OC HIGH: STUDENT NEWS & VIEWS : MY TURN : Tune In, America: Violence Can’t Be Unplugged

Attributing the amount of violence seen on television to the prevalence of violence in society, Atty. Gen. Janet Reno and a panel of congressmen recently coerced the four major television networks into labeling violent television programs with a parental discretion warning.

With millions of handguns in circulation and, according to the FBI, a violent crime occurring every 20 seconds, Reno is correct that the United States must crack down on crime.

However, these lawmakers are looking in the wrong direction if they think that curbing television’s imaginary violence will eradicate the actual violence that is erupting in our schools and on our streets.

Evidence linking violence on television to actual crime is doubtful at best. According to a recent study done by the University of Pennsylvania, the number of crimes viewed per hour on television has declined 41% from 1973 to 1992, although crime has risen steadily.

This uproar comes at a time when, ironically, the prime-time television lineup is tamer than usual. As opposed to five years ago when prime time was dominated by violent, action-oriented shows such as “Hill Street Blues,” “Miami Vice” and “Hunter,” today’s prime time offers comedies such as “Roseanne,” “Northern Exposure” and “Seinfeld.”

Furthermore, it is unlikely these warnings will prevent children or teen-agers from watching violent programming. According to the American Psychology Assn., children often end up watching 19,000 hours of television by the time they graduate from high school and have little, if any, adult supervision.

Perhaps the parental advisories will produce the opposite of the intended effect, actually drawing some teens to view the violent programming as the R film rating has done for some movies.

In the short term, the parental labeling may make a lot of people happy: The television producers continue to broadcast violence preceded by a brief warning; lawmakers receive kudos for fighting crime, and some teens may find the TV violence they crave flagged by an introductory warning.

With these warnings, Washington is favoring political expediency over actual reform by offering a quick, painless but ineffective fix to the problem of rising crime.

And in the meantime, every 20 seconds, a violent crime occurs somewhere in the United States.