TV REVIEW : Earnest Talk Show on Teen-Age Violence

The rising tide of violence, particularly among young people, lends urgency to today’s “ABC Afterschool Special” (at 3 p.m. on Channels 7, 3 and 42). “Learning Not to Hurt” is an earnest, hourlong talk show that allows in-studio teen-agers to air their feelings about living in a perpetual danger zone and that touches on ways young people can avoid being either the victim or the perpetrator of violence.

Taped as part of a series for teen-agers called “Making It” in New York, the program is hosted by WABC-TV news anchor Roz Abrams and features activist actor Edward James Olmos and experts such as Octavia Marin, who directs a group made up of people who have suffered paralysis due to street violence.

Starting out with a montage of news footage about death on the streets and the statistic that killings per 100,000 people in the United States are “four to 73 times higher than any other country in the industrialized world,” Abrams asks the teen-agers and experts for their explanations about the deadly trend. The answers range from frustration, media images and peer pressure to poverty and gutted school budgets. The easy availability of guns is emphasized by both groups.

Sprinkled through the hour are enactments of violent and potentially violent confrontations--an abusive parent, an argument over a girlfriend, an explosive altercation over a minor offense--performed by two teen-age theater groups.

Walking away from an argument, staying calm, avoiding rumor-mongering--those are easy answers, hard to apply. What stands out most significantly at the end of the program is what the young people themselves say they need to change their lives of high anxiety: “adults to be there more.”