Children and Media Violence.

Author: Levin, Diane, Ph.D
Published: Lisbon, Portugal, 2000
Source: http://www.net-consumers.org [02.07.2004]

Abstract

(A presentation given in Lisbon, Portugal, October 2000) I have been studying the issue of what I call media culture for many years. When we think about the media, we need to think about it in the context of the whole range of ways media is entering children’s lives of which the new media is one part. I am not a total expert on the new media but more on the whole range of media that are in children’s lives and how we need to deal with them. I have especially looked at media violence and the violent media culture that surrounds children so we are not just talking about the violence we saw on the Internet, which children are seeing, including little children. My speciality is young children who start seeing images like this that come from the TV shows that are on for them, from the toys that are marketed for them, from the movies that they see. They grow into this kind of violence so that this steady appetite for violence starts at a very young age. One of the things that I ask is why is it so appealing for children, why are they lured into it?

Levin, Diane, Ph.D

Diane Levin is Professor of Education at Wheelock College where she teaches a summer institute in Media Education in a Violent Society. She is an internationally recognized expert on helping educators and parents deal with the effects of violence, media and commercial culture on children. She is a founder of Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children’s Entertainment (TRUCE; www.truceteachers.org) and Stop Commercial Exploitation of Children (www.commercialexploitation.org).
Publications: Remote Control Childhood? Combating the Hazards of Media Culture; Teaching Young Children in Violent Times: Building a Peaceable Classroom.