TV violence the real enemy
/The Boston Herald
Beverly Beckham
No doubt about it, television rots kids' minds.
But it's not children's programming doing the corroding. It's "Inside Edition" and "Hard Copy" and "Rescue 911" and cable TV with its dozens of stations, on which a person can push a button and watch, at any time of day, someone being beaten, tortured, raped or murdered.
And yet, typical of the way our society deals with problems, what gets a rise out of people is not the scandalous but the inane.
Case in point: Last week's testimony by Shari Lewis' puppet Lamb Chop to the House Energy and Commerce Telecommunications Subcommittee. In its little puppet voice, Lamb Chop entreated lawmakers to comply with the Children's Television Act of 1990 and force local broadcasters to create more educational children's programs.
The chairman of the House subcommittee, Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), demanded the same, calling children's television "the video equivalent of a Twinkie - kids enjoy it despite the absolute absence of any nutritional content."
But so what if children's television is the equivalent of a Twinkie? Twinkies are harmless. Kids enjoy them. And enjoy is the key word here. Kids enjoy Twinkies and Cheetos and M&M's. They also enjoy Scooby Doo and the Jetsons and Superman. They may not be learning about the ozone layer or the merits of wearing condoms, but who cares? Where is it written that kids always have to be learning something important?
Imagine if the government imposed similar criteria on adult programming, if it called for a return to the original philosophy of the Communications Act of 1934, which required broadcasters to "serve the public interest." It would be the great American white-out. Screens across America would go blank and remain blank.
Lamb Chop and Ed Markey no doubt have nothing but the best intentions, but they're fighting windmills. The real enemy is adult programming.
Here are some horrifying statistics: The average American child watches three hours of television a day and witnesses 8,000 murders and 100,000 other acts of violence by seventh grade. These numbers are so huge as to be meaningless, but they're not.
A few years ago a University of Illinois psychologist, Leonard Eron, published a study in which he tracked 400 males for 22 years. What he learned was that the best predictor of who would commit a violent act by the time he was 30 was the amount of violent TV a person had watched at the age of 8.
"Children who watch a great deal of violent TV are desensitized to the wrongness of what they are seeing," wrote Dr. Deborah Prothrow-Stith in "Deadly Consequences."
Constant portrayal of sexual violence "leads to increased acceptance of rape" and "can instigate antisocial values and behavior" the American Psychological Association, has reported.
What does all this mean? It means that Scooby Doo isn't responsible for the state we're in. Kids aren't exposed to murder and rape in cartoons. But on crime shows and talk shows and too many other shows, this is all they see. It's no wonder that more juveniles are committing more violent crimes.
When it is suggested that television clean up its act, the networks, of course, scream censorship.
It's not censorship Americans seek, it's a return to good sense. Television is out of control. Sex and violence are staples. Now it's bizarre sex and violent sex and violence live, up close, in color, presented as if it were normal.
Let's talk to Jeffrey Dahmer as if he were the guy next door.
Let's not be angry or judgmental. Let's get a close-up of the live action in Waco, Texas.
These are the things that flood the air waves.
Enough. Instead of entreating Congress to get tough on kids' programming, Americans need to take the reins themselves. Turn off the TV. Do as Dr. Richard Neill of Fort Worth, Texas, did. He was watching the Phil Donahue Show one day and didn't like what he saw. So he wrote to advertisers urging them to pull their accounts. And Kraft/General Foods, General Mills, Seven-Up/Dr. Pepper and the Keebler Co. did.
Imagine what would happen if everyone did this. There would be change - different programing, less violence. And that would mean less exposure to violence, and less desensitization.
And maybe a better world
