Negative Effects on Children Essay

Parents are too busy earning a living so that they can feed, cloth and educate their children. Consequently, they spend much time away from home and from their children. Since their parents are not around, the children have no choice but to spend their time in front of the television. It then goes without saying that children spend a lot of time in front of the television set where they are exposed to sex and violence. The question then is; does the exposure to sex and violence have negative effects on children? There is no simple or obvious answer. Some people may argue that the sex and violence on television does not have negative effects on children. This group of people believe that that the amount of sex and violence on television is not enough to warrant the change in the behavior of the children. More over, that some children are too young to understand the scenes on television, anyway. Others yet may argue that exposure to sex and violence, however limited it may be, does have negative effects on the children. It influences them to commit antisocial and sometimes immoral behavior. Nevertheless, it is important to analyze the issue critically before settling for any one conclusion. SUMMARY OF INFORMATION The media has both positive and negative influences on children. On the one hand, it provides their growing minds with information. On the other hand, it also provides them with negative information in the form of sexual and violent content that corrupts their young minds (Singer & Singer, 2002). According to Josephson, when children watch television, they understand the content in very different ways. How they understand the television content is highly influenced by their ages, their attention spans and also their life experiences (1995). Case in point. Think about children who are less than five years old and the kind of attention span they have. Yes they may take the time to sit in front of the television, but after a few minutes they will have gotten restless and moved on to some other activity, say playing with their toys or just running around. More over, even though these children may appear to be paying close attention to the scenes on television, it is very likely that in their minds, they may fail to register what the exact content of program is. It is only the mature, much older, children and adults who are capable of discerning program content. According to Cameron, this is because most children under that age of seven cannot easily tell fantasy and reality from each other. To them it’s all one and the same thing. At this stage of their development, it is hard for the children to understand the motives and justifications for the violence on television (2009). Children are unaware of whether the characters on television are real or not. Consequently, Bugs Bunny is just as real as the news anchor. Therefore, since the child does not know what is real and what is not, it is then possible then possible that they will also not be able to distinguish whether or not to copy what they see. It is for this reason that it would be incorrect to conclude with certainty that indeed all the sex and violence on television does have negative effects on children. It is only after the age of two that children begin to really pay attention on what is on television. As the children grow older, they learn to differentiate between what they see on television and reality. By the time these children grow into teenagers and adulthoods they shift their focus from television preferring to instead spend their time on other activities such as developing relationships with their peers of the opposite sex. Nevertheless, it is during adolescent that sex and violence on television may have a greater impact on the children. Those without guidance may try out what they see on television. Thus, it is important to note that it is the amount of time that a child spends in front of the television that really matters. According to Huesmann, children who consistently watch violent programs on television are more likely to be negatively affected than their counterparts who do not. Think about it. A child who frequently watches Monday night wrestling, which by all standards may be described as a violent program, is more likely to try wrestling with his friends. What is even more interesting is that the child may also attempt using the same wrestling behaviors, as seen on television, as a way of solving conflicts with others (2001). Thus, children who watch/are exposed to violence on television are more aggressive (Jonassen & Harris, 2003). According to Greenspan, in the process, these children are bound to injure not only themselves but others in the process (2007). Concurrently, children who habitually watched television programs raced with sexual content were much more likely to be involved than their counterparts who were not. According to Stein, frequent watching of sexual content on television was a big influence in teen pregnancy (2008). It is probable that the children may want to try out what they may have watched and the consequences in this case are teenage pregnancy. Nathanson & Cantor (1998), argue that at some point in time children will be exposed to television; it is unavoidable. It may not happen in their homes. Children may go visiting their friends where they may have to watch television meaning they may be exposed to sex and violence. It is therefore up to parents to protect their children from prolonged exposure to sex and violence on television. The simplest way of doing this is by restricting the number of hours that children actually spend in front of the television. Rather than letting children watch television after school, parents may choose to enroll their children in such after school activities such as soccer practice or ballet. Such activities are sure to keep children away from exposure to negative TV programs. Even when children are left under the care of a nanny, parents should leave strict instructions on just how much time their children should be allowed to watch television. It would also be important if the parents themselves were to change their television watching habits. In most instances, toddlers are heavily influenced by their parents (Josephson, 1995). Therefore, if the parents were to stay away from the television but instead partake in other activities, their children would follow suit. This way the parent’s would not have to worry about the television negatively affecting their children. Another way that parents may protect their children is by letting children watch television programs that have PG rating. The idea behind this concept is that parents should watch a television program first before they let their children. The main idea here is for the parents to determine the suitability of the program. PG also means that parents should watch the program with their children so that they may offset any negative effects. By all standards, PG rating is good and workable idea. However, according to Cameron, very few parents may want to do this (2009). SUMMARY OF THE RESEARCH STUDY Most of the research that has been carried out has focused on the effects of television violence on children. However, according to Eyal & Kunkel, there has also been research whose aim was to show the association between the watching of sex on television and pregnancy among teenagers. The argument is that there is a relationship between the exposure of children and young adults and their expectations about sex and also their engagement in premarital sex (2008). One such study was published in 2008 in the Journal of American Academy of Pediatrics. According to Chandra, Martino, Collins, Elliot, Berry, Kanouse & Mlu, while there was increasing evidence (from previous studies and research) that the exposure of children/youth to sexual content on television is a big influence on their sexual attitudes and behavior, the studies were yet to establish the king of association that existed between the exposure of children to sexual content and adolescent/teen pregnancy. Accordingly, the study by Chandra et al, sought to establish this relationship (2008). The participants were some 2000 children between the ages of 12 and 17 years. These children were tracked for period of three years; till they were aged 15 and 20 years. The participants by interviewed by telephone. According to Chandra et al, the participants who constituted the sample were drawn from a list of house holds that had been commercially purchased. the researchers were careful to select the households that had a high probability of housing adolescents aged between the ages of 12 and 17 years. The final study sample therefore comprised of 57% males, 665 white, 12% Hispanics and 17% blacks all of them adolescents with an average age 18. 