Analysis of “Violent Media is Good for Kids”

Analysis of “Violent Media is Good for Kids” Gerard Jones' essay “Violent Media is Good for Kids” was a very interesting paper. He opens with a story of him as a child, “alone and afraid” of the rage that was inside of him. His parents taught him that violence was wrong and that rage was something that could be simply overcome. Jones' main argument was aimed at parents, saying that they are stifling a child's natural instinct of anger and rage. He wrote that “we send the message to our children in a hundred ways that their craving for imaginary gun battles and symbolic killing is wrong...”, and uses his own childhood as an example of how comics were good for him because they were juvenile and violent. I feel that his explanation of our fear of “youth violence” is logically sound, and I agree with him that violent media can actually help children. Jones states the children will feel rage. He goes on to explain that children are going to get angry regardless of how sweet the child is, or how much the parents try to help it. Jones proposes that “creative violence”- head-bonking cartoons, bloody video games, playground karate, toy guns- gives children a tool to help control and manage their rage. While growing up, his parents never really allowed him to project violence and anger. But through reading The Hulk, he was able to pull himself, and eventually an entire audience of his own readers, “out of emotional traps by immersing themselves in violent stories”. As an avid reader of comics and a player of video games, I find Jones' ideas, that violent forms of media help children explore violent emotions without any consequences, very convincing. “Fear, greed, power-hunger, rage: these are aspects of our selves that we try not to experience... but often want, even need to experience vicariously through...others.” He found this quote from Melanie Moore, PhD, and with her, he helped develop the program Power Play, which helps children “improve their self-knowledge and