VIOLENT ENTERTAINMENT

Should entertainment be blamed for youth violence? This is a question that is being asked more and more. Sadly, it is a topic brought up only after a school shooting or a youth murder. To fully understand the question, we have to understand what violence is. Violence is the use of physical force to inflict physical or mental injury; an act done by violating rights. Violence makes its way to our society through television, video …

…on our streets and that is the problem (2). The National Institute on Media and the Family has come up with many statistics on youth violence. An average child watches two to four hours of television daily. By the time an average child leaves elementary school, he will have witnessed 8,000 murders and 100,000 other acts of violence. By the time an average child turns 18 years old, he will have witnessed 40,000 murders and 200,000 acts of violence through television (1).