THE NEGATIVE IMPACTS ON CHILDREN’S BEHAVIOR FROM MEDIA SUCH AS TV AND MOVIES, ROCK MUSIC AND MUSIC VIDEOS, ADVERTISING, VIDEO AND COMPUTER GAMES

The Negative Impacts on Children’s Behavior from Media
Such as Television and Movies, Rock Music and
Music Videos, Advertising, Video and Computer games
Academic Preparation 5B
Kanin Sripraserth
INTO University of South Florida

Mar 19th, 2011

Introduction
Media have become more important to our lives than it used to be. I admit that I consume many kinds of media everyday such as newspaper, magazine, television, computer and even radio when we are driving a car. Moreover, our children, especially preteens and teenagers, are easily influenced by every kind of media. This is because they are all in developmental stage of life, which are susceptible and most likely to learn by their personal observation. This research paper explores four articles from text books (electronic books) and two articles from an internet which demonstrate the negative consequential outcomes of children behavior from media, for example, Television and movies, rock music and music videos, advertising, video and computer games.
Background Information
Many recent studies have shown a relationship between media and children’s behavior. Michael Suman, coordinator of The Center for Communications Policy at the University of California at Los Angeles, who has been observing negative effect of violence on TV for three years, asserts that there are three kinds of negative impacts on people, increase violence, desensitization and callousness, fear (Christiananswer.net, 2001). Similarly, Victor C. Strasburger (2009) determines seven negative media effects on children, violence, sex, drugs, obesity, eating disorder, school performance and early language development. Victor also specifies what every parent and clinician needs to know about media effects. In addition, Sandra L. Hofferth, Department of Family Science, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, studies four children behavior theories, centering on the effect of watching television, using personal computer and playing video games from 1997 to 2003. As a result, girls benefited from computer use more than boys. Increased video game play was associated with lower verbal achievement for all girls and was linked to increased aggressive behavior problems for boys. Moreover, Susan Villani , a medical director, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, and also an assistant professor of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, document a ten year review of the research-from 1990 to 2000- in her article, “Impact of Media on Children and Adolescents.” She found that children learn behaviors and have their value systems shaped by media. Media research since has focused on content and viewing patterns.
Analysis and Discussion
Television and Movies
Spending time on watching television and movies may cause aggressive and high-risk behaviors. Children who watch TV or movies a lot tend to do risky activities and to be more aggressive than those who don’t often watch. In “Impact of Media on Children and Adolescents: A 10-Year Review of the Research,” Susan Villani (2000) , a medical director, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, and also an assistant professor of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, showed a research result, according to 2760 in-home surveys in 10 suburb area in 1993, participants, whose age was between 14 and 16 years old and who watched TV more frequently, had a high possibility to get involved in eight possible risky behaviors (sexual intercourse, drinking, smoking tobacco, smoking marijuana, cheating, stealing, playing hooky, driving car without driving permit). Children might have an aggressive interaction with stranger, classmates and friends if they often view or are exposed to media violence (Villani, 2000). According to 217 studies retrieved from 1957 to 1990, participants ranged in age from 3 to70 years old, preschool students who generally watched TV more often had a negative impact such as being aggressive, hot-tempered persons. This problem could be dismissed by their parents; in addition, those children could have had negatively long-term behavior as well (Villani, 2000). Moreover, Victor C Strasburger (2009), Chief of the Division of Adolescent Medicine, Professor of Pediatrics, and Professor of Family and Community Medicine at the University of New Mexico, mentions in the article, “Children, adolescents and the media: what we know, what we don’t know and what we need to find out (quickly!),” that there are 3000 studies approximately demonstrate the correspondence between media violence and virtual aggression; in addition, those studies and researches also show that 10 percent of real-life violence comes from violent media. In other words, Media can influence people to commit crimes even though it’s just only 10%. We should not overlook this fact in order to raise our children to be good persons. Furthermore, Brad J. Bushman and L. Rowell Huesmann (2006), Professors of University of Michigan, write in their article, “Short-term and Long-term Effects of Violent Media on Aggression in Children and Adults,” that long-term effect has an impact on children who are most likely to learn by personal observation. On the other hand, adults, who are sophisticated, have less interference or have only a short-term impact. There are many researches, surveys and studies agree that the more children watch TV and movies that contain violent material, the more they become aggressive. All in all, it’s only one of many factors that makes children have adverse behaviors.
