Violence is physical force exerted to violate, damage and abuse. It is an ever-present feature of society thus making it a universal characteristic within the New Media.
New Media: new information and communication technologies from the 20th century and into the new millennium.
Violence in new media is reported and portrayed in video sharing sites, social networking sites and online video gaming. Many have express concern about the effects it has on children and teenagers.
Violence in New Media can be in the form of vulgar languages, destructive acts and sexual contents.
The type of aggression seen in youth violence due to New Media can range from bullying and physical fighting to assault and homicide.
Different consequences between girls and boys
The video link below demonstrates clearly how New Media violence has more negative repercussion on boys than girls.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3exzMPT4nGI (Tough Guise: Violence, Media & the Crisis in Masculinity)
Effects of Violent Online Gaming on Children and Teenagers:
Violent online video games have been successfully marketed to the youth as they can be easily downloaded by any online user – young or old.
School shootings by boys in the US for the past twenty years were often associated with history of playing violent video games.
Now, online gaming is taking over and the effects would likely be similar if measures are not taken seriously.
Effects of Violent videos from You Tube on Children and Teenagers:
New Media explosion on youth violence is increasing over the years to the extent youngsters imitate what the video is teaching and start acting aggressively whenever they feel like it even if they have no cruel intentions.
Three major effects of watching violence in the new media are children may:
1. become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others
2. be more fearful of the world around them
3. be more likely to behave in destructive or hurtful
ways towards others
Preventions and Solutions:
Social-networking sites are beginning to add additional safeguards for young users.
Security software also offers some protection.
Parents should:
- be aware of the risks and engage the children about safety in New Media to keep your family safer online
- limit children’s exposure to violent acts online
- educate your kids the consequences of being violent
- introduce them to sports, music, or the arts to distract them from going online unnecessarily
REAL LIFE example of the effects of New Media Violence on Children and Teenagers:
In 20 October 2007, a 17-year-old teenager Daniel Petric in Wellington(USA) killed his mother and shot his father because they took his Halo 3 video game.
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/01/petric_hearing.html (Wellington teen Daniel Petric convicted of aggravated murder in mother’s death)
YES! The tragic incident above was REAL!
Are we going to blame new media for the rise of violence in kids and teens?
In the first place, why are we letting our young ones access to New Media?
Are we drawn to the idea that it is a trend and therefore alright for children to get entry to new media independently?
The reality today is the result of the fantasy yesterday. We keep asking when violence will end. Old media like television and video games could not solve it. Now, even new media cannot control it.
It is up to us to be in charge of this real new media issue. It might not affect us now but certainly will – in the future – when our children start to defy us at an even more manipulative and forceful tone than we have ever use to our own parents.
Effects of New Media Violence on KIDS and TEENS 
You have a range of ideas here. Could you clarify the following:
“Violence is physical force exerted to violate, damage and abuse. It is an ever-present feature of society thus making it a universal characteristic within the New Media.” What do you mean by this?
You asked why children are allowed to access new media. Can they be stopped? Is that realistic?
You are right in saying that there’s need for us to take control of the situation and we need to do something. What can be done?
Okay MS Serena. Thanks for your feedbacks. I will explain one by one.
1)
For the first paragraph of my presentation, the focus of violence here is physical rather than verbal or any other abuse. We can experience aggression anywhere at home, school or even at our neighbourhood.
People are exposed to rowdy acts via old or new media even for those who seldom first-hand witness violence in their lives. The fact that it is happening everywhere – be it war or non-war countries – means that New Media has to include this feature even if it is unnecessary.
2)
Children are allowed access to new media because they are thought to use it at schools. Even nursery and kindergarten are teaching our young ones to use them. If not, some older siblings and parents have been exposing their usage of new media and thus attracting kids to use it.
So it is realistic for us to limit our young ones from using them. Nursery and kindergarten should be the place for children to play and interact with other kids. They should have a proper childhood before being involved in the virtual world.
Online education should be introduced at a later part of their lives. Like what’s the hurry?
Parents/guardians should instill in their children that those who play online games and are wasting their time in front of the screens for long hours are just LOSERS. (Yup that’s what my parents have been enforcing).
Like I mention at my presentation, young people should be involved in sports, music or the arts because we are still young. Using the computer or laptops should be for schoolwork and social networking sites. Other than that, children should appreciate entertainment first-hand- live – and not through screens.
3)
We seriously need to recreate the culture of the ‘kampong’ childhood atmosphere.
Children are getting obese are rising at a dramatic rate!
On top of all the unhealthy food found almost everywhere, kids are becoming more and more inactive due to the availability of new gadgets and new media.
Here are some solutions I have thought myself:
a)
The government, I believe, has to intervene in this issue and should make a campaign to discourage children from going online.
b)
Parents/guardians and older siblings should keep their laptops out of reach from kids once they are done with their school work or job assignments.
c)
Parents/guardians should unplug the wires of the home computer desktop when they are not at home. Hide the wires from the children.
d)
Computers should be placed at the living room.
e)
If we practice this culture, children will grow up independent because they will not depend on technology to company them everywhere they go.
