandate also does not restrict the kind of promos and commercials aired as some are directed with a violent theme. V-computer chips have been availed to the disposal of parents to enable them block transmission of violent and sexually explicit programs at their homes.
This issue has however, perplexed many Hollywood insiders as they question the opinion formulated by the government, ethicists and parents. They have continuously denied that the roles they play in casting and directing programs, films and music make children commit violent crimes in their later lives.
The plethora of studies conducted in an attempt of eradicating this mishap differs with the Hollywood insiders by explaining that children grow immune to the violent actions they watch on television and adapt the violence displayed as a way of solving disputes and problems. The results outlined are not consistent because they vary making the research to have flaws which critics rely on to question the accuracy of the documented findings. Most critics blame the parents for violent crimes committed by their children as they are their mediators and mentors1.
Television violence has become a major topic of discussion, in an effect to understand how television violence and the constitution are connected one must acknowledge the constitutional rights, the problems related to television violence and parental education.
Constitutional Rights
The United States Congress has been involved in investigating the impact programs aired on television have in regards to the many juvenile cases, related to violent crimes, they have attended since the early days of television broadcasting. In the 1950 the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary under Senators Kefauver and Dodd conducted investigations whose findings blamed the violence displayed on television as a major contributor of the juvenile violent criminal acts.
However, their research had no impact on the subject on study as it was conducted on a small number of laboratory studies, but in 1972 the Surgeon General made a report which convincingly concluded that violent television programs played a part in increasing the juvenile violent criminal acts3.
In 1974 the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) enacted a Family Viewing policy which requested the network broadcasting corporations; ABC, NBC and CBS to air programs which are suitable for all family members in the first hour of the prime time and if otherwise, warnings that advised the parents on the unsuitability of the programs to the younger members of the family were to be given3.
Contrarily to the FCC speculations violent programs that were aired on the television increased because the violence in the programs appealed a greater mass of the viewers which increased the profits attained by the broadcasting corporations. Furthermore the law was voluntary thus was not fully implemented. In 1991 President George Bush legalized the Television Acts law which Senator Paul Simon had introduced.
The Act made provision for the various networks in US to occasionally meet and discuss the violence emanated in programming, by exempting some activities in the antitrust law3. Each station had to follow the mandate stipulated in the Act which limited the number and time of airing advertisement during children’s television. The advertisements were to cover twelve minutes per hour during weekdays and 10.5 minutes during the weekends1. The programs aired during children’s television were to be geared towards educating and positively influencing the decisions of children. Such mandates failed to fully curb this phenomenon due to the First Amendment of the United States Constitution which advocates for freedom of speech.
First Amendment
The citizens of US enjoy freedom of speech, freedom of association and religion, press freedom is also protected by the First Amendment in the US Bill of Rights. The First Amendment gives the US citizens the freedom of challenging the legislation and policies of the government. Furthermore it gives them the right to demand a redress to their grievances in peaceful demonstrations. However, the freedom of speech is restricted on the basis of law defamation.
The clause restricts the government from declaring a national religion or showing preference to a certain religion, religion over paganism and paganism over religion. Press can be defined as anything that conveys information to the public. The First Amendment prevents the government from declaring the information to be published to the disclosure of the public. However, there is provision for the government to restrain the rights of broadcasting on content-neutral basis, for instance the use of profane language.
Safe Harbor
Rules and regulations that protect a party from consequences of a liability performed in acts of good faith are referred to as safe harbor. They create a haven for the involved individual from being prosecuted by the law of the court. In broadcasting a haven is created in regards to hours. The broadcasting networks have been given the authority to air programs of their choices from 10pm to 6am away from the discretion of children.
This law was forcefully mandated by regulations stipulated by FCC in an attempt of protecting children under eighteen years old from indecent broadcasts. The initiative was further supported by the ruling of the US Supreme Court as it did not unduly burden the First Amendment and the initiative was in accordance with the Title VI of the Communications Act of 1934 which allows FCC to regulate cable television5.
Problems Related to T.V. Violence
A number of research that has been conducted in aim of detect if violence displayed on the television contributes to participation of the later lives of children in criminal activities. It has been documented that the psychology of the children is affected by the violence displayed on the television making them to adopt aggressive attitudes and delinquent behavior regardless of their lifestyle or parental mediation2. The low production rates in US have also played a part in worsening the situation as more private networks which broadcast violent programs three times higher than the public networks have cropped up. Statistics show that approximately 87.9% of the public have attested that private networks broadcast indecent programs before 9pm when children are likely to be watching2.
