This paper argues that children's heavy exposure to violence in television, films, and video games poses a serious public health concern that warrants stronger government and community regulation. Drawing on statements from major medical and psychological associations, expert testimony, and documented case studies, the paper establishes a causal link between media violence and aggressive behavior in children. It further contends that the entertainment industry deliberately targets vulnerable young audiences with violent content for profit, constituting a form of child exploitation. The paper addresses counterarguments about free speech and definitional ambiguity while maintaining that regulation — through improved ratings systems and parental guidance frameworks — is both necessary and achievable without unconstitutional censorship.
The paper uses a claim-evidence-warrant structure throughout. Each major assertion — that media violence causes aggression, that video games are especially dangerous, that industry conduct constitutes exploitation — is followed by cited evidence and then an explicit interpretive statement linking that evidence back to the thesis. This models how persuasive academic writing should operate: evidence does not speak for itself but is always explained and connected to the argument.
The paper opens with an attention-grabbing anecdote (the Moscow airport attack and its video game parallel), then moves through a logical progression: establishing the harm to children, intensifying the concern with video game evidence, assigning moral blame to the industry, advocating regulation, rebutting objections, and closing with a summary call to action. This classic problem–cause–solution structure, with an embedded counterargument section, is well-suited to persuasive essays on policy topics.
Violence in media has become a serious problem. Children are heavily exposed to violence in films, TV shows, and video games from an early age. This heavy exposure may lead to aggressive and violent behavior, encouraging children to see violence as normal. Because of the popularity of violent media and the fact that children today represent a very lucrative market, the entertainment industry takes advantage of this situation by targeting children with products that glorify violence. In essence, the producers of violent media content and video games are guilty of child exploitation. To address the problem, the public needs greater regulation of violence in media to protect children.
In January 2011, a group of terrorists took Moscow's Domodedovo International Airport hostage, killing thirty-five civilians and wounding scores more. In the aftermath of the tragedy, while law enforcement agencies hunted for the perpetrators, Russia's English-language news channel Russia Today partly blamed the blockbuster video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for the attack. The game, the article suggested, urged players to go on a killing spree of civilians in a simulated Russian airport. "In the mission dubbed 'No Russian' the player goes on a terrorist rampage," the article said, "helping to massacre civilians in a fictitious Moscow airport. It may have seemed too gruesome and tragic ever to come true" (Moscow airport terror mirrors video game, 2011). The article also quoted media experts who argued that the terrorists might have been inspired by playing such video games. The claim may be overly speculative — the motivations for terrorism usually come from elsewhere — but it nevertheless raised an important question: video games have become ever more violent, actively encouraging and glorifying violence, and consumer demand for that violence has grown in parallel. There is a corresponding demand for violence in other forms of media, such as full-length movies and TV shows. Media producers and game manufacturers today eagerly respond to these demands by producing more violent imagery. This is a dangerous trend, because violence in media has a harmful effect — especially on children. Constant exposure to violent imagery may make children more aggressive, while the continuous marketing of products glorifying violence constitutes child exploitation. For these reasons, violence in media needs to be better regulated by the government and community organizations.
American society today might fairly be described as addicted to violence. Whether in media, graphic novels, video games, music videos and lyrics, or Hollywood films, violence has become virtually unavoidable. The constant selling of violent imagery may have a desensitizing effect on all viewers, but it is especially dangerous when the targets are children. Unable to comprehend the true meaning of on-screen violence, children may try to imitate what they see and harm others. As early as 1982, Brandon Tartikoff, then president of NBC, offered the following confession in a Playboy interview:
"Television did have an effect on me right from the beginning. In first grade, I was a member of a four-kid gang that went around imitating TV Westerns. We'd disrupt class to play out scenes, picking up chairs and hitting people over the head with them — except, unlike on TV, the chairs didn't break, the kids did. Finally, the teacher called my parents in and said, 'Obviously, he's being influenced by these TV shows, and if he's to continue in this class, you've got to agree not to let him watch television anymore.' So, from first to second grade there was a dark period during which I didn't watch TV at all. And I calmed down and the gang broke up" (qtd. in Kiesbye, 2010, pp. 8–9).
This account illustrates clearly that children watch violence in media and attempt to imitate it in real life. Children do not fully understand that the violence depicted in films and TV shows is not real, and that in actual situations the violent methods they see on screen may be far more painful and dangerous. Heavy exposure to violence — and the glorification of it — is likely to encourage children to imitate what they see.
