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.

1 Presented at "The Commercialization of Childhood: How Marketing Harms Children" Summit sponsored by the "Stop Commercial Exploitation of Children" coalition, New York City, September 10, 2001. Adapted from "Summary of Testimony to the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation Hearing on `Marketing Violence to Children"' May 4, 1999. 

2 Professor of Education, Wheelock College, Boston, MA; 617?879?2167; dlevin@wheelock.edu. 

3 "Marketing Violent Entertainment to Children: A Review of Self-Regulation and Industry Practices in the Motion Picture, Music Recording & Electronic Game Industries." 

4 See Levin, D., (1998). Remote Control Childhood? Combating the Hazards of Media Culture. Wash., DC, National Association for the Education of Young Children.