Traumatic symptom might result from watching television and movies. This kind of symptom can affect children’s behavior and can also get children mental illness. Two recent articles have focused on a relationship between traumatic symptoms and TV watching of 702 high-school students. 75% of the students reported that they usually exposed to violent media in normal up to high level. Moreover, 10% of those students revealed that they suffered from that kind of media, having nightmares, being afraid of loneliness, shunning themselves from public, skipping class. In 1995, another study also showed that watching television more than 6 hours a day was related to traumatic symptom and violent behavior; furthermore, children who viewed a fighting or an action television program would show more aggressive behavior (Villani, 2000). In other word, more than half of high-school students watch violent media frequently. As a result, most of them become more aggressive and some of them also have a mental disorder. Traumatic symptom is also a hot potato because this symptom occurs inside children’s mind. We don’t know what happens to our children until we notice that our children’s behavior or though are not psychologically as normal as other students. Those children need to be alleviated from traumatic symptom before it’s too late. Traumatic symptom is one of many children’s adverse effects from watching television and movies.
Children might get involved in substance abuse because of watching television and movies. Nowadays, more and more children try to smoke cigarettes after they see that kind of behavior from television and movies. A new research demonstrates that any movies that contain smoking scene may influence teenagers to start smoking (Strasburger, 2009). In other words, children see and remember what actors and actresses do in TV program or movies, and they imitate. As being parents, some families don’t have time to take care of their children sufficiently; therefore, they just open television or movies and let their children see without any suggestion. As a result, children may look up to bad behaviors which can become habituated.
Moreover, sexual promiscuity can stem from watching television and movies as. The amount of sexual material has constantly increased since 1990. According to the Kaiser Foundation study about how much sexual content in common 10 television channels are, it shows that 66% of the prime-time shows have a sexual content while as only 9% of the all prime-time shows inculcate how to have safe sex or how contraception works. In addition, survey data reveal that 76% of teenagers assert one reason why teenagers would like to experience sexual activity is because television and movies make sexual intercourse more common in this society (Villani, 2000). There is no doubt that’s why many children, especially teenagers, tend to have sexual activity earlier than before and unintentional teenagers’ pregnancy rate has also increased since 1990s. This is an important problem that we need to shield our children from. This is because teenagers have a short-sighted perspective. They usually do what they want to do without taking the consequential outcome into consideration. Furthermore, sexual promiscuity is just one of many adverse impacts on children from TV and movies.
Watching TV and movies cause children to be timorous. Children will have become habituated for being fearful if they see a lot of scary material. With respect to my personal experience, when I watch horror movies such as The Exorcist, Friday the Thirteenth, Jaws I might be haunted at least for 2 days. Another study shows that television and movies make children have misbelieves that violence or abuse happens every corner of the earth, or criminal wears black clothes when they commit crimes but good guys never wear black clothes (www.actagainstviolence.org) (www.christiananswer.net). In addition, one research concludes that young children cannot distinguish between fantasy and reality. Even though children had been given information about unreality before viewing media, they could not mitigate their fear (Villani, 2000). In other words, children, particularly preteens, cannot process data or what they see as well as adults do. As a result, we need to control what children may watch and how long they may view that kind of program or movies with reasonable explanation.
Eating disorder can be originated from some TV programs or movies. Numerous female teenagers hold the view that they are fat although they don’t get overweight. This is because media plays a crucial role on teenagers’ though. The most obvious testimony is in Fiji when an American TV program, Beverly Hills 90210 was on air. Most of female teenagers tried to get themselves as slim as the beautifully-female character in the Beverly Hills (Strasburger, 2009). Food consuming is essential for children who need a lot of desirous nutrient to get their body built appropriately. Consequently, as parents, we have to take a look closely and pass them food knowledge on what our children eat in order to ensure that they get all nutrition that they are supposed to have.
