Children can not relate to what they see when they are so young, making the act of watching violent television extremely questionable. Children should not know about murder and rape; however according to Gloria Tristani, Commissioner for the Federal Communications Commission, by the time they finish elementary school, children have witnessed 8,000 murders and 100,000 acts of violence. (Tristani website) Children should not be allowed to view such behavior as they are far too young to comprehend the severity of what they see.
Younger children are more susceptible to the impact of television violence in part because they spend more time in front of the set. "Children ages 2 to 5 watch about 28 hours of television each week, or almost 4 hours per day." (Black, et. al. 317) Older children watch about four hours less per week. These younger children are fascinated with a media that does not require the ability to read or decipher in a way they do not know how; therefore, they spend more time watching television than older school age children. "Television has somewhat less appeal for the adolescent who has the mental ability to extend his or her senses with radio or print." (Elkind 73) .
One of the most disconcerting facts of modern life is the abundance of wasted time spent watching mindless television programs. ".at the end of the usual life span, the average person will have endured more than ten uninterrupted years of television, day and night, with no breaks for the potty, no sleep, no work, no school. Ten years of staring at a cathode-ray tube, looking at images that for the most part one doesn't control and never chose." (Medved, et. al. 19).
"A US News & World Report survey of voters reveals that 91% "think media mayhem contributes to real-life violence", while 54% of the public thinks violence in entertainment media "is a major factor that contributes to the level of violence in America".