Raising the Bar: The Increased Exposure to Violence and Sexual Content

With the advancement of the entertainment industry, more specifically the television industry, comes an increased bar that must pushed in order to be successful. Whether it is increased violence, sexual content, or whaterver else, these alterations that continue to increase exposure are becoming a threat to the children of our society.  Many are concerned about the many shows on mainstream television that are exposing adolescents to mature content, arguing how easy it is to get access to this. 

In my psychology class we discussed the correlation of violent TV and agressiveness. Although it does not cause agression, the more television violence children watch a correlation portrayed the more they were aggressive.  I've discussed this before on my blog in the post TV Violence, but I didn't address what should be done about this issue, or at least what I think should be done about this issue.

In my psych class we had to write a response to the question of whether networks should restrict the amount of violent content.  In my opinion I don't think it's how much violence that is the problem, I think it's how much children are getting exposed to it.  If parents are so against having their kids watch these violent/sexual shows, then don't let them watch it! It's like saying a movie should have less mature content but still taking their kids to it.  Why would you do that?  Not everyone can look out for your own children. 

But of course there needs to be a limit. There can't be naked scenes on FOX after American Idol because kids WILL be watching that.  Parents know shows that are appropriate and will let their children watch it.  But it has to be a network wide thing (except for channels like Showtime and HBO, please don't let your kids watch that!). I think all the networks should have a meeting and put a limit on how far they can go with language, violence, and sexual content.  If there is a restriction, then they will stop pushing each other to go farther, and instead work on bettering what they are already have with actual quality and not just throwing out the next big scandalous plot.

I must also point out the fact that I've been watching violent shows every since I was in elementary school. My favorite show when I was very young was Power Rangers. Although it wasn't a super violent show, it definetlly exposed me to a lot of new things that I wouldn't of learned watching Scooby-Doo or Spongebob.  One example in particular includes an episode or movie of Power Rangers where they said something that I immediately repeated to my mom.  Of course my mom responded with "where did you learn that?" because it was something that was kind of rude and definetly our of my vocaulary beforehand.  At first I could not think of what this phrase was exactly but after some extensive google searching and looking back on my VCR tapes... no I still couldn't find it. It's going to bug me, so I'll keep searching!

Basically what I'm trying to get across is the fact that I watched violence and a bit of mature content and I turned out absolutely fine. I know many more examples of this as well. I'm not saying the correlation is wrong, just suggesting that it IS a corelation and not cause and effect. There may be lots of violence out there, but I don't think that is the reason for the violent people that live in our society today.