School Shootings
The violence displayed on television has severely affected the morals of children as they fail to adhere to human norms and ethics disregarding the right to life. This is attributed to the negative psychological effect instilled in those children as they rely on violence to solve disputes. These children portray extreme anger when wronged and the easy access to guns and the adopted indifferent attitude towards the lives of the others has lead to the many school shooting cases. The fact that children witness about 32, 000 cases of murder and approximately 40,000 murder attempts before they are eighteen years old depicts the grim effects of this phenomenon2.
Horrific murderous cases that have occurred in schools portray the adverse effects caused by media violence, for instance in 1999 two students killed a total of thirteen students by use of semiautomatic and explosive weapons in Columbine High school in Littleton, Colorado and latter took their lives through suicidal attempts1. This mishap had preceded other carnage attempts which called for mass action against television violence.
In 1997, a sixteen year old killed two students in Pearl, Mississippi1. Teachers too are not spared from this misfortune as they are subject of hatred and revenge for the vent up anger of students. The killings that occurred in 1998 in Jonesboro, Arkansas left four students and a teacher dead while fifteen other students were wounded1. It is sad to say that the 21st century has introduced advanced technology that has worsened the situation, as this epidemic is still rampant in school. In 2000 a seventh-grader shot his teacher in Florida middle school and a fifteen year old student managed to kill two and injured thirteen students in Santee, California2.
Delinquent Behavior
The violence depicted on television has desensitized the attitude of people as they have become comfortable and accepted the merge of some levels of violence into the society. The Massachusetts community totally agrees with these findings as they have successfully defined a relationship between unethical behavior such as sexual assaults, social violence and alcohol consumption with the desensitization of people due to media violence2.
This has made the entertainment industry to use more provocative modes of violence in their casting to keep exciting its audience, for example the Roman Circuses which started out as a morally accepted form of entertainment but has turned out to be the root cause of the hapless deaths of entertainers2.
The programs that are aired have developed in a common grotesque pattern in an attempt of attracting audience to increase their profit margins. They have managed to be the social agents for most children resulting to the lack of social bond between the children and their parents or peers. The children are left without a commitment to fulfill and thus their adoption to deviant behavior which is linked to improper socialization that is elicited by addiction to television.
Studies carried out on youths in Maryland and Wisconsin showed that both sexes of the youths in the seventh to ninth grade adopt their deviant behavior from their antisocial lifestyle which is mostly spent watching the television2. This increases the probability of the children imitating the attitude portrayed in the violent programs to safeguard themselves and demand for their rights2.
Aggression
People who have a tendency of watching violent programs have a higher likelihood of been aggressive and relying on this fervid attitude to solve disputes. Violent television programs are responsible for the aggression depicted in the adult life of children. Studies have lead to the formulation of theories which link the aggressive behavior to violence portrayed in televisions2. For instance the desensitization and social comparison theories relate violent acts to the aggression displayed in the attitude of the youths.
These theories also relate the negative perception of the world to the developed aggressive attitude which makes the youths to loss confidence in the world and link it with hostility2. Violence in relationships has also been linked to this mishap as girls who grew up watching violent programs tend to be hot tempered and often throw things at their husbands and boys that were addicted to the violent programs tend to be violent to their wives. This attitude has been attributed to the increased breakup and divorces cases filed in courts1.
Educating Parents
Parents are the mentors and mediators of children therefore there is a need of providing useful information to their vicinity to help them manipulate the exposure of their children to television violence. This will help parents offer regular spiritual and moral training that will help the children adhere to human and ethical norms thus reducing the number of violent criminal acts.
Parents are advised to make their children understand that the television is a supplementary household tool and thus not to rely on it as a primary source of entertainment. They should encourage their kids to engage in other constructive activities such as sports to improve their social lifestyle. The parents are also educated on their rights against broadcast corporations that air violent programs during prime hours. This helps the FCC department to regulate the violence depicted on television by revoking licenses of such networks[6].