1 years. Survey, was the chosen research design. The survey was meant to measure and collect data on the television viewing habits of the adolescents, their knowledge of sexual matters, In addition, their behaviors and attitudes towards sex plus demographic and psychosocial variable, such as age, sex and education level which are known to predict sexual behavior, were also measured (2008). As a way of encouraging the participants to respond to the survey questions, the survey was conducted in private. From the survey, it was established that to a great extent the exposure of children/teens to sexual content on television was a big predictor of teen pregnancy. From the research, the teens that were exposed to high levels of sexual content on television were found to be twice as likely to experience pregnancy in the subsequent three years. The reverse was true for those who had lower levels of exposure. So, 25% of those who watched frequently watched sexual content on television were involved in a pregnancy. The number was high compared to that of the adolescents who watched the least; which stood at 12% (Chandra et al, 2008). The results of the study go to show that indeed habitual exposure to sexual content on television does have negative effects on children. From the study, most of the children who frequently watched sexual content on television were subsequently involved in a pregnancy compared to their counterparts who did not watch sexual content on the television much. Accordingly, there is a link between the exposure of children to sex and sexual content on television and the negative effects of pregnancy. Thus, it is clearly evident that sex, and even violence, on television has negative effects on children, more so when the exposure is frequent, prolonged and unsupervised. It is for this reason that the exposure of children and violence on television should be restricted. For instance, by watching television with their children and discussions the depictions of sex on television, they may be able to tone down the influence of the sex and the violence (Chandra et al, 2008). CRITICAL ANALYSIS Most of the information contained in internet sites, into the question of whether all the sex and violence on television has negative effects on children, does indeed provide information to the affirmative. Children spend a lot of time in front of the television from an early age. When children are young, say between the ages of two and five, the sex and the violence cannot be said to have influence on them. This is because children are very young and are not able to tell fantasy from reality. More over, they have a limited attention span which makes their concentration and internalization of the content on television impossible. However, it is when children are all grown up, into their teens that the sex and violence can be said to have some kind of effect on children. When children are older, they are also more mature and therefore able to differentiate fantasy from fiction. Furthermore, the fact that they are older means they may try out what they watch on television. There is strong evidence behind this information. For instance, it has been reported that children who watch wrestling duplicate the same aggressive behaviors that they watch on television. They are openly aggressive towards their peers. Sometimes, they even use the same behaviors to solve their conflicts with their peers. However, the internet information goes on to explain that children have to be exposed to prolonged sex and violence on television for there to be negative effects. More over, that the children who are frequently exposed to the sex and violence on television are more susceptible to the negative effects. It is for this reason that parents restrict how much time their children spend in front of the televisions. The research study also goes to provide information on the link between frequent exposure of children to sexual content in television and negative effects, in this case pregnancy. There is strong evident in support of this. Of the 2000 children who were surveyed in the research, 25% of those who had frequent exposure to sexual content were found to be more likely to be involved in a pregnancy in subsequent years. This was as compared to 12% of those who were not as frequently exposed to sex and sexual content on television. Just like the information compared in the internet sources, as soon as children are old enough to differentiate between fantasy and reality it is very likely that with prolonged exposure, they may want to try out what they see in television. Again, it is prolonged exposure that makes all the difference. The best way of mitigating the negative effects of exposure to sex and violence on television, parents should watch and discuss how sex and even violence is portrayed in television. This would also help to reduce the number of teenage pregnancies. CONCLUSION It is evident that television content, sex and violence, has some negative effects on children. It is true that quite a large number of children watch television and are therefore exposed to sex and violence. Nevertheless, it is important to note that not all these children who are exposed are susceptible to the negative effects. Certain groups of children are more prone to acting out what they see on television. It is this group that is likely to aggressive and or immoral. This is the group of children that has prolonged and frequent exposure to sex and violence on television. It is for this reason that exposure to television is limited. Thus, it may be correct to conclude that all the sex and violence on television has negative effects on children. However, it is also important to note that it is only prolonged exposure to the sex and the violence that results in the negative effects. It is the children who frequently watch television programs laced with sex and violence that are more likely to be aggressive and promiscuous as compared to their counterparts who do not. According to the information contained in this report, negative influences of sex and violence on television only become visible when the children are much older. Thus, it remains largely unclear as to why frequent exposure of adolescents to violence and sex on television influences then negatively, After all, are they not at an age where they are capable of differentiating right from wrong; fiction (what is on television and reality (what they should not do); and therefore refrain from engaging in certain activities? More research may be necessary to provide insight into the reasons why children prefer to act out the negativity they view on television rather than on the positive. Is there, for instance, more gratification in doing what is considered negative as compared to doing what is right? Answers to these questions may shed more light on to why sex and violence has negative effects on children at all. REFERENCES Cameron, J. (2009). The view on TV violence. iafrica. com. Retrieved 15 April, 2009 from http://lifestyle.iafrica. com/parenting/fatherhood/274094. htm Chandra, A. , Martino, S. , Collins, R. , Elliot, M. , Berry, S. , Kanouse, D. & Mlu, A. (2008). Does watching sex on television predict teen pregnancy? Findings from a national longitudinal survey of youth. Pediatrics. 122(5): 1047. Eyal, Keren & Kunkel, D. (2008). The effects of television drama shows on emerging adult’s sexual attitudes and moral judgments. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media. 52 (2): 161.