Toxic TV

Paper Summary:

The paper looks at statistics which seem to show that television is one of the major reasons why youth in the United States is becoming increasingly violent. The paper argues that being exposed to television violence causes children to behave violently, to become desensitized to the harmful consequences of violence, to become more fearful of being attacked, to accept the idea that violence is successful for conflict resolution, to feel that there are very few repercussions of violence, such as psychological financial or emotional harm and to believe that violence is a good and popular method of solving problems. The author of the paper suggests that parents protect their children by simply switching off the television.

From the Paper:

"Another important aspect of the debate surrounding television violence is whether or not television programming should be censored. Many people claim that graphic television violence is an expression of the United States Constitution's First Amendment which protects censorship, or the right to free speech. Admittedly, the right to free speech is an important part of the civil freedom in America none of us would want to succumb to a system that did not allow personal expression and liberty in individual opinion. Indeed, the right to free speech and free press has enabled powerful and significant changes in American justice through important documents and speeches such as Martin Luther King's Letter from Birmingham Jail, Patrick Henry's Speech in the Virginia Convention, and the "Ten Commandments" in the Book of Exodus. An important idea that is often overlooked, however, is that the First Amendment is not an absolute power but rather a preferred freedom. This means that one right cannot be exercised at the expense of other constitutional rights. Violence and obscenity are rather low on the list of protected speech and, when it comes to children, the Supreme Court has said that statues written to protect children may not unduly curtail the First Amendment rights of adults (qtd. in Encyclopedia Britannica 639). What holds true for adults has a different set of meaning for children, a group who are at a much more influential stage."

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