Even when children do not directly imitate violent scenarios, there is abundant evidence that continuous exposure to violence increases the likelihood of aggression and violent behavior. An average American child witnesses 8,000 acts of murder and 100,000 acts of various kinds of violence by the time he or she completes elementary school (Simmons, 2010, p. 12). These images may instill in children the idea that violence is "normal" and even "noble" when used for good purposes — that heroes are permitted to kill and torture villains, and that the ability to "kick ass" is something every child should aspire to. Repeated viewing of violence also desensitizes children to actual events such as murder, torture, and rape. Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, an activist against media violence and an expert in so-called "killology," explains the depth of the problem:
"Children are bombarded with thousands of violent acts on television at a young, vulnerable age when they literally cannot tell the difference between reality and fantasy. As violence is played for laughs and cheers on TV and in the movies, our kids eat their favorite snacks and giggle as the body count rises. We are raising generations of children who learn at a very early age to associate horrific violence with pleasure and excitement — a dangerous association for a civilized society" (Grossman, 1999, p. 3).
The causal relationship between violent imagery in media and aggression in children has been confirmed by numerous scholarly studies. In July 2000, the nation's top six professional associations — the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians, and the American Psychiatric Association — signed a joint statement: "At this time, well over 1,000 studies point overwhelmingly to a causal connection between media violence and aggressive behavior in some children" (Simmons, 2010, p. 12). The evidence linking media violence and aggressive behavior among children is overwhelming.
While violence in movies and TV shows may negatively affect children, the prevalence of violence in video games may be even more dangerous. With violent video games, players are not simply passive receivers of violent imagery — they are active participants in it. The latest developments in computer technology allow players to immerse themselves in realistic simulated environments where the line between the virtual world and reality is blurred even further. As Hoerrner and Hoerrner (2010) explain, "[j]ust as children can improve their phonics with Learn to Read with Winnie the Pooh, they can learn to shoot with deadly accuracy playing Doom, Splinter Cell, Hitman, and other first-person shooter games" (p. 41).
This is not merely theoretical. Numerous real cases have proven it to be true. In a tragic incident in Paducah, Kentucky, in 1997, a fourteen-year-old boy accomplished something law enforcement agents would consider nearly impossible: he scored eight hits in eight shots, five of them head shots and three hitting upper torsos, from a distance of roughly seven yards. The teenager was able to do this because he had "practiced killing literally thousands of people. His simulators were point-and-shoot video games he played for hundreds of hours in video arcades and in the comfort of his own home" (Grossman, 1999, p. 4). The implications of such cases cannot be ignored. Violent video games have a demonstrable capacity to encourage aggression and violent behavior among children and adolescents.
Violent stories are part of human history. Ancient history books, religious texts, poems, novels, and art are full of violent imagery. It is not surprising, then, that violence is so widespread in media today. But the difference between the past and the present is that violent imagery is now so readily available — and so unavoidable — that children are heavily exposed to it from their earliest years. By the time children reach adulthood, they have witnessed tens of thousands of acts of violence, including murder, torture, and rape. This constant bombardment desensitizes them to actual instances of violence and encourages aggression. Violent video games go further, allowing children to simulate realistic scenarios in which they can literally "kill" thousands of people.
This problem is further exacerbated by an entertainment industry that deliberately exploits children's vulnerability by producing and marketing violent movies, TV shows, and video games to young audiences. The gravity of the problem demands better public regulation of violence in media. The government and the broader public must take necessary measures to protect children from the prevalence of violence on the screens they love and in the games they play.
Grossman, D. (1999). Stop teaching our kids to kill: A call to action against TV, movie & video game violence. Crown Publishers.
Hoerrner, M., & Hoerrner, K. (2010). Violent video games might be to blame for violent behavior. In S. Kiesbye (Ed.), Is media violence a problem? (pp. 39–46). Greenhaven Press.
Kiesbye, S. (Ed.). (2010). Is media violence a problem? Greenhaven Press.
Kirsh, S. J. (2006). Children, adolescents, and media violence: A critical look at the research. Sage Publications.
Kumar, B. (2003). Run against media violence: Entertainment violence against children; don't buy; don't support. IUniverse, Inc.
Mean world syndrome: George Gerbner on media and violence. (2009). Insight Media. Retrieved April 11, 2012, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msfu8YCCc8Q
Moscow airport terror mirrors video game. (2011, January 25). Russia Today online. Retrieved April 11, 2012, from http://rt.com/news/modern-warfare-execution-airport/
Simmons, G. (2010). Media violence causes aggression in children. In S. Kiesbye (Ed.), Is media violence a problem? (pp. 11–15). Greenhaven Press.
Trend, D. (2007). The myth of media violence: A critical introduction. Blackwell.
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