Television Violence

• The average American child spends 21 hours or more of television viewing a week.
  

• Murray (1973) has reported that 99% of families with young children own a television, and the children watch it two to three hours everyday.
  

• It is estimated that young people view 10,000 acts of violence per year.
  

• According to the National Television Violence Study there are three primary effects that develop from television violence:

  1. Learning of aggressive behaviors and attitudes
  

  2. Desensitization to violence

  3. Fear of being victimized by violence

• A research study completed by Wood et al. (1991) found that exposure to media violence increases aggressive interactions with strangers, classmates, and friends.
  

• Television viewing occurs earlier than any other media, many times beginning around one and a half and two years of age.
  

• Children who showed a preference for viewing "action and fighting shows" reported higher levels of violent behaviors, according to Singer et al. (1995).

• The average cartoon contains more than three times as many violent episodes as the average adult primetime hour.