Essay --

Tragedies occur everyday. Almost everyday people hear about a shooting or a violent event. Violence is prevalent everywhere and it is most prevalent in the media specifically in television. Television has changed how people view the world and also how children view the world. What is fiction and what is real? To an adolescent mind it is very hard to distinguish fact from fiction. Everyday they are exposed to violence, murder, and gore on the television. Television should be censored because it causes children to become desensitized to violence. The television has been around since the 1950’s but it wouldn’t be until the 1960’s that television violence began to become prevalent. Before the 1960’s television programs included shows like â€Å"I Love Lucy† and other comedies. These shows didn’t have violence; the premises of these shows were family values and principals. This changed in the 1960’s. The 1960’s were a time of war and violence. The public was able to witness the gore of war right in their living rooms. They were able to witness soldiers shooting other combatants. They were able to witness bombs exploding killing hundreds. They were able to see death. This captured and mesmerized the public, and as a result television began to become increasingly more violent. Television violence has reached a disturbingly high point, and with an increase in media violence comes an increase in child violence. Children have been gradually desensitized to violence, as violence within our media has increased. There has been such a great increase in media violence that now â€Å"the average child by the age of 18 will have witnessed 200,000 acts of violence and 16,000 murders.† Television programs display an average of 812 violent acts per hour... ...o be desensitized to violence? Don’t we want them to be nurtured in a setting that doesn’t increase aggressive behavior? The answer is yes. Toady violence is glamorized and promoted on the television. Shows are not good or â€Å"cool† unless they have some form of violence in them. As viewers see more violent and obscene things, they expect the next thing to be even more violent and obscene. They expect more and more, and for the new one to top the old. As this happens desensitization to violence grows. Children imitate what they see and hear, and television violence is easy to obtain and see. Television violence shouldn’t be easily obtainable and watchable. Children should have difficulty obtaining these things, but sadly today this is not the case. For these reason television should be censored so that the children of our future do not become desensitized to violence.