Desensitization and callousness can also come from watching TV and movies. Children will become more desensitized if they experience a lot of violent media television program. Averagely, children spend more than 2 hours a day watching television which also causes children being callous toward people who become victim of violent abuse (www.christiananswer.net). In other words, our community will be going from bad to worse if people are desensitized and callous toward each other. We actually need to depend on ourselves in the first place; moreover, we also probably have to help people if they are in a difficult situation because no man is an island.
Rock Music and Music Videos
One of the most obvious negative impact from experiencing rock music and music video is reckless behaviors of children. Numerous studies have taken a look closely at the relationship between rock music and reckless behaviors since 1990. A survey of 248 students studying in 10th and 12th grade about favorable kind of music and reckless behavior show a prominent relationship between heavy metal or hard rock music and reckless behavior such as drunk driving, speeding, unsafe sex and vandalism (Villani, 2000). That kind of music can push teenagers, who are sensation seekers, over the limit of the common sense. Moreover, rock music and music videos can get children have suicidal behavior. Although more than half of adolescent feel comfortable when they listen to music, some children feel sad and desperate. The article identified that 11% of the participants revealed that rock music made them feel sadder and isolated (Villani, 2000). Those children who are desperate when listening rock music have a high risk of committed suicide. Likewise, they may need to confer with psychiatrist to figure out how to alleviate this symptom as soon as possible.
Having aggressive behavior can result from seeing a lot of music video. In fact, 15% of music videos contain violent behavior. According to a child study in 1998, more than 80% of aggressors were playing a crucial role as main characters, especially male actors who are four times more likely to be aggressors than that of female actors (Villani, 2000). Children are more likely to learn by their personal observation than from teachers; therefore, they tend to look up to and imitate what they see in music videos. Likewise, children don’t have sophisticated though to evaluate any pieces of information if they are appropriate or not.
Advertising
Children and adolescent can easily be encouraged to be smokers by advertisement. Cigarette companies have spent at least 6 billion U.S dollars on advertisement since 1993. The tobacco advertisement is significantly more powerful to convince children of smoking cigarette than that of family or peer smokers. More than 4500 children participants, four recent articles have documented that there is a correlation between cigarette advertisement and being smoker. Children who have a favorite tobacco advertisement is twice more likely to strongly start or think of smoking 3 years later (Villani, 2000). Advertisement also plays a significant role on shaping children and adolescent behavior. Therefore, many people think that if tobacco advertising should be completely banned or not. Susceptibility to be a smoker is not the only bad effect from advertising.
Alcohol advertisement can affect children’s behavior and believes negatively. Many researches attest to the adverse effect of alcohol advertising on children about susceptibility to drink alcohol beverage such as beer, whiskey, rum. In 1990s, 468 children in 5th and 6th grader participated in a survey. As a result, children with more knowledge about alcohol drinking tended to drink as adult (Villani, 2000). Having a positive belief about drinking alcohol, children are more likely to start drinking alcohol. Moreover, that behavior will catch up with them when they reach maturity. However, it’s not the last negative outcome that comes from advertising.
Adolescents and children may suffer from obesity because of advertisement. Most of food commercial on are related to fast food. Many longitudinal studies conclude that fast food advertisement cause obesity on children because they are usually susceptible to any kind of media (Strasburger, 2009). In other words, children are persuaded into eating fast food easily because they absorb but cannot evaluate information as well as adult do. Consequently, parents should point out the fact, pros and cons, regarding eating fast food to their children. Therefore, they can decide how much fast food they can eat appropriately.
Video and computer games
Playing video and computer games can replace essential or developmental activities. If children do one binge activity, they will have less time for doing other activities. In her article “Home Media and Children’s Achievement and Behavior,” Sandra L. Hofferth (2010), Ph.D. University of Maryland- Department of Family Studies College Park, Maryland, writes about being heavy of computer and video games usage could not only displace time spending on reading, studying, and face-to-face intercourse but also replace time spending on fundamental activity such as sleeping (Hofferth, 2010). Furthermore, one study found that playing video games may be leading children to have less prosocial behavior toward people (Hofferth, 2010). In other words, the more children play video games, the less they have time to do other non-screen plays or activities. In addition, they might become more self-dependent and callous toward other people.
