ABSTRACT

Violence encountered through the media appears to be a fairly common experience for young people throughout the world. Television emerges as a frequent source. In the United States, content analyses (Signorielli, 2003, Smith et al., 1998) find an average of 13 to 22 acts of physical aggression per hour in Saturday morning television (a timeslot dominated by cartoons) and 4.5 to 6 per hour in prime-time (a time when many children and teens are present in the audience). In the United Kingdom, children’s programs comprised the largest frequency of programs with violence in a large sample spanning ten channels, accounting for 35 percent of all the violencecontaining programs (Gunter et al., 2003). An analysis of six Canadian networks between 1993 and 2001 found a 378 percent increase in violence over time (Paquette, 2004). Similar numbers of acts of violence are posted by Japan-and Asia, more generally-but programs tend to emphasize suffering caused by violence more so than programs from the United States (Goonasekera and Lock, 1990; Kodaira, 1998). Finally, the Global Media Violence Study, with data from 23 countries, found that in many global locations children and teens see an average of 5 to 10 aggressive acts per hour on television (Groebel, 1998). Video games and films are also sources of exposure to violence and aggression for children

and teens. In 90 percent of randomly selected T-(for Teen) rated games from 2001 played for one hour, the user must commit a violent act against another character to continue, and in 69 percent that violent act must be killing (Haninger and Thompson, 2004). Although the violence gets more graphic and realistic in nature in more restrictive games (such as those rated T or M for Mature; Smith et al., 2003), two-thirds of games rated E for Everyone have been found to contain violent acts in which one character intentionally harms another (Thompson and Haninger, 2001). Coyne et al. (2010) studied 90 movies targeted toward adolescents (rated G for General

Audiences, PG for Parental Guidance suggested, or PG-13 for Parents Strongly Cautioned, recommended for viewers age 13 or older) in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s and found an average of 28 acts of violence per film. Physical violence without weapons constituted 46 percent of all

violent acts, followed by violence perpetrated with weapons at 39 percent. Coyne and Whitehead (2008) found all of the 47 animated Disney films in their sample contained social aggression, with the most frequent forms including social exclusion (occurring at a rate of 2.13 acts per hour) and malicious humor (1.22 acts per hour). Yokota and Thompson (2000) found physical violence in 100 percent of the 74 G-rated, animated films from 1937 to 1999 that comprised their sample. Aggression takes on more proactive, participatory forms when one considers the internet, and

the primary means appears to be cyberbullying. For the EU Kids Online Project (Livingstone et al., 2010), data were gathered from a random selection of 1,000 9-to 16-year-olds and their parents in each of 25 countries. Findings show 55 percent of those interviewed said the internet contains content that may bother kids their age, whereas just 12 percent report being disturbed by something they have seen on the internet. In 59 percent of the instances, parents were not aware of that outcome. Six percent report they have been bullied online and 3 percent admit to having bullied someone else online. Although bullying was relatively uncommon compared to other internet-related risks such as exposure to sexual content or meeting strangers online, it was much more upsetting to the young people interviewed. Parallel studies were conducted in Russia and Australia, using the same methods (Livingstone

et al., 2010). The Russian children reported more online bullying than the European children, both as victims and as perpetrators. In Australia, twice as many children compared to those in Europe reported experiencing something online that bothered them, and 13 percent indicated they had been bullied online. In the United States, estimates from a national sample of 13-to 17-year-olds find 43 percent report having experienced cyberbullying in the last year, and such reports were highest among 15-and 16-year-old girls (Harris Interactive, 2007). Worldwide, therefore, although less than half of children and teens report being bullied online (and sometimes far less than half), such an experience of aggression is upsetting and may occur without parental knowledge.