Does TV Affect Children’s Behavior?

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Editor’s Note: The following story was written by a student in the Urban Youth International Journalism Program in partnership with Luke O’Toole Elementary School in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood.

Television does affect children’s behavior because children are influenced by what’s around them. When I turn on my television, I see violence, people doing things that they shouldn’t be doing and hear profanity.

According to the University of Maine, violence in the media, on television programming, video games and movies is a growing concern.

In the movies and videos that some kids have access to, they see a lot of bad people doing bad things and hear a lot of profanity. An example of this would be in some movies and/or videos you can see rappers with money who are treating women badly. When a child sees this, they think that type of behavior is OK. They think it’s OK to talk the way they do and act the way they do. A lot of time, they act out the things they see in school, and that affects other kids. It’s not OK to use profanity in school and try to fight other students. Children should not watch things like this. There are movies for adults and there are certain movies for children.

As for television programming, some things are age appropriate and other things aren’t. Kids still have access to these programs either way so the TV should be OK for everyone to watch. Statistics in a University of Maine report indicate that “The typical American child will be exposed to 12,000 violent acts on television a year.”

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