T.V. channel Locks
New television sets are being manufactured with the inclusion of computer V-chips which help parents to monitor the programs that their children are watching. The device helps parents to block programs that they perceive to promotion violence to the society and wellbeing of children. Most of these television sets contain manuals that direct the parents on usage of the device. This provision was enacted by the government through the incorporation of inclusion of V-chips to all T.V. sets mandate in the Telecommunication Act of 19963.
The congress has stipulated Acts that help them to review the effectiveness of their strategies, for instance The Child Safe Viewing Act of 2007 requires the Commission to enhance the ability of parents in protecting their children from the wrath of violent programs3. The Congress has commissioned the FCC to research on the ability of the advanced technology that will help parents to regulate the programs children view. The Cable industries, educators and children advocacy groups have formed a partnership that enlightens parents on media literacy explaining to them how to use the available tools of regulating the programs their children are viewing and the efficiency of those tools6.
Parent/Child T.V. Violence Awareness
A plethora of campaigns that give parents additional information on using T.V. rating systems and V-chips effectively have been conducted. They help to increase the awareness of parents and children on the impact caused by violence displayed on the television. North Carolina Technology Association (NCTA), National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) have organized educational projects with the aim of promoting awareness on television violence and its effects6. The joined effort relies on the public service announcements (PSA) to promote their campaigns, which stipulate effective measures to be adopted by parents and children in an attempt of curbing the adverse result of television violence6.
The cable industry has also played a big part in ensuring the awareness of television violence and its effects to the society. The industry offers T.V. parental guidelines and control tools to help the parents monitor programs that are at the discretion of their children. The industry also runs websites that parents can rely on to improve their knowledge on using the available technology to prevent their children from viewing programs that proclaim violence. Necessary resources which promote media literacy and education have also been availed to the parents and children.
The industry has also trained its programmers on customer friendly strategies that help them to effectively communicate with customers on parental control messages and create customer friendly materials which educate customers as they do their shopping. Larger T.V. rating icons are been substituted with the previous icons that did not attract the attention of parents. The networks have also been directed to place the icons after commercial breaks to further increase the opportunities of parents noticing them6.
Signs of a Child Influenced by T. V. Violence
Parents can detect if their children have been influenced by the violence displayed on the television through signs that they portray. Children can adopt behaviors that are abnormal, that is not their usual traits, for instance the child can become more fearful, anxious, lack sleep, often cries a lot or starts to bed wetting2. A child can also became immune to violence and accept it as a way of solving problems. The child will depict this attitude through the suggestions he issues, stories he narrates or his choice of things. Most children that have accepted violence tend to associate with violent themes6. Parents should also be keen to observe the characters and traits that the child imitates as it is also a major sign of television violence influence2.
If a child seems to be arrogant, rude, moody and tends to seclude himself from the company of their peers then the parent should embark on counseling strategies that will improve the spiritual and moral perspective that the child has. The parents should also help the child to engage in activities that will help to regain the social bond that existed between the child and the parents and the child and his peers. Parents should also improve the communication which ensues between them and their children especially teenagers to gather information about their actions and attitude. This will also help them to efficiently mentor their children. They should also stimulate character traits that are morally ethical to help the children regard them as their role models and aim at emulating their behavior6.
Conclusion
The rapid changes in the communication technology have resulted to the inadequate role played by FCC in an attempt of curbing television violence. This calls for measures of re-evaluating the Communication Act of 1934 which is outdated. The congress should work hand in hand with the judicial department to reform the strategies stipulated by FCC to adequately regulate the numerous networks that are responsible for the growth of this phenomenon. Furthermore they can incorporate the department into the Executive Branch of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) whose reforms and strategies are more modernized.
List of Reference
- Grimes, T., Anderson, A. J. & Bergen, A. L., (2007). Media violence and Aggression: Science and Ideology. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
- Krish, J. S., (2006). Children, Adolescents and Media Violence: A Critical look at the Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE publishers.
- Lipschultz, H. J., (2008). Broadcast and Internet Indecency: Defining Free Speech. NY: Routledge.
- Page, J., (2004). Television and Child Development. 3rd Ed. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
- Signer, G. D. & Singer, L. J., (2001). Handbook of Children and the Media. 3rd Ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publishers.
- Stone, R. G. & Sunstein, R. C., (2003). The First Amendment. 2nd Ed. Riverwoods, Illnois: Aspen Publishers.
