From Liz Perle, Editor in Chief of Common Sense Media

March 29, 2007

What were Tyra Banks and her America's Next Top Model staff thinking? The March 21 episode featured blood-spattered models who were asked to look good while portraying victims of grisly murders. 

What happened to Banks' mission of female "empowerment"? Each member of the production team needs to watch this episode with an 11-year-old girl. Then try to explain the gratuitous violence. As for the rest of us, here are a few tips for talking to our children -- both boys and girls -- about the impact of such gory, violent images.

Ask your kids to tell you about a violent scene in a TV show or a movie. Ask them why they remember it and what they felt like when they saw it. See if they can figure out what about the scene made it stick in their head. What did they say to themselves when they saw it? Were they scared? Did they have to remind themselves it was fictional?

Were the scenes important to the show or movie's plot? If not, why do your kids think the producers and directors included the scene?

Point out that violence is often used to "sell" something, since gory images get people's attention. Remind your kids that TV shows have their own popularity contests. Those with the biggest audiences make the most money because they have the most advertisers paying top dollar to reach the viewers. Two surefire ways to get big audiences are by showing scenes with lots of sex and/or violence. Ask your kids to come up with some examples of shows they like or movies they enjoyed that had a sex scene or violent episode that wasn't necessary to tell the story.

Arm yourself with the facts about the impact of media violence. The studies don't lie. Lots of violence affects kids' behavior. Period. When kids marinate in media steeped in acts of aggression, it can increase antisocial activity and bullying and decrease empathy for victims of violence. The more aggressive behavior kids see, the more it becomes an acceptable way to settle conflicts. Movies with scary images, intense peril, loud noises, and -- above all -- blood and gore, create all sorts of disturbances, including increased anxiety, sleep disruption, and nightmares. And those first-person-shooter video games? The intimacy of the mayhem and murder pack such a huge emotional punch that they alter brain chemistry.

• Nearly two out of three TV programs contain violence, averaging six violent acts per hour.
  
• The average child who watches two hours of cartoons per day may see more than 10,000 violent acts a year.
  
• There are more than twice as many violent incidents in children's programming than in other types of programming.
  
• Teens who watch more than one hour of television per day are four times more likely than other teens to commit aggressive acts in adulthood.
  
• In a study of third and fourth graders, reducing television and video game consumption to less than one hour per day decreased verbal aggression by 50% and physical aggression by 40%.
  
• According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, violence is a leading cause of death for children, adolescents, and young adults -- more prevalent than disease, cancer, or congenital disorders.
  
• By the time kids enter middle school, they will have seen 8,000 murders and 100,000 more acts of violence on broadcast television alone.
  
• Younger kids are particularly vulnerable to the health effects of media violence -- especially those under 7 who can't easily distinguish between fantasy and reality.
  
• The younger kids are when they see a violent or scary movie or TV show, the longer-lasting the effects -- particularly in nightmares and increased anxiety.

For more tips, please see the full article at:  http://www.commonsensemedia.org/parent_tips/commonsense_view/index.php?id=215 .