Psychiatric Effects of Media Violence

As the evidence linking increased aggression to excessive exposure to violent entertainment has grown, psychiatrists, pediatricians, and other physicians and mental healthcare providers have joined the call for limits on the amount of violent depictions to which children are exposed.

APA Position Statement on Violence

The American Psychiatric Association joins with other professional organizations in advocating for a significant decrease in violent programming on network and cable television. Television violence has been shown to be a risk factor to the health and well-being of the developing child, adolescent, and to the stability of their families. The APA has encouraged voluntary restraint on the part of the TV industry to decrease TV violence. Since voluntary restraint has been ineffective in protecting our young people from the escalating harm and intrusive assault of TV violence, reasoned regulatory action should be pursued, consistent with constitutional guarantees. (APA Board of Trustees approved 12/93)

The Pervasiveness of the Problem

In 1996, the National Television Violence Study examined the most extensive body of television programming ever collected for the purpose of content analysis. The study found that the majority of all entertainment programming contains violence. Especially disturbing was that the perpetrators of violence went unsanctioned in 73% of these violent scenes, since the most effective way of reducing the likelihood of young viewers imitating violent behavior is to show such behavior being punished.

Ignoring consequences of violence (including the pain of victims, the victims' families, and the families of perpetrators) or depicting the consequences unreasonably sets in motion a destructive encoding process. Viewers become desensitized and fearful and begin to identify with aggressors and the aggressors' solutions to various problems. The violent behaviors and attitudes thus encoded, aggression is now all the more likely in personal situations.

A Distortion of Reality

Individuals with greater exposure to media violence see the world as a dark and sinister place. Television programs present a narrow view of the world, and the world they present is violent. Thus, people who watch a lot of television are more likely than those who watch less to see the world as being violent and overestimate their chance of being involved in violence.

Nowhere is the media's distortion of reality greater than in the portrayal of individuals with mental illness. A 1997 content analysis of programming found that television characters with mental illnesses were highly likely to be shown commiting acts of violence. In fact, mentally ill characters were 10 times more violent than the general population of television characters, despite mountains of evidence that show that individuals with mental illnesses are no more likely to be violent than mentally healthy individuals.

Protecting Our Youth

Children and adolescents are exposed to more media depictions of violence than ever before. Such depictions pervade not only television, but film, music, online media, videogames, and printed material. Commercial television for children is 50-60 times more violent than prime-time programs for adults, as some cartoons average more than 80 violent acts per hour. With the advent of videocassette sales and rentals, pay-per-view TV, cable TV, videogames, and online interactive media, many more children and adolescents have greater access to media with violent content than had ever been available in previous decades. Again, these depictions desensitize children to the effects of violence, increase aggression, and help foster a climate of fear.

The critical period for lasting harm from exposure to depictions of violence is pre-adolescent childhood. Children as young as 14 months model behaviors. Viewers of violent programming can come to perceive the world as more violent than it really is, and a callous attitude toward violence can emerge.