Media Safety Week 9 Course: Safety Education for Young Children Department: Child and Family Studies Instructor: Kyung Eun Jahng 1

Causes of Media Addiction Social factors: (1) Children are left alone for longer hours (working moms). (2) spend less time playing with peers and more time with media (3) diversified forms of media and more exposure to media 2. Media related children’s characteristics: (1) prefer fantasy world that animation shows (2) TV watching as a routine (3) imitating characters in the media (4) inability to distinguish reality from the imagined. Parental factors: (1) let a child watch TV alone or use a computer (2) allow a child to use computers as they like (3) leave TV on even when it is not necessary (4) never taught a child how to use media in a safe way (5) parents themselves spend too much time in watching TV, doing computer games or using phones.

Child’s Right to Be Protected Children’s basic rights (as a consumer) include the right to be safe and to choose Particularly, children are just exposed to media (rather than they choose it) Thinking of children’s tendency to imitate what they see, it is important that the media to which children are exposed should not deliver any inappropriate messages to children. Therefore, between freedom of expression and consumer protection, the priority should be given to consumer protection.

Violence Violence is an intentional act of a character to make physical contact which has the potential to cause injury or harm. Essentially, this is the use of physical force by a character to achieve a goal. The intention of the acts ranged from very violent acts as severe as murder or less malicious acts like hitting another character for fun or laughs.

Violence on TV Contextual factors that affect children’s learning violent behavior (1) charming abuser (2) justifying the cause of violence (3) recurrent violence using real weapons (4) violence with rewards or without punishment (5) when victims did not get any visible damage or pain (6) humorous situation Not every viewer is influenced by violence on TV in the same way. As for children, their cognitive immaturity makes them think that violence on TV is real. It is reported that children exposed to TV violence around the age of 8 are likely to commit a crime in the future.

Game Blamed for Hammer Murder Warren Leblanc, 17, repeatedly stabbed 14-year-old Stefan Pakeerah after luring him to a park to steal from him. He pleaded guilty to murder. Stefan’s mother described Leblanc, who confessed to police moments after the assault, as “inherently evil.” Following the hearing she said her son’s killer had mimicked a game called Manhunt in which the players score points for violent killings. Manhunt was banned six months ago in New Zealand by censorship officials. Mrs Pakeerah said: “I heard some of Warren’s friends say that he was obsessed by this game. To quote from the website that promotes it, it calls it a psychological experience, not a game, and it encourages brutal killing. If he was obsessed by it, it could well be that the boundaries for him became quite hazy.” She called for violent video games to be banned. She further said, “It should not be available and it should not be available to young people.” Outside court Stefan’s father, Patrick, said, “There were playing a game called Manhunt. The way Warren committed the murder is how the game is set out—killing people using weapons like hammers and knives.”

Research on Violence in Films A “G” rating does not automatically signify a level of violence acceptable to all children. The current rating system may provide a false sense of security about violent content in animated films. Parents should not overlook these videos as a source of exposure to violence for children Most of the violence in these films shows characters fighting with each other and using violence as a means for resolving conflict. Character use a wide range of weapons in their violent acts like shotguns and swords as well as common household items like brooms. The study does not suggest that children should be prohibited from watching these animated films. The study concludes that G-rated animated films contain materials that may be disturbing to young viewers or could be dangerous if imitated. Parents need to judge for themselves the appropriateness of the material and should not rely on the current rating system.

Then, What Should We Do?

What Parents Can Do Parents should be concerned about violence in all contexts, not just movies, but books, computer games, television, music, and out on the streets. Parents can watch these films with their children, discuss the appropriateness of the actions given the circumstances, and explore alternative solutions without the use of violence. Research found that there is a significant amount of violence in some G-rated animated films. There appears to be relatively more violence in G-rated animated films now than in the past. Once parents are aware of the violence, they can talk to their children about whether all violence is bad.

What Parents Can Do Watching TV with children and having conversation over the program. This produces an opportunity to prevent any negative impact of TV programs and to help children learn new things through watching TV. Need to recognize three types of danger caused by TV violence: aggressive attitude, learned behavior, increase in a sense of fear, and insensitivity to violent behavior

Internet

Internet as a Dangerous Place There are dangerous websites that contain the contents such as obscenity, gambling, violence, and suicidal. As to hazardous websites, about 10% of the hazardous websites are Korean ones. Korean websites ranked the second as to the number of dangerous websites in the world. English ones the first and Japanese the third. It has been reported that there are many people addicted to internet use and resultant social problems such as social maladjustment, discord within the family, mass suicide, murder. It is necessary to have strategies that protect children from the problematic websites. Strategies can include strict regulations, blocking systems, development of software.

Internet Addiction Use internet for an extended period of time or obsessed with internet use This overuse of internet leads to low grades, decrease in interest in building social relationships, and offline activities. Game addiction Online chat addiction & Online fraud: Cyber violence (Cyber sexual/verbal violence): through unwanted online conversations (chatting or posting) Pornography addiction

Media Education Critical capacity: cultivating the capacity to criticize the contents given by media and becoming a critical user Media literacy education: building knowledge and competence in using media and technology and helping children make better choices in their media consumption habits Citizenship education Consumer education: since the content is regarded as a product, users are thought of as consumers. Character education