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You Already Know It:
Too Much TV and Video Games is Bad
By the age of 18, the average child in America has watched over 200,000 acts of violence on television alone. A number of studies have already determined that violence increases children s aggressive attitudes and behaviors.
A recent issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine reports that children who are exposed to violence react in three ways.
- They become more aggressive and develop more favorable attitudes to violence.
- They become desensitized to violence.
- They believe that the world around them is mean and scary.
Researchers from Stanford University studied third and fourth grade students in two public schools in San Jose, California. Children in one school received an 18-lesson, six-month classroom curriculum to reduce television, videotape and video game use. They were encouraged to follow a budget that allotted them seven hours a week of viewing time. Children were also asked to rate how they thought their peers behaved and were observed while on the playground for physical and verbal aggression.
Results showed children who tried to limit their TV viewing had significant decreases in peer ratings of aggression and were not observed using physical and verbal aggression as often.
Researchers are encouraged that an effort to reduce children s viewing of violence in games and television may have significant benefits if larger groups participated in similar approaches to reduce TV and video time.
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