Playing video and computer game can bring about behavior problems. Violent game is associated with aggressive thinking and behavior. A meta-analysis of 35 researches document that exposure to violent video or computer games will lead children, whatever gender they are, to be aggressive and have a belief that aggression can solve any problems without negative effects (Hofferth, 2010). In other words, the more children play violent video or computer games, the more aggressive behavior they have. Consequently, it would be better if we, as parents, allow our children to play non violent video games in order to prevent any aggressive behaviors that may come from violent video games.
Conclusions and Recommendations Children may have aggressive and high-risk behaviors regarding spending too much time on watching TV and movies. For example, they will show an aggressive behavior against stranger, classmates and friend, or they tend to do some risky behaviors such as having sex, drinking, smoking, cheating, stealing, skipping class, driving without driving permit. Seeing violent media, children are most likely to have a long-term negative impact, such as desensitization and callousness toward people, while as adults don’t get that impact. Traumatic symptom is associated with watching television and movies which cause mental disorder on some children. Also, children can have misbelief stereotype about violence and people. Children and adolescents are susceptible to be smokers, alcoholics, obesity by advertising. Moreover, most of food commercials are about fast food. Rock music and music videos can stimulate children to committed suicide and having aggressive behavior as well. More time on the computer and playing video games are all associated with reduced time spending on non screen play and having more aggressive behaviors. The greater time children are spending on computer communicating, the less time they will be spending on sleeping. For any future researches, it will be better if researchers specify where you are gathering information, for example, northern part, east coast, west coast, middle part. This is because children in different area may be raised in different ways and they might have different characteristics.

References
N/A. (2001, January 1). Violence in the media-how does it affect families? [Online Forum Comment]. Retrieved from http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-f012.html
Strasburger, V.C. (2009). Children, adolescents and the media: what we know, what we don 't know and what we need to find out (quickly!) [pp. 655-657]. (Adobe Digital Editions version), Retrieved from http://adc.bmj.com/content/94/9/655.full doi: 10.1136/adc.2008.157156
Hofferth, S.L. (2010). Child development. Home Media and Children 's Achievement and Behavior, 81(5), 1598-1619.
The Kaiser Family Foundation. (2006, May). Media violence & children. Retrieved from http://actagainstviolence.apa.org/mediaviolence/index.html
Bushman, B.J., & Huesmann, L.R. (2006). Archives of pediatrics & adolescent medicine. Short-term and Long-term Effects of Violent Media on Aggression in Children and Adults, 160(4), Retrieved from http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/160/4/348
Villani, S. (2000). Journal of the american academy of child and adolescent psychiatry. Impact of Media on Children and Adolescents: A 10-Year Review of the Research, 40(4), Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com

References: N/A. (2001, January 1). Violence in the media-how does it affect families? [Online Forum Comment]. Retrieved from http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-f012.html Strasburger, V.C. (2009). Children, adolescents and the media: what we know, what we don 't know and what we need to find out (quickly!) [pp. 655-657]. (Adobe Digital Editions version), Retrieved from http://adc.bmj.com/content/94/9/655.full doi: 10.1136/adc.2008.157156 Hofferth, S.L. (2010). Child development. Home Media and Children 's Achievement and Behavior, 81(5), 1598-1619. The Kaiser Family Foundation. (2006, May). Media violence & children. Retrieved from http://actagainstviolence.apa.org/mediaviolence/index.html Bushman, B.J., & Huesmann, L.R. (2006). Archives of pediatrics & adolescent medicine. Short-term and Long-term Effects of Violent Media on Aggression in Children and Adults, 160(4), Retrieved from http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/160/4/348 Villani, S. (2000). Journal of the american academy of child and adolescent psychiatry. Impact of Media on Children and Adolescents: A 10-Year Review of the Research, 40(4), Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com