Communities need to monitor content for minors in television, on the internet, and in print media.
Does TV mirror life, or does TV influence life? Whatever influence fictional violence has on behavior, most experts believe its effects are marginal compared to other factors. Even small children know the difference between fiction and reality, and their attitudes and behavior are shaped more by their life circumstances than by the books they read or the TV they watch. In 1972, the U.S. Surgeon General's Advisory Committee on Television and Social Behavior released a 200-page report, "Television and Growing Up: The Impact of Televised Violence," which concluded, "The effect [of television] is small compared with many other possible causes, such as parental attitudes or knowledge of and experience with the real violence of our society." Twenty-one years later, the American Psychological Association published its 1993 report, "Violence & Youth," and concluded, "The greatest predictor of future violent behavior is a previous history of violence." In 1995, the Center for Communication Policy at UCLA, which monitors TV violence, came to a similar conclusion in its yearly report: "It is known that television does not have a simple, direct stimulus-response effect on its audiences." Blaming the media does not get us very far, and, to the extent that diverts the public's attention from the real causes of violence in society, it may do more harm than good.
One recent target for censorship in the United States (and other countries) has been the Internet. Censorship movements have taken two predominant forms: limiting what can be viewed or what can be posted on the Internet.3 Several bills focusing on information posted and viewed on the Internet have passed recent Congresses and, to date, one has received limited Supreme Court approval. Yet national borders do not limit the Internet, thus the latter focus seems heroically optimistic; limits on what can be posted within the borders of the United States (or any other country) could be easily avoided.
