If a child is overexposed to violence on TV, who is faulted greater; the parent who allowed it, or the media?

Answer 1

A bit of both. Parents need to control what their kids watch (there are many parental control devices now) and parents need to know where their kids are watching TV too (friends place etc...are their parents trust worthy etc.).
Media on the other hand has drastically changed in the past decade in terms of over exposure. There is a fine balance between freedom to speech and what is appropriate for television.
Ultimately though, it todays world, the parents have to be more careful and monitor what their child does in a cautious and parental manner.

Answer 2

That's a hard question to answer because violence is in children's programs also. I guess the parents, they ultimately have the right to turn the TV off.
It isn't so much the media that upsets me in this area but the producers and directors. If they add violence or bad language they can get a rate of R or PG 13 which makes the child want to watch it more, making it harder on parents to control.
I would love to see clean movies or sitcoms and even cartoons and wish actors would step up and
demand better scripts and be a good role model.

Answer 3

As a parent of 2 young children (9 and 4) I feel that it is my responsibility to filter what my children watch... therefore, I am at fault if my children are exposed to too much violence. I carefully screen everything my children watch, even the news. The world is full of violence and I feel that my extra steps as a parent will help to shield my little ones from the unnecessary violence that is marketed today. The media is only looking out for ratings, not my childs morals and standards.

Answer 4

As a parent of four children. I can tell you that I do not have a choice 24/7 what my children watch on television. My children watch Channel One at school. I am not always pleased with the content of Channel One. They are/were required to watch it in my school district. The school board does not care that I do not want my children exposed to some of the topics. When your child stays at a friends, with a babysitter or relative. You cannot be certain of everything they watch. We need to keep in mind we are parents, not probation officers.

My children are 22, 18, 15 and 11. They are/were allowed to watch 30 minutes of television on weekdays and 1 hour a day on weekends, of approved television shows. Now, they were allowed to change a day or watch a two hour movie on Sunday if they did not watch television Saturday. No matter how the diced it, it was 4 hours and 30 minutes a week. That also included approved Nintendo and other games. Television or Nintendo.

I think the media glorifies negative events. Paris Hilton would be an example. She seems to fly under the radar when it comes to breaking the law. She has what appears to be a glamorous lifestyle, with glamorous friends. Children see her on television dressed in designer clothes and jewelry. She is seen in a fancy sports car or limousine. Paris is attending parties and clubs, like they are going out of season. She has a lot of money, yes it is family money, it is money just the same. Little girls think that she is having all the fun. They do not understand she has many issues, from a sex video anyone can view to an inability to accept responsibility.

What it boils down to, is we as a society have responsibility towards what our children are viewing. It too often becomes about us and them. Until parents stop using television, video games and cell phones as babysitters, we are going to have a continued problem. As long as Hollywood continues to make and advertise movies and television shows to children, we are going to have a problem. Just look at the changes in Disney’s content over the years. Unless the news industry becomes concerned with what they are producing for the 6 O’clock News, we will continue to have problems.

Blame only delays change and encourages anger. Blame and anger are wasted emotions. It needs to be about everyone. Who is the blame when Billy down the street fails? His friends, parents, family, schools, law enforcement or counselors? What does that matter? What matters is that Billy fell or was pushed though the cracks. Now what needs to become important is the everyone works together, so that the next Billy doesn’t get lost.

Everyone, after a while, blame becomes lame.

Answer 5

Depends on the individual situation.

Sometimes, it is most definitly the fault of the parent for allowing their child to become exposed to that type of violence.

Sometimes, television and media should be more aware of what they're showing and what times their showing it at (Ie: Family programming should be more available during peak hours and explicit violence shown late in the evening when children have likely gone to bed).

I think the media should be a little more concious of what they're showing but the bottom line is, parents need to be more productive in "sheltering" their children from that type of thing until the children are old enough to understand the severity of harmful things.

Answer 6

Today's kids are learning their attitudes and values more from television than from any other source. It is estimated that in the United States, by the time a youngster gets out of high school, he has watched more than 20,000 hours of television, witnessed 15,000 murders and watched 100,000 alcohol-related commercials.Television programming and advertisements convey the message that drinking is fun, smoking is glamorous and drugs are the "in" thing. No wonder the crime rate is so high! Soap operas and other television shows glamorize premarital and extramarital sex. No wonder commitments are lacking in relationships.Impressionable viewers set their standards and benchmarkers based on what they see and hear in the media.And no matter who we are, we are all liable to varying degrees. Lastly, "The media glamarizes immorality" and definitely fault lies much greater with the media than with parents.The media is printing negatively in our subconscious mind and there is no doubt about that. it's gospel truth.

Answer 7

I believe its both the parents fault and the medias fault. It is true that the parents should tell their kids what to watch and not watch...but the media needs to stop putting SO much violence on TV...some parents don't have enough time to watch their kids every minute. They have other things on there mind and alot of responsibly than just seeing what their kids watch on TV..and besides kids know that the stuff on TV isn't real. But if wasn't for the media then the parents wouldn't have to worry about anything..so see it just goes both ways....

Answer 8

Children cannot be protected from the harsh realities of life, but parents should take every opportunity to talk with their children about what they think is right and wrong, and why. That's how we learn.

One thing that disgusts me is seeing families sitting in the audience of the TV program (Funniest Home Videos, or some such thing) that shows home videos of people getting hurt. Instead of teaching their children empathy, the adults laugh as though someone being injured is amusing. What kind of message does a child gets from that?

(Sorry, but that program really annoys me.)

Answer 9

If the parent allowed it, then yes, they are faulted. But parents can not be all places at all times and neither can they constantly have a control over what their child is watching when they are not at home. Depending on the child's age, they are partly faulted as well for watching it in the first place!!!

Answer 10

The Parents Definitely