Today's Hollywood produces some questionably graphic shows and movies. Take, for example, the 1998 comedy There’s Something About Mary with it's crude portrayal of a sex scene. Or the 2008 comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshal which included full body male nudity. Parents stay up late at night to keep their children away from Home Box Office (HBO) which shows television documentaries including “Real Sex” and “Cathouse.”
Professional wrestling, although always violent, has become even more so. The new brand of Ultimate Fighting is even more brutal.
Even comedy has taken a turn. Since George Carlin’s “Seven Dirty Words Your Can’t Say on Television”, those words - and much more - have infiltrated even prime time television. Viewers of South Park Episode 502 (Episode Guide, June 20, 2001) heard the word “s_ _ t” 162 times in one show.
The Parents Television Council released its annual ranking of the 20 most popular prime time television shows among children ages 2-17, based on foul language, sexual content and violence. The Council found that 8 of the most popular prime time broadcast shows were “Questionably Suitable” for this audience, and 6 of these most popular shows watched by children were ranked as “Not Suitable.” Only 6 of the shows most watched by children were age appropriate in content and affect. (Parents Television Council, Press Release, November 12, 2008.)
The Effects on Youth
One study showed a link between sexual content on television and the likelihood that teenagers who watch it will become parents. Teens who watched sexually charged TV programs were more than twice as likely to become pregnant or to father an out-of-wedlock child (“Does Watching Sex on Television Predict Teen Pregnancy? Findings From a National Longitudinal Survey of Youth”, Chandra, Martino, Collins, Elliott, Berry, Kanouse, and Miu, Pediatrics, Vol. 122 No. 5, November 2008.)
Another 17-year longitudinal study, concluded that teens who watched more than one hour of TV a day were almost four times as likely as other teens to commit aggressive acts in adulthood, taking into account prior aggressiveness, psychiatric disorders, family income, parental education, childhood neglect, and neighborhood violence (“Television Viewing and Aggressive Behavior During Adolescence and Adulthood”, Jeffrey Johnson, Science, March 29, 2002.)
“Based on the cumulative evidence of studies conducted over several decades, the scientific and public health communities overwhelmingly conclude that viewing violence poses a harmful risk to children," says the article, Key Facts on TV Violence” (the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, 2003),
The Foundation quoted findings from dozens of studies and sources, including: The National Television Violence Study, the UCLA Television Violence Monitoring Report, the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence, Surgeon General’s Scientific Advisory Committee on Television and Social Behavior, the National Institute of Mental Health, American Psychological Association, a Joint Statement of the Public Health Community (by the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, American Psychological Association, American Medical Association, American Academy of Family Physicians, and American Psychiatric Association), and findings from Youth Violence: A Report of the Surgeon General.
Bring Back the Television Censors
Parents are concerned. The censors of the past television networks have faded away. The result is that movies, television, games, the internet, music, even the news shows – are becoming increasingly more graphic in violence and fetishes and are becoming more disconcerting.
What Does this do to Society?
As the media portrays a culture of violence, sex, and profanity, it has a social norming effect especially for those who cannot differentiate between entertainment and reality. For many, what they see and experience becomes reality, and eventually, “normal” for society.
The question then remains, what is this doing to children? What is it doing to everyone?
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