VIOLENT TV, FILMS AND VIDEO GAMES DO INCREASE AGGRESSION

VIOLENT IMAGES IN COMPUTER GAMES OR
TV CAN ACT AS TRIGGERS FOR AGGRESSION

www.dailymail.co.uk - Violent TV, films and video games do increase aggression, an international panel of experts has said, as they warn parents to keep an eye on what their children are watching. The report for the The International Society for Research on Aggression (IRSA) concluded that that evidence shows that the consumption of media violence can act as a trigger for aggressive thoughts or feelings already stored. They claim exposure to violent images in different media, such as movies and video games, increases the relative risk of aggression - defined as intentional harm to another person verbally or physically. The panel also warn parents that a ratings system is no substitute for the watchful eye of a parent. 
The IRSA appointed the International Media Violence Commission last December. Craig Anderson, chair of the IRSA, said: “Basically, the commission looked at, "What does the research literature say?" The commission concluded: “One may also become more vigilant for hostility and aggression in the world, and therefore, begin to feel some ambiguous actions by others (such as being bumped in a crowded room) are deliberate acts of provocation.”

The commission concluded that the ratings are not substitutes for parents watching, playing, or listening to the media their children use, stating parents should be the ones keeping a watchful eye as rating systems often provide too little detail about media content to be helpful. The researchers wrote: “Parents can also set limits on screen use, and should discuss media content with their children to promote critical thinking when viewing. Schools may help parents by teaching students from an early age to be critical consumers of the media and that, just like food, the 'you are what you eat' principle applies to healthy media consumption.” While most public policy has focused on restricting children's access to violent media, the commission found that approach to have significant political and legal challenges in many countries. For that reason, it recommends putting efforts into improving media ratings, classifications, and public education about the effects of media on children. The report is published in journal Aggressive Behaviour. Mr Anderson hopes the final report will have value to child advocacy groups. “Having such a clear statement by an unbiased, international scientific group should be very helpful to a number of child advocacy groups - such as parenting groups - in their efforts to improve the lives of children,” he said.

An International panel appointed by IRSA concluded that media violence can act as a trigger for aggressive thoughts and feelings. In their report, the commission concluded that aside from being sources of imitation, violent images - such as scenes in movies, games or even pictures in comic books - act as triggers for activating aggressive thoughts and feelings already stored in memory. If these aggressive thoughts and feelings are activated over and over again because of repeated exposure to media violence, they become chronically accessible, and therefore more likely to influence children behaviour. Will we continue letting our children remain exposed to so many images of violence for them to imitate?

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

Just as children absorbed in spiritual images imitate them, children absorbed in television images imitate those images. We must ask whether we want our children to become like a television character, or like Krishna. Do we want them to attain the spiritual world after death, or take a body according to their television-influenced thoughts? ... Children between the ages of three and seventeen see an average of eighteen thousand acts of violence. According to Jim Trelease, author of Read-Aloud Handbook, you would have to see all thirty-seven of Shakespeare’s plays to see as many acts of human violence (fifty-four) as you would see in just three evenings of prime-time television. ...  The problem is not that they learn how to commit violence from watching violence on television (although perhaps they sometimes do), but that television conditions them to deal with real people as if they were on a television screen. The ultimate violence of television goes beyond desensitizing children to cruelty.

Śrīmati Urmila devi dasi :
“Your Kids and the One-Eyed Guru”
http://urmila.me.uk/index.html
http://www.krishna.com/your-kids-and-one-eyed-guru

Published by dasavatara das - "Vedic Views on World News"
http://www.vedicviews-worldnews.blogspot.com.ar/