As they grow older, they will somehow or another learn how to manage their usage of new gadgets. Kids and teens who are engrossed in sports,arts or any other healthy activities usually find online gaming and entertainment not appealing to them.
DON’T make online gaming and entertainment a lifestyle!
good info, and i can understand ur view on this clearly.
was a little shocked about the killing parents thing, i play Halo 3, love it but no way i’ll kill to play, that case shows how badly one can get affected, but i wonder if that was the only cause, or was it a build-up? However, i dont think violence in new media is the sole cause, the social environment as well as upbringing all contribute to one’s attitude and characteristics. Its how people work, that can turn almost anything into something negative, some more so than others. I think thats why education is key.
Well said Carl! =) Whatever problem, education is still the best solution.
I have to agree that the upbringing of a person shapes his/her personality.
However, a person from a violent background not necessarily will turn violent with the introduction of education.
A living example would be my mother. She never laid a finger or hand on me although she was brutally abused daily as a kid.
Thank god, it was education that teaches her the values of humanity. Her abuser was also abused as a kid. Education can really break a bad cycle and produce a new clean flow of habits.
Education can also allow a person to forgive others easily. And my mother never blamed her abuser for the pain caused to her. She understood that her abuser was just not given the chance to be aware and understand how the world works.
You have a link to an interesting video on how men are conditioned to ‘become’ more violent by the media – what’s the connection with new media and is that true of new media as well?
The concept is the same. The difference is old media presents violence without viewers asking for it while new media caters to those who prompts for it.
If not supervised, kids and teens can keep searching for various types of violence online. Some might even find what they see as a joke. The gap between what is right and wrong thus widens and parents/guardians will suffer eventually.
Thumbs Up for the youTube you found. very interesting.
guys must quit imagining they are Bruce Lee, the legendary martial arts hero, and fight the way out of the situation.
The motto is: better safe than sorry!
Yup yup!
Prevention is better than cure! =)
I do believe that new media do have violent effects on children.
For example, i have young cousins who watch their favourite cartoons on youtube like power rangers and start to imitate them. It’s scary when one of them get hurts.
It is almost impossible to refrain childrens from new media as there are lots of good educational materials but at the same time it is easy to find negative impacts of new media.
I chose this new media issue because I was disturbed when my two young girl cousins showed me a video online depicting a cartoon acting violently going around chopping other cartoon characters in the video. Blood was splashing everywhere!
Worst part is my two young cousins were laughing and laughing when they viewed it! I told their older teen brother to discourage them from watching it but his reply was “The video won’t influence them”.
I was like “Hello! They are like four and eight! If they find violence as something that is funny, they will grow up bashing their classmates or playmates and laugh when they see others in pain”.
Yes I agree that they should be using it for educational purpose only.
It’s sad to hear such stories where kids go on killing rampage to vent their angers on others with or without valid reason. No one should volunteer to be Angel of Death. Interesting video although the video is heavily emphasizing on how violent men can be.
We cannot deny the fact that men are built physically stronger than women. When men turn violent, it is scary especially for women and kids.
Women can be violent too. In most cases, they want to ‘show’ that women can be as ‘tough’ as guys.
The world we live in view being soft as a sign of weakness. It seems like most of us can acknowledge women who are tough. However, it is natural to despise guys who are soft.
With this in mind, guys feel more intimidated by the society to be tough and many have misinterpreted tough as being violent.
Guys can be tough in many ways without being violent. Those who are composed and calm in any situation, in my opinion, are what I view as tough. (It sure is TOUGH controlling our rage! Haha.)
This does not mean men have to be soft. They should be sporty and do more physical work with the given extra strength than women. Being soft will only waste a country’s resource of its people.
I think that this is a very, very serious issue. Parents should do more to stop their children from watching such violent stuffs, as it may affect their upbringing.
Indeed it is! Young kids should be supervised by sensible adults whenever they go online.
Left alone, children can easily be influenced by anything they see on the screen in a matter of seconds by just a click of the mouse.
check out this video its really scary, about a kid who plays video games and got so angry.
Thanks for sharing the video. My first reaction was just speechless. Then it turned hilarious.
Finally, when I came to my senses, I realized that if the kid can get so heated up over a game, he can be easily annoyed by trivial things and turn violent.
I keep seeing the common recommendation to all these online issues is to not go online. I however disagree, as the new media too can also provide pro-social teaching and information.
I’m pretty with the right tactics, people can teach children pro-social things with new media.
It is so far the best solution! Teaching kids to socialize online is like teaching them to let the fingers do the talking.
Information-wise, children should be thought the basics of finding resources the hard way via old media like newspapers and library books.
