Youth / OPINION : ‘TV, Cinema Violence Is a Serious Matter’

For about four months earlier this year, my brother Ben and our friends, Saujin Yi and Allen Avedian, worked on a project about how violence on television and in the movies affects the rate of violence and crime in America as our entry in the History Day L.A. annual competition.

In our study, we came across a number of extraordinary facts including:

* The average 18-year-old has watched the violent destruction of more than 50,000 people on television.

* Since 1982, there has been a 720% increase in violence in kids’ programming.

* The average 10- to 13-year-old watches 100 R-rated (adult) films a year.

We made a video of some of the most violent clips we had ever seen. We used clips showing a man having his head sliced off and his body, spouting blood, rolling to the ground. We used part of the movie “Misery,” involving Kathy Bates hobbling James Caan by placing a wooden block between his legs above the ankles and hitting the foot with a sledgehammer, snapping the ankle bone and letting the foot dangle. We also used a clip of a man hanging a rabbit by its ankle on a hook and slicing its head off.

At first, the four of us in my group were horrified at the content of the video. But after watching it over and over, it did not excite us a lick. In a sense, the repeated watching of the video desensitized us. Then we brought my best friend over to see the video. He watches the most television of any person I have ever known. He watched our video and turned to me and said, “So?”

We discovered that a major problem in the culture of violence on television is desensitization. After watching more than 50,000 people killed on the TV screen, is it that big a deal to see one killed in real life? Are you really surprised to read headlines about adolescents committing murder and not feeling remorse?

In our study, we realized that violence on television and in the movies is a major problem in American culture. The violence in television programs influences people’s opinions of reality. Television and cinema violence create a false image of reality.

Another problem, not so large but also horrifying, is copycat crimes. According to Robert Gould, chairman of the National Coalition on Television Violence, one night on TV there was one broomstick rape; the next day, there were five real-life rapes almost the same. A man saw the movie “The Burning Bed,” which depicts a woman burning her husband in bed, and burned his wife as soon as she arrived home from work. After questioning, he exclaimed, “I wanted to get her before she got me.”

During our project, my family decided to turn off the TV. It was a unique experience to study violence yet not have it in our home. It was strange to observe the number of changes in our household of six. We incorporated conversation into our daily lives. There was much more study and work in our home. And, strangely enough, there was less arguing and fighting.

Violence on TV is a serious matter and deserves serious attention. Parents should start monitoring their child’s television viewing. And they should monitor their own to not be hypocritical. We should do like they do in Connecticut and have a “TV Turnoff Day,” where we boycott TV on a scheduled day and do something exciting, fun or socially active.

Our group made the top 12 in the citywide contest; the winning project was about libraries. But we came away with something: We learned the incredible and scary power that television has.

Today, 10 months after we started this project, the TV in my house is still disconnected. Will we turn it back on? Who knows.