On Thursday, the Federal Trade Commission released a report on marketing violent entertainment to kids. The findings probably won’t surprise many parents: In general, underage kids have easy access to violent movies and music. We at Common Sense strongly support the FTC's recommendation that the entertainment industry revise its marketing and sales policies. In the meantime, here are tips on talking to kids about violence in the media.
Ask your kids to tell you about a violent scene in a TV show or a movie. Ask them why they remember it and what they felt like when they saw it. See if they can figure out what about the scene made it stick in their head. What did they say to themselves when they saw it? Were they scared? Did they have to remind themselves it was fictional?
Were the scenes important to the show or movie’s plot? If not, why do your kids think the producers and directors included the scene?
Point out that violence is often used to “sell” something, since gory images get people's attention. Remind your kids that TV shows have their own popularity contests. Those with the biggest audiences make the most money because they have the most advertisers paying top dollar to reach the viewers. Two surefire ways to get big audiences are by showing scenes with lots of sex and/or violence. Ask your kids to come up with some examples of shows they like or movies they enjoyed that had a sex scene or violent episode that wasn’t necessary to tell the story.
Arm yourself with the facts about the impact of media violence. The studies don’t lie. Lots of violence affects kids’ behavior. Period. When kids marinate in media steeped in acts of aggression, it can increase antisocial activity and bullying and decrease empathy for victims of violence. The more aggressive behavior kids see, the more it becomes an acceptable way to settle conflicts. Movies with scary images, intense peril, loud noises, and—above all—blood and gore, create all sorts of disturbances, including increased anxiety, sleep disruption, and nightmares. And those first-person-shooter video games? The intimacy of the mayhem and murder pack such a huge emotional punch that they alter brain chemistry.
PREVIOUS PAGE
