l those they have observed.Desensitization suggests that children who watch a lot of violence ontelevision may become less sensitive to violence in the real world around them,less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others, and more willing to tolerateever-increasing levels of violence in our society. We become used to, orhabituated to, many stimuli that impinge on us repeatedly. Repeated exposure totelevision violence may therefore decrease viewers' emotional response to realviolence. If children come to perceive violence as the norm, their ownattitudes toward violence may become less condemnatory and they may place lessvalue on constraining aggressive urges.The question repeatedly arises as to whether media violence should becurtailed in an effort to stem community violence. Because of constitutionalguarantees of free expression, current restraints on media depictions ofviolence are voluntary. Films, perhaps, are more violent than they have everbeen, but television stations now and then attempt to tone down the violence inshows intended for children.Still, our children are going to be exposed to a great deal of mediaviolence. If not in Saturday morning cartoon shows, then in evening dramas andin the news. Or they'll hear about violence from friends, watch children getinto fights, or read about violence in the newspapers. Even if all thosesources of violence were somehow hidden from view, they would learn of violencein Hamlet, Macbeth, and even in the Bible. Thus, the notion of preventingchildren from being exposed to violent models is impractical. We might alsowant our children to learn some aggressive skills so that they can defendthemselves against bullies and rapists.What, then, should be done? First of all, consider whether we areoverestimating the threat. Although media violence contributes to aggressivebehavior, it does not automatically trigger aggressive behavior. Many otherfactors, including the quality of th...
