behavior may get them what they want, most of them will, therefore, try aggression to make their parents buy them a desirable toy.As noted earlier, children are exposed to enormous amount of violence before they finish their grade school, which can have a negative effect on their behavior as children and also as adults. Leonard Eron, a professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan, followed children from eight years of age into their adulthood. These boys had been exposed to a large amount of violence on television during their childhood and later in their adulthood. As a result of the amount of the exposure to the violent programming on television, the adults had the potential to commit more serious crimes by the age of 30. Also, the same adults may “[have] more aggressive behavior when drinking, and [the more television violence they watched] the harsher the punishment they inflicted on their own children” (Levine, 1995: 145). Thus, the evidence suggests that there is a positive relationship between viewing violent television programs and aggressive behavior in children and adults. However, not only do violent programs increase aggression and violence, but also children, who are already aggressive, will prefer watching violent programs on television in order to meet their taste. It has been proven that all children are born with “temperamental qualities [that are] carried in their genes” (Bee, 1998: 145). Also, children who are “cranky, temperamentally difficult babies continue to show many of the same temperamental qualities ten years later” (Bee, 1998: 147). Likewise, aggressive children may prefer violent programs on television because “the fact that aggressive behavior leads to peer rejection means that aggressive children have fewer options for alternative activities” (Ledingham et al., 1993: 7).On the contrary, children may often not watch the violent television programs ...
