SHEET 15 - CHILDREN
AND VIOLENCE IN THE MEDIA
WHAT IMPACT DOES VIOLENCE in
the media have on children and you? What can
we do about it? How do we balance the tension
between freedom of expression and the need to protect children?
UNESCO’S GLOBAL MEDIA VIOLENCE
SURVEY
The range of media to which children have access has
grown rapidly in this generation. Take the
books, newspapers, magazines, films, radio, tapes, records, and broadcast television
familiar to children of the previous generation, then add dozens of cable t.v. channels,
thousands of videos and video games, and millions of Internet sites. The result is a dense electronic bath in which
children are immersed daily. This is true not
only in the industrialized countries but increasingly in all societies of the world.
What is the impact of this new
environment on children, and what is the particular effect of images of violence in the
media? To address this question, in i996 and
i997 UNESCO conducted the Global Media Violence Survey.
More than 5,000 12-year-old students in 93 countries participated,
representing all regions of the world and a broad variety of cultural, social, and
economic conditions, from countries like Canada andjapan to high-crime neighbourhoods in
Brazil and war-ravaged countries like Angola and Tajikistan. Under the supervision of Drjo Groebel of Utrecht
University, the study aimed to understand the role of media in the lives of children and
the relationship between media violence and aggressive behaviour among children in
different settings.
The study found that 93% of students
who live in electrified urban or rural areas have regular access to television and watch
it for an average of three hours a day. This is at least So% more than the time spent on
any other out-of-school activity, including homework, being with friends, or reading.
There is little doubt that television is the most important medium in the lives of
children almost everywhere in the world.
Television, videos, and video games
expose children to high levels of violent images on a daily basis. In many countries,
there is an average of five to ten aggressive acts per hour of television. Does this
violence affect children's behaviour? The study found evidence for a hypothesis called the
"compass theory." Depending on a child's existing experiences, values, and the
cultural environment, media content offers an orientation, a frame of reference which
determines the direction of the child's own behaviour.
The child does not necessarily adopt the behaviour portrayed, but the media
images provide a model, a standard for what may be considered normal and acceptable.
The study found that aggressive male
heroes fascinated boys in all cultures. Arnold
Schwarznegger's "Terminator" is known by 88% of the world's i2-year-olds,
whether in India, Brazil, or Japan. Boys
chose action heroes as their role models more frequently than any other category of media
image. The trend was especially strong among
boys in high-crime neighbourhoods and war zones. Girls,
by contrast, tended to choose pop stars as their role models.
The study found
evidence that media images reinforce the experiences of children in their real-life
environments. Almost half (44%) of both boys
and girls reported a strong overlap between what they perceive as reality and what they
see on the screen. Many children experience
both real and media environments in which violence appears to be natural and the most
effective solution to life's problems. Where
violence is not a feature of daily life, media portrayals may make it appear to be
thrilling, especially when presented out of context.
ATTEMPTS
TO REGULATE THE MEDIA
The
UNESCO study is a major contribution to the
growing body of evidence that violence in the media does have a harmful impact on
children, recognizing that this effect can vary by gender and by the kind of surroundings
in which children are living. Many countries
of the world have taken steps to introduce regulations, or to pressure the media to adopt
forms of self-regulation, to curb the level and amount of violence to which children are
exposed on television. The United States has
made it mandatory that V-chips be included in all new television sets sold in the country. These allow parents to program their television
sets to screen out broadcasts rated above a certain level for violent or erotic material. Canada has introduced a code of ethics for
broadcasters that is now a condition of licensing by the Canadian Ratio-Television and
Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).
There are
problems with these approaches, however. Government
regulations raise concerns about state censorship, and voluntary codes of ethics are
unsatisfactory in a medium driven by ratings and fierce competition for advertising
revenue. Moreover, the V-chip is unlikely to
defeat any determined 12-year-old intent on watching a t.v. program when parents are
absent. Among experts, a new consensus has
been emerging that emphasizes media education, at home and in school, to promote critical
thinking by youth in relation to all information and images they receive through the
media.
AN
ALTERNATIVE APPROACH: FOSTERING CRITICAL USE
OF THE MEDIA
Canada's Media
Awareness Network provides resources to
parents, teachers, community leaders, and students themselves to promote critical analysis
of media content. Teachers can go to its Web
site for curriculum materials and lesson plans. Parents
can get advice on teaching their children about media messages and establishing good media
entertainment habits. The site also provides
information on classification systems and guidelines for movies, television, video games
and the Internet. There is also a wealth of
information about reports, articles, parenting books, pamphlets and handouts to support
media awareness in the home and community.
In May, 1999, the
CRTC released a milestone report in which it rejected a strategy of attempting to regulate
content on the Internet and endorsed the approach of the Media Awareness Network to foster
critical use of all media. The CRTC
recognized that, in the hands of new media users, "awareness and knowledge can be a
powerful tool." Its report cites the Media Awareness Network as an organization that
is "dedicated to media education and media issues affecting children and youth,"
and directs users to its Internet site at www.media-awareness.ca.
UNESCO
has established the International Clearing House on Children and Violence on the Screen at
the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. Its
main task is to provide data of every kind on children and media violence to people who
need it: researchers, decision-makers, media professionals, academics, voluntary agencies,
and interested individuals. It gathers and
distributes research findings, teaching materials, positive alternatives to media
violence, and information on measures taken in different countries to limit violence on
television, in films, and in the interactive media.
ABUSE OF
CHILDREN ON THE INTERNET
A similar network is now taking shape around the
issue of sexual abuse of children, child pornography, and paedophilia on the Internet. It is made up of specialists in child care and child protection, Internet specialists
and service providers, media practitioners, law enforcement agencies, and government
representatives. Like the network on children
and media violence, it aims to promote the exchange of information and co-operation among
groups concerned with child rights. It plans
to broaden its membership to include parents associations, teachers, and other civic
groups.
THE
AIM OF EDUCATION IS to make people active and critical thinkers. Are you critical enough in relation to the media
surrounding your daily life? Ultimately, this
is the only way that a young person can grow up to be an informed and active citizen in a
democratic society.
Children educated to analyze media content learn to recognize the contradiction
between their taste for violence on television and their rejection of it in real life. Media education also allows children to become
active producers of media content, to learn the methods and language of the media, and to
use it in a healthy way as a vehicle way as a vehicle for their own self-expression.
RESOURCES
Canada's Media Awareness Network offers a
large variety of resources through its Web site at http://www.media-awareness.ca/
The Web site of the UNESCO
International Clearing House on Children and Violence on the Screen is http://www.nordicom.gu.se/unesco.htm