Media Violence Update

Indiana University Brain Scan Research

The brain scans on the right show that media violence stunts or "retards" kids' brain development: children with violent TV, movie, and video game exposure had reduced cognitive brain function. Media violence also makes violent brains: violent TV, movie, and video game exposure had an effect on normal kids that made their brain scans the same as children with documented, diagnosed Aggressive Behavior Disorder.

This second set of brain scans shows brain activity during a decision making exercise, called Go-No-Go. When it comes to looking into the future, weighing consequences and making decisions, the low media violence exposure group is using a lot of the logical part of their brain; the high media violence exposure group is using very little.

Grossman, D., and DeGaetano, G., Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill: A Call to Action Against TV, Movie and Video Game Violence, Crown Books (Random House), 1999. (Published in German and Norwegian.) Table of Contents | Summary | Reviews The following two chapters from On Combat provide some updated information for Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill. • Read Chapter Two • Read Chapter Seven

All TV hurts child's play, study says just having the TV on while kids are around hinders their ability to focus, a new study finds.
(By Andrea Gordon, Toronto Star, July 15, 2008)

Toddlers may be too young to understand Oprah's weight loss secrets or guess
the consonants on Wheel of Fortune. But that doesn't mean adult television
shows have no impact on them.

Click here to read more.

Halo 3 Player Punches Mother After Video Game is Taken Away in Indian River County
(By Henry A. Stephens Published October 31, 2007)

Putting a television in the bedroom makes children emotionally blunted, a large new study shoA juvenile fan of the video game Halo 3 is accused of punching his mother after she forced him to end his game Sunday night and fighting with sheriff’s deputies as they tried to restrain him, according to reports released Wednesday.

Click here to read more.

Screen Violence Tied to Boys' Aggression: Study
(By Andrew Stern)

Of 184 boys (in the study), 25 of them had serious problems with aggression and for each hour on average per day they had watched violent TV, they were three times more likely to be in that group" than those who did not watch violent programming, Christakis said in a telephone interview.

Click here to read more.

Bedroom TV Makes Kids Emotionally Numb: Study 'Heavy Use'
(By Sharon Kirkey, National Post CanWest News Service, October 1, 2007)

Researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who analyzed data for 2,707 children found 5? year olds are more likely to have behaviour problems, disturbed sleep and "less emotional reactivity" if they have a television in their bedroom than those with TV-free rooms.

Click here to read more.

Rural Crime Watch Column for September 26, 2007
Source: www.ruralcrimewatch.com

Previously we wrote that Escanaba, Michigan principal Mike Smajda was horrified to learn that one of his first-grade pupils had watched "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and that the boy and his friend kicked a classmate sending her bleeding to the hospital.
Smajda said he can't prove the R-rated slasher movie provoked the child. But the incident reinforced his commitment to an anti-violence program at his school.
Click here to read more.

Slower Language Development for Infants who Watch Baby Media;
Statement of CCFC’s Dr. Susan Linn on Important New Study
Press Release

A new book, Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture by consumer expert Juliet Schor, explores the damaging effects advertising and marketing have on children. According to this breakthrough research, the advertising-saturated culture our children are exposed to is causing an array of psychosomatic symptoms. Click here to read more.

Mass Slaughter In Our Schools: The Terrorists' Chilling Plan?
By Chuck Remsberg
Senior PoliceOne Contributor

Probably the last place you want to think of terrorists striking is your kids' school. But according to two trainers at an anti-terrorism conference on the East Coast, preparations for attacks on American schools that will bring rivers of blood and staggering body counts are well underway in Islamic terrorist camps. Click here to read more.

TREXPO (Tactical Response Expo)
Lt. Col. Grossman, Keynote Speaker
You'll benefit from the broad range of training that is offered and then figure out how to put it all to use using the resources of the TREXPO exhibit hall. Plus, you'll be able to try out the latest weaponry at a special Range Day. The Expo will be held at the Long Beach Convention Center – Long Beach, CA. March 19 - 22, 2007.
Visit the TREXPO website for information on the the Expo.

Escanaba SMART Curriculum Conference
Lt. Col. Grossman, Keynote Speaker
This conference includes the Student Media Awareness to Reduce Television (S.M.A.R.T.) program developed by Stanford University. This research-based curriculum has shown: a reduction in student aggression, a decrease in obesity and weight gain, and an increase in academic achievement. Delta-Schoolcraft ISD developed a program, “Take the
Challenge,” that uses the S.M.A.R.T. curriculum and other resources including integrated reading, writing and technology activities. Participants will receive materials to begin using this program. We have implemented the program in 20 schools and conducted playground observations in 8 schools. There was a significant decrease (25% to 80%) in student aggressive behavior on the playground. Click here to read more on School Safety Notes,
or Download the PDF Flyer to learn more and register.

Stanford Study
This Study confirms the connection between media violence and aggressive behavior.
How many kids were killed or injured in school fires in the US in the last 5 years? Answer: Zero. Yet we do fire drills and have alarms and sprinklers for something that is only an infinitely remote possibility.

How many kids were killed or injured in school shootings in the US in the last 5 years? Answer: In 1998 alone, according to the US Secret Service, there were 35 murders, and almost a quarter-of-a-million American children "seriously injured" by school violence.

The possibility of your child being killed or injured by school violence is
small, but it is thousands of times more likely than the possibility of a
school fire, and we have the moral obligation to do at LEAST as much prep for a shooting as for a fire. Click here to read more from the Stanford Study.

Children’s Exposure to Advertising is Making Them Sick
From Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter # 274

A new book, Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture by consumer expert Juliet Schor, explores the damaging effects advertising and marketing have on children. According to this breakthrough research, the advertising-saturated culture our children are exposed to is causing an array of psychosomatic symptoms.

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