two or three years old. In most cases the amount of televised viewing becomes greater with age and then tapers off during adolescence. ). The violence that is viewed is more important than the amount of television that is viewed. According to audience rating surveys, the typical American household has the television set on for more than seven hours each day and children age 2 to 11 spend an average of 28 hours per week viewing. (Andreasen, 1990; Condry, 1989; Liebert & Sprafkin, 1988) The most important documentation of the amount of violence viewed by children on television are the studies conducted by Gerbner and his colleagues on the nature of American television programs. The results of these yearly analyses of the amount of violence on American television for the 22-year period 1967-89 indicate a steady but growing high level of violence. (Gerbner & Signorielli, 1990) Programs especially designed for children, such as cartoons are the most violent of all programming. How many times have we all seen the Coyote try to kill the RoadRunner? GI Joe and many other programs also represent violence and the use of deadly weapons. Overall, the levels of violence in prime-time programming have averaged about five acts per hour and children's Saturday morning programs have averaged about 20 to 25 violent acts per hour. (Lichter & Amundson, 1992) However a recent survey by the Center for Media and Public Affairs identified 1,846...