If kids start using new media at a very young age, they will eventually develop the attitude of impatience because everything they ask for is fast with new media.
Every child, in my opinion, should experience life the hard way before enjoying the benefits the world has to offer.
This way, they will eventually appreciate life and will avoid doing harm to others.
For instance, my parents do not introduce my siblings and I computers and fast food restaurants until we were in secondary schools although both were working adults.
They allowed us to play sports and to be involved in healthy face-to-face social activities and events.
When I was introduced to computers, I acknowledged that it is helpful only for education.
Other than that, it is just a waste of my real social time.
I didn’t specify what pro-social things are, but pro-social things would be proper etiquettes/behavior in our society.
I feel that Facebook or social networking sites, are not really pro-social things. For example, the Japanese culture is highly considered as pro-social, as people are taught to give respect to everyone.
So, I believe with new media, it is possible to show children the consequences of inappropriate etiquettes, and we can teach them the right etiquettes.
I am pretty sure that there are some type of information that cannot be found with the old media.
However with the current pace of the education system, gathering information through the old media is very time consuming, or not fast enough to keep up with the education system’s demands.
To add on, primary schools now have computers activities, it’s pretty much something unavoidable.
I would be totally fine with reading through books, as I read random stuff on Wikipedia when I’m bored.
I agree that there will be children that would be too used to the convenience of new media. However, I am quite certain many people I know are over reliant on the Internet for information.
Firefox is made by people out of their free time after their working hours. They surely spent a good number of hours on the computer, and it’s not education, it’s a pro-social activity aimed at giving society an alternative browser.
I personally will not put down computers, but of course I wouldn’t put my friends down just because of computers.
Sorry, I had to say quite a lot, but I can’t accept that just saying no to going online or using computers would solve the issue. Even an adult can be affected by the violence portrayed on new media, so in the end, I feel children have to be educated about the proper usage and dangers of new media.
It’s ok. Thanks for your thoughts.
You have a very good stand. We might consider your idea that f children were to be introduced to computers at a very young ae, they should at least be taught to use it properly and wisely.
I think that the violent issue depends on several factors such as the general upbringing of the child/teen, the games/shows they play/watch and their peers who may influence them in some way or another.
More often than not, violent behavior stems from the child/teen coming into indirect contact with the violent media, be it computer games or television programmes. Sometimes it may not be always the parents fault for the child’s behavior, it could be the child’s friends who have somehow or another, influenced their thoughts promoting the negative influence of violence..
I almost forgot the ‘friend’ factor until you mentioned it. So now we have the parents, the new media and the friends as causes of violence.
We are advised not to mix with bad company because we can be vulnerable to their influences with or without us knowing it.
However, have we all thought why friends who are violent exist? New media? Their parents?
Ultimately, the blame still falls onto the parents.
Perhaps, there should be compulsory seminars or talks to educate the parents on handling with new media issues.
If old books can teach young ones concepts, why not new media teach the old ones to be IT-savvy?
The authority of being a parent will hence be uphold(again) because parents will know more about new media than their kids.
Overall, it is every nation’s culture to cultivate good attitude in its people.
This is a serious issues on violent. And online games is one of it like left 4 dead2 (L4D2), this game restrict to children under 18 to play due to it contain bloody scene and also violence but there will always children who break through curiously and play it illegal. So parent should keep a look out on games that their children is playing and get to understand the game and guide their child.
In the first place, they should not encourage their children to play violent games. Educational games are exceptions.
I hopre you are refering to educational games when you mention “parent should keep a look out on games that their children is playing and get to understand the game and guide their child”.
*hope
im shocked too. and i also feel people should not imagine themselves as another hero from those superheros games or it may be diasterous.
YUP! Superhereos not neccessarily need extraordinary powers.
Children should have doctors, police, firemen etc as thier superhereos so they will learn to contribute more good to the society. The games can be fun in a way the villian need not be too grossly violent.
They should be given real life problems to solve. So virtual and real world is not that far apart to understand.
Too much freedom from the parents will also cause this as well, since parents nowadays are more on spoiling their children then teaching them.
True. It’s as if their children are teaching and ordering them instead of the other way round.
Parents today think the old way of bringing up their children is irrelevant for the current world.
Ancient times or not, parenting concept will never change! Teach children to be good samritans! One who put self before others and contribute to the society for the benefit of the society. Eventually, every individual will benefit.
And the family is the core of every society. If one goes wrong, it somehow or another tarnishes the image of the society. That is certainly a selfish act.
I do agree with violent games will affect some of the player’s set of mind. My impression of one person shooting games are the root for some young American killers who brought guns to school and do the killings. while maybe not 100% true, but that is my impression of 1 of the violent games. But nevertheless, parent guidance plays a very big role here.
Some controversial issues raised – to what extent do we limit children’s use of the Internet. Many of you gave thought-ful and thought-provoking comments and responses. Good discussion!