PTC Council's Study Finds Children's TV Content Disturbingly 'Mature'
by Jenni Parker
March 6, 2006
(AgapePress) - - The Parents Television Council (PTC) has released a report on its first study of children's television, which -- according to the media watchdog group's research -- features even more violence than adult-oriented television. But the head of that pro-family group says that is not all that should concern parents about what their kids may be viewing. The 28-page report is titled "Wolves in Sheep's Clothing: A Content Analysis of Children's Television" [PDF]. In it, the researchers detail their findings, distinguishing between "cartoony" violence versus more realistic depictions of violent acts, and making note of other kinds of offensive and mature content to be found in child-targeted programming.
PTC president Brent Bozell feels parents need to pay attention to the report's revelations. "This new study has found that the violence aimed toward little children is almost double compared to the levels of violent content directed toward families and adults during prime-time hours," he says.
"One might quickly dismiss violence in children's programming as inconsequential," Bozell continues, "but what has changed is that the violence is ubiquitous, often sinister, and in many cases frighteningly realistic." Also, he notes, one of the more disturbing trends the study uncovered was "the amount of adult-oriented subtext that was laced throughout both the animated and live-action programs."
For the study, the organization's researchers focused on after-school and Saturday morning entertainment programming for school-aged children in the 5-10 age range on broadcast television and expanded basic cable. Eight networks offered programming that matched the criteria: these included ABC, Fox, NBC, WB, ABC Family, Cartoon Network, Disney Channel, and Nickelodeon.
The analysis covered a three-week period during summer 2005 and examined 443.5 hours of children's TV, excluding kid's educational programming. During that period, researchers found 3,488 incidents of violence were depicted, for an average of 7.86 instances per hour. And even when instances of "cartoony" violence were discounted, the numbers remained as high as 2,794 instances of violence, for an average of 6.30 instances per hour.
The study also found 858 incidents of "verbal aggression" (averaging 1.93 per hour); 662 incidents of "disruptive, disrespectful or otherwise problematic attitudes and behaviors" (averaging 1.49 per hour); 275 incidents of sexual content (averaging 0.62 per hour); and 250 incidents of offensive language (averaging 0.56 per hour).
While the Cartoon Network had the highest total number of violent incidents altogether, the ABC Family Channel averaged the most violent incidents per episode (an average of 10.96 instances per episode). The WB topped a number of lists with the highest levels of offensive language, sexual content, verbal abuse, and offensive/excretory references.
The Impact of Violent and 'Mature' Content on Young Viewers
According to Michael Rich of the Center on Media and Child Health, children's shows featuring violence, bullying, disrespect, and offensive language do have an impact, even when these elements are couched in comedy and cartoon fantasy. He says research has shown that "children younger than 8 are developmentally incapable of distinguishing between fantasy and reality."
The kind of problematic content found in the PTC study does have an effect, Rich contends. Particularly in young children, he notes, that effect can manifest itself in terms of sleep disturbance, anxiety, nightmares, and even post traumatic stress disorder. CMCH's own studies show that, based on MRI and heart-rate data, violent video clips shown to children were emotionally and physically arousing and fear inducing, affecting parts of the brain linked to attention, arousal, threat detection, episodic memory and 'fight or flight' responses.
Other studies have shown that the impact of other kinds of mature content on young people can be equally profound. Research by the RAND Corporation has indicated that adolescents who watch large amounts of television containing sexual content are twice as likely to begin engaging in sexual intercourse in the following year as their peers who watch little such TV programming.
Rebecca Collins, a RAND psychologist who led a 2004 study on this topic, noted that 12-year-olds who watched copious amounts of television with sexual content "behaved like the 14- or 15-years-olds who watched the least amount of sexual television." She says her research team saw a striking advancement in sexual behavior among kids whose TV viewing included a lot of sexual content.
Urging Children's TV Industry to Grow Up
In light of this kind of information, Bozell says the children's television industry needs to grow up and start behaving more responsibly. In a recent Family News in Focus article, he is quoted as demanding, "Why in the world should parents have to guard their children from programming that's designed for five-year olds?" The producers of TV content for kids "ought to recognize that there is that sweet, wonderful innocence of childhood that must be defended and protected at all times," he says.
The PTC spokesman can only hypothesize why so many producers of children's programming fail to see this and generate shows with so much violent or otherwise offensive, adult-oriented content. Sadly, he suggests, these producers must think that they can, by entertaining parents with all this use of "double entendres and innuendo," somehow get the adults to encourage their children to watch their programs. However, he feels this kind of reasoning has only resulted in increasingly degraded and unsuitable content on kids' TV.
"The downward spiral of children's television must stop," Bozell insists. "Broadcast and cable networks must be held accountable for allowing such inappropriate content to corrupt our children." Meanwhile, he adds, parents and other pro-family advocates "must also hold advertisers responsible for underwriting these messages."
A Washington Times article on the PTC analysis notes that Kansas Republican Senator Sam Brownback said he finds the results of the children's television study "very troubling." According to that news report, he suggests it may be time for federal agencies to investigate whether broadcast companies are again targeting children with adult materials.
Also, Brownback encouraged Congress to pass legislation that would increase fines for television indecency violations. A bill passed by the House increased fines for broadcast indecency to $500,000, while a Senate bill would raise them to $325,000.
