TV Violence: Not So Bad

Does violence on television cause violence in American life? The question plagued the '60s with each outbreak of urban rioting, each numbing assassination. Thousands of articles and reams of congressional testimony pro and con have sought the answer.

So has the Surgeon General's Office; for more than two years a committee there has worked on an exhaustive study on TV violence. In a report scheduled for release soon, investigators decided that televised mayhem does not, by and large, inspire real-life violence.

According to the New York Times, the study discovered that most children who routinely view television's most violent offerings--cartoons--are not hurt. Youngsters predisposed to aggressive behavior by other factors, however, may be influenced to act out their aggressions after watching television. But the effect of TV is probably slight compared with such elements as parental attitudes or the child's firsthand experience with violence in adult society.

The report also says that the viewers who give the tube their undivided attention are for the most part preschoolers. By the time they reach first grade, children begin to wean themselves away from television, not to return with real concentration until they have small children of their own.

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