Television
An average American youth will witness 200,000 violent acts on television before age 18. Violence is often
considerable, even in programs not advertised as violent. Overall, weapons appear on prime time television an
average of nine times each hour. An estimated 54 percent of American children can watch this programming
from the privacy of their own bedrooms.
Children’s shows are particularly violent. Watching Saturday morning cartoons used to be a common aspect of
American life. Now, networks feature cartoons continuously. Studies analyzing the content of popular cartoons
noted that they contain 20 to 25 violent acts per hour, which is about six times as many as prime time
programs. Overall, 46 percent of television violence occurs in cartoons. Additionally, these programs
are more likely to juxtapose violence with humor (67 percent) and less likely to show the longterm
consequences of violence (5 percent). Although some claim that cartoon violence is not as “real” and
therefore not as damaging, cartoon violence has been shown to increase the likelihood of aggressive, antisocial
behavior in youth. This makes sense in light of children’s developmental difficulty discerning the real from the
fantastic.