|
The Hazards of Marketing Violence to Children
Diane Levin, Ph.D.
In July 2000, five key professional organizations (including the
American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association and the
American Psychological Association) issued a Joint Statement on the Impact
of Entertainment Violence on Children. Reviewing 30 years of research, it
concluded that viewing entertainment violence can contribute to increasing
levels of aggression, and children are especially vulnerable to the
effects. In September 2000, the Federal Trade Commission issued a report
which concluded that the entertainment industry was intentionally
marketing violence to children.'
Violent entertainment media became a vehicle for marketing to children
in 1984, when children's television was deregulated by the Federal
Communications Commission. Deregulation made it possible to directly
market toys and other products to children through TV programs. The
"program length commercial" was born and children became a
consumer group to be exploited like any other.
Many new violent TV programs, with whole lines of best-selling toys
that were direct replicas of what children saw on the screen quickly
became a dominant force in the play of young children. The link-up between
the TV and toy industries soon also incorporated a media cross feeding,
including movies and video games, and thousands of other products into
their product development and marketing. Many of these products were
violent, and while recommended by manufacturers for children as young as
three or four years old, were often linked to media which carried ratings
for much older children or adults.
As industry profits soared, parents and teachers began reporting
increasing amounts of war play that imitated the action of violent TV
shows. Many also reported seeing increasing levels of aggressive behavior
when children imitated the TV characters. There are logical reasons why
children react this way to the violent media/toy culture that the media
and toy industries have created for them.'
Children do not understand the world as adults do; that is why they are
more vulnerable to violent media's harmful effects. They pay attention to
how things look, not the logic that underlies them. They focus on the
excitement and power that the violence they see on the screen offers, not
on the consequences. They do not logically sort out what is pretend from
what is real and can become scared when they see violent actions they
cannot figure out. They can be deeply confused when adults tell them
"use your words instead of fists" when all around them they see
the excitement and power that "entertainment" media violence can
bring. In the early years, the time when the foundations for morality and
social responsibility are established, the violence being marketed to
children gets incorporated into how they learn to interact with the world. Because young children learn from their
play, as media-linked toys channel them into imitating violent media
scripts, the harmful messages about the power and glory of violence
children see in the media are more likely to be internalized. As they grow
older what they have learned about violence becomes a normal part of how
they interact with others.
Much of the burden for counteracting the harm caused by marketing
violence to children has fallen on parents and there is much parents can
do to protect their children. It serves the interests of corporations to
place the responsibility on parents. But parents cannot do the job on
their own when everywhere they turn their children are bombarded with
messages about violence that undermine the lessons parents try to teach.
Society must help parents in their efforts to raise healthy, non-violent
children, not undermine them.
We urgently need a society-wide commitment to work to reduce the amount
and kinds of entertainment violence that is marketed to children. There is
a long history of society and government efforts to protect children from
such physical hazards as tobacco and alcohol products. It is in the best
interest of all of society to create an environment that supports
children's healthy social, emotional and intellectual development, one
which protects them, especially when they are young, from the
irresponsible marketing practices and profiteering that hurt us all.
Toward this end, measures are needed that: Assist parents and teachers
in their efforts to combat the dangers of marketing violence to children.
Strengthen the role of the Federal Communication Commission in protecting
children from entertainment violence in the media; start by reinstating
the ban on program length commercials (linking toys and TV programs) that
existed prior to 1984. Reinstate and strengthen the power of the Federal
Trade Commission to create regulations that limit the marketing of
violence to children, especially when they are young; start with the
creation of age-based ratings consistent across all media and the products
linked to media. Pressure corporations into considering the best interests
of children along with profits, and both psychological safety and physical
safety, when developing and marketing new media and products for children. |