What Can Parents Do to Protect Children from the Bad Influence of Television Violence?

Television can be a powerful influence in developing value systems and shaping behavior in the developing children’s mind. Unfortunately, much of today's television programming has a highly explicit violent content. Numerous studies has been conducted on the effect television violence has on children and adolescence, and all of it shows negative feedbacks. Children tend to develop emotional numbness to all the horror seen on the screen, and gradually accept violence as a norm and a way to solve problems. Parents can protect their children by engaging them in different after school programs, paying attention to the television their children are watching and try to block some channels showing inappropriate content. One of the most disturbing facts of modern life is the abundance of wasted time spent watching mindless television programs. Children who spend more time in front of the television are more susceptible to all the violence in the media, and not only that they grow to be more aggressive, but also more passive. One way to avoid that is to involve the kid into different after school activities like arts and crafts programs or outdoor sports. Extracurriculars let the children enjoy themselves in a fun, stress-free environment, get some exercises, and make friends outside of school instead of being trapped at home alone with the only source of entertainment, the TV. It is a proven fact that television and media content are affecting how children and teens perceive the world around them. One way to help ease the negative effect of it is to help them understand what is wrong and what not. Parents should be aware of what children are watching, and if there is something violent and upset them, it is important to help them through that. Although the violent content, television can offer some very valuable educational programs as well, which could open doors to new fields of knowledge, when viewed responsible and sensibly. That is why parents should not eliminate the television, just get involved into what the child is watching, and explain why violent and the explicit is not worth watching. Parents can not control what children are doing, or watching every second of the day, that is why many parents rely on some sort of channel blockers. By restricting access to certain channels with violent and explicit language, parents can keep the unwanted content away from the eyes of their children. Childproofing the cable television is one of the best ways to keep the kids away of television violence, but yet it does not guarantee that the kids are protected. The control of the parents over their viewing time and content is most important of all. Television has become more violent in content in the recent years. Although the media experts are trying to market the explicit content, there are still should be some limits and restriction on what has to be shown on the big screen and what not. Until that happens, parents are the only regulators of that content and as so, they have the right to rule the remote control in their living room.