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Virtual Violence hurts too

Violence as entertainment?
As someone who turns away from violent scenes on TV and has never watched a horror movie, I can completely understand and sympathize with the writer’s loss of sleep. I lie awake many nights with disturbing images and sounds of violence in a movie, book or news story haunting my thoughts. So, like Rick, I wonder why anyone would want to watch violent movies. The idea of violence as entertainment is beyond me.

Violence affects young, impressionable minds
What I am terribly concerned about however, is about exposing young children to violence. How on earth do producers, directors and story writers get away with action-packed thrillers created for children? Cartoon characters with guns and bombs? Who in the world came up with that idea? When did we start letting our kids play video games where they kill or hurt other people deliberately, albeit virtually? Why are action figures so popular?
How can we expect our children to grow up into loving, caring, generous adults (assuming that is what most of us want) if we expose them to just the opposite?

Memories and experiences shape children
If we were to trace the history of a majority of terrorists and criminals, it would most likely point to disturbing incidents in their childhood or teenage years.
At the risk of sounding clichéd, I believe that young children, like play-dough can be molded any way. And that is a wonderful, yet dangerous thing. They absorb almost everything they see and hear and are deeply impacted by everything they experience. That is why books, doctors and child psychologists recommend reading to kids, exposing them to music, interacting with them – and we do all of that devotedly. But how come nobody tells us the most important thing – keep your child away from harmful, negative experiences?
Sure, there is the argument that we can’t shield our kids from reality. But do we have to bombard them with negative images? We do need to be informed about world happenings and not all of them are good. But if we want children to embrace peace as they grow up, we must draw a line somewhere. If we buy them toy guns, they will practice shooting. If we but them fighter planes and toy tankers, they will play ‘war’. They may just be games and we may even be naïve enough to think that kids don’t take anything seriously. And guess what! We probably would be right. By constantly exposing them to excessive violence in games, videos, movies and cartoons, we are in a way desensitizing children to the horrors of war and violence. And if we do this long enough, they will probably stop taking real life events and horrifying news stories seriously. They will probably end up believing that violence is a part of life.

Too late to undo early experiences
So we shouldn’t be surprised when young adults take to weapons or exhibit aggressive behavior when they want their way. After all, we bought them the movies, cartoons, comic books and toys that told them that was ok. And we still wonder how the scenes from virtual reality made their way into network news.