Media violence is apprently turning our children into serial killing adults. According to the latest report by the American Pediatrics Association, the evidence on media violence being harmful to the mental health of our future adult popluation is ‘clear and convincing’. It would be wonderful to believe that someone somewhere has come up with anything that is clear and convincing regarding this issue but, unless theories and methods have been drastically altered, it’s highly unlikely. There have been no studies yet that have proven long term harm as a consequence of interaction with media violence, despite the APA claiming that there have been 3,500 seperate studies achieving just that – according to some prominent sociologists and criminologists who have made it their life work to catalougue these things, there are just over 200 and none have proven anything.
According to Todd Neale, chief medical writer for abc America, when children go for medical exams they should be asked about how much media they engage with and what types. As far as what this will acheive or what their GP can do with this information, I’m not quite sure. How about beginning with educating the parents ? Fairly – no to fear mongering but yes to education.
The full article can be read here:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/media-violence-sex-threaten-kids-pediatricians/Story?id=8866443 Continue reading