Statistics abound that demonstrate an increase in violent behavior among school-age children. In recent years, we have heard of many tragic cases of high school students who have brought guns to school and murdered their own classmates and teachers. Everyone remembers the Columbine tragedy.
Many dismiss these as only the rare outbursts of a very few emotionally disturbed young people. Can we dismiss such violence as an aberration, or are there seeds of violence being sown today in our society, that will surface more and more in the future?
A recent study, reported in the journal Science, tracked 700 children over a 17-year period, evaluating their tendency toward violent behavior compared with their time spent watching television. According to the Los Angeles Times: “The authors found that 5.7 percent of those who reported watching less than one hour of television a day as adolescents committed aggressive acts against others in subsequent years.… Those acts included threats, assaults, fights, robbery and using a weapon to commit a crime. That figure rose to 22.5 percent of those who watched TV for one to three hours a day and 28.8 percent of those who watched more than three hours daily.”
Can anyone doubt the connection between television and violence? From their earliest years, children see countless cartoon characters knock each other unconscious or blow each other up—without any apparent lasting damage. Violence becomes entertainment, and children become desensitized. If we glorify violence, it will become increasingly acceptable as a means of handling conflict. Television can rapidly speed the assimilation of culture, either good or bad.
A skeptic might ask: “Are you trying to say that if all violence in television, videos and video games were eliminated, that would be the end of violence in our society?”
The answer is: “Of course not!” But violence can be learned, and television can accelerate this learning process. A steady diet of more than three hours of television per day can increase children’s violent acts by a factor of five.
The Bible shows that a time is coming when the Creator will establish His government upon this earth and violence will be put to an end. In Ezekiel 7:23, God comments on widespread violence: “The land is filled with crimes of blood and the city is full of violence.” Thankfully, God also foretells of the time when His government will rule the earth, when: “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my Holy Mountain” (Isaiah 65:25).
What can parents do in the meantime? We can limit the amount of television that our children are allowed to watch. If children are not watching as much television, their time can be filled with something more worthwhile. This is where parents fit in! Frequent trips to the library can support the lifelong habit of reading. Time spent in more positive parent-child contact can go a long way in transmitting a parent’s values.
Parents can even use television as a teaching tool. In Deuteronomy 6:7, God instructs us to teach our children principles of His non-violent way of life: “You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.” When we are watching television with our children, we can use the opportunity to point out how harmful violence is.
Finally, parents can be non-violent examples. If parents control their anger and function with self-control in all situations, children do notice! If parents lose control and strike out in anger, children do notice! If we as parents follow the instruction found in Psalm 34:14 to “seek peace and pursue it”—children will notice!
The above is an excerpt from one of the many commentaries on key topics facing our world, available at the www.lcg.org and www.tomorrowsworld.org Web sites.