Violence in television programmes

Abstract

Pre-school children, starting from the age of two, watch about three thousand hours of TV before entering the first grade of the basic cycle. During the primary and secondary school period, students accumulate about ten thousand hours of class attendance, while in the same time they spend an average of fifteen thousand hours in front of a TV set.

An important fact discovered in TV violence research is the phenomenon of observational learning. This theory is supported by many scientists who distinguish between the acquisition of a behaviour and its execution. So the learned behaviour can be stored and performed later if the appropriate circumstances are present.

In the face of this evidence, it is impossible to continue to think that TV is a harmless form of entertainment. If our children are naively induced by the power of attraction of TV content, it is the responsibility of adults to provide them with methods of self-defence. Hence the need to provide children with a minimum of knowledge, starting at school and in the family, to quickly develop a critical attitude towards the messages they perceive.