[Instructions] Write whether or not you agree or disagree with the claims that violent media harms children.
I know this has been argued far too many times but all of our essays from my English 101 class have been forced topics. We just had to write about our opinion on if we agree or disagree we certain things. I agree with the claims that violent media can be harmful but disagree. I hope I made that clear enough i my essay.
_________Essay
Children and Media Violence
There are many people that say that violence in the media is bad for children. There many people that say that violence has no effect, or can even have a positive effect on the children. People that blame video games for the potential violence the children can participate in don't really see the full picture. Media violence and its effect on children has been a concern of people for quite a while and the people running the media have put a rating system in place to help "control" what kids watch by showing parents that the show that is about to come on will show blood or this game features things like fighting. It takes more than just trying to shelter a child from the violence, because it's everywhere. It takes more active teaching.
Violence doesn't have a negative effect on children. It's very possible to believe so when it's literally everywhere today and children can easily be influenced to look up to their favorite hero or villain and dress up as them, talk like them, and do the things that they do. Kids are like that because they have the most active imaginations and anything could be possible. That would be the reason why people say media violence is bad for them, because they could easily be dragged into the characters life that they've last seen and replicate it. That argument has been used many times and it's surprising that none of the people launching the argument have thought that since they can be easily influenced to do wrong, how hard could it be to teach them the right way to do things? Sasha Emmons from parenting said "It was not my proudest parenting moment. It was movie night and my 7-year-old daughter, Chloe, was begging for Star Wars. She'd seen it before and seemed to take its gore-free violence in stride. The problem was my 3-year-old son, Julian... He started pew-pew-pew-ing the next day. (Sasha Emmons)" She later states that it could just be normal boy stuff, which it definitely is. It seems like her son wasn't interested in anything else until he got a chance to see star wars. Many kids grow up playing games that can depict a bit of violence, games like cops and robbers. The average person against media violence would think this harmless game would be teaching kids that it would be okay to steal and as long as you can get away from the police everything will be just fine. It's good to know that they are still learning the rights and wrongs of life but it's not right to think that anything that's not benefitting a child educationally is bad for them.
You can't just guard a kid from the violence that they will encounter when they turn on a TV or a game system. There is a simple rating system in place giving parents a basic idea of what kind of show or game their kid will get into. It seems like many people don't pay attention to these ratings though, as anyone would be able to get online on Call of Duty or even Grand Theft Auto, and encounter multiple 10 year olds in every game they play. Many people claim that violent media cause violent behavior in children. With many of those people being so adamant on keeping their children away from this media, they've probably never seen it first-hand. They may have heard all of the stories about the boys showing aggressive behavior or the boys getting suspended from school because one of them pretended to shoot their friend. They don't see the kids in action on the games that are deemed inappropriate for them. It all really comes down to if the person playing the game or watching the show is mentally mature enough to handle what is in front of them. If someone were to play Grand Theft Auto Online they would definitely find some immature people, many above 18 some not even close to 18. There are also the kids who are exceedingly generous that there to have fun like they are supposed to, like the one who stole a car, robbed a store with his friend, took a ride in a helicopter from another player, then offered to give each of them his small amount of money so they could buy themselves houses.
With that said, yes violent imagery in these games and shows could lead to the audience to be desensitized to the violence, enough exposure to anything negative can lead one to pass it off as normal. That kid is not "just the one percent" there are people just the same, old and young. "So if you have a video game where someone shoots at a target, that's sort of practicing shooting at a target. When you have a video game that is shooting at a human being, that is practicing shooting at a human being," (Fox News). Wow, there are tons of soldiers ready to step on the battlefield right now. In my 18 years I have yet to fight someone, even though I've played Tekken since it first came out on the PlayStation. There are people that have played violent games as children and have grown up to participate in real life violent clashes. Those people are "Live Action Role-Players", the ones who grew up playing dungeons and dragons or something similar and decided they were going to meet up with people just like them and swing their swords and hammers for real. They have a passion for what they do and some may have found it once they have gotten a bit older but most have been fascinated by roleplaying since they were really young, and just never got tired of it. Even though the people participating in the battles are being brutal, they are still within the bounds of what is real and what should stay an animation.
The kids aren't the problem, they just want to be kids and grow up, being who they want to be. The crazy people that go on shooting rampages have made a hot topic even hotter and now some people just don't know what to do with their children to keep them safe. The rating system really can just be taken as a suggestion, if the kid knows not to follow what they saw some pixels do on TV then they are perfectly suited to play even an "M" rated game.
There are many people that say that violence in the media is bad for children
There are many people argue that violence in media is dangerous for children's behavior.
There many people that say that violence has no effect, or can even have a positive effect on the children
Some people also believe that violence has no negative effect on children in fact, it can have a positive effect instead.
my only recommendation is that you need to write a lot of papers and post it here for better review and support by Mr. dumi and Mr. Pahan
Good luck :)
