Violence In Children’s TV Programming
After reading the article in Gender, Race, and Class in Media titled “The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” by Diane E. Levin and Nancy Carlsson-Paige, I was deeply concerned about the TV and movies our young children are seeing.
The article noted that teachers reported seeing an increase in violence after watching The Power Rangers, as children imitated what they had seen on the screen. The Power Rangers is a cartoon about five teenagers who change into super heroes to save the world. They use extreme violence in their attacks, which our young children are mimicking.

“Crime rates are increasing most rapidly among youth who were in their formative early years when children’s TV was deregulated and violent programs and toys successfully deluged childhood culture (“The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers”, pg 360). People in the TV, movie, and video games continue to argue that violence in entertainhment does not affect our children. How can they say that?
We’re living in an age where we are criticized if we spank our children when they misbehave. It is said they will grow up with violent tendencies. Isn’t that a bit hypocritical? What about the violence they are permitted to see each day? Levin and Carlsson-Paige said that children ages 2 to 5 watch an average of four hours of TV each day, and that equals seven years of TV by high school graduation. They also stated that by the time children complete elementary school they will have seen 8,000 killings and more than 100,000 other acts of violence. How can that much violence not influence our children. It desensitizes their young minds. They become so accustomed to seeing violence that when they actually witness it in person they can just walk by without stopping to help or even stand and by and watch, as was the case of a 15 year old girl in Richmond, CA who was ganged raped by at least 4 males. At least 15 people, all males, watched for over 2 hours. As news swept through the Homecoming Dance, others came out to join the audience, and some actually participated in the violence against this young girl.

Maybe it’s time to rethink the deregulation of children’s broadcasting. Certainly, parents need to watch carefully what they permit their children to view.