Television has changed over time. It used to be a wholesome activity for the family to sit in front of the tube together. It was a new technology that brought the outside world into the living room. Now TV, as it has so lovingly been dubbed, has become a source of corruption for the nation's children. As the world becomes more and more violent the sanctity of the home becomes occupied with the extremities of violence. Television and other media have caused unnecessary violence and effected the children of the entire country. Television causes violence in children. It also inspires harmful behavior in adults. Some say that television programs do not contribute to the violence, just depict it. Further study proves this theory wrong. Children mimic what they see. This was exceptionally so in a group of preschoolers that were shown a tape of a man hitting a doll (Leland 47). "Afterward the kids who saw the violence were more likely to mimic it on a similar doll" (Leland 47). Not only are television programs harmful to Allred 2 children, many violent crimes have been stimulated by TV.
Movies have given people malicious ideas that led to actual crimes. John Leland tells of a man that was a victim of a crime inspired by the movie "Magnum Force" (47). The man was forced to eat Drano and had his mouth duct taped, just like in the movie (47). The perpetrators had watched "Magnum Force" three times the day before (Leland 47). A similar incident occurred concerning the 1995 film "Money Train". A man named Harry Kaufman was killed in a Brooklyn subway tokenbooth (Leland 46). The booth, which he was clerk over, was torched the same way a booth was in "Money Train" (Leland 46). The movie had only opened three days earlier and within the next week two more booths had been attacked (Leland 46). Clearly violence is infecting the minds of the world with suggestive ideas. Although some say that television violence is the effect of actual violence, surely actual violence is also the effect of television violence. Now the question is how TV violence affects children. When children see too much violence they become desensitized to it and/or imitate it. They may also gain a distorted world view. "Studies indicate that people who watch a great deal of television are more likely to hold fearful or negative views of the world than those who watch less TV. However, some researchers argue that people who ...