Violence is ubiquitous in American mass media. An average American youth will witness 200,000 violent episodes on television alone before age 18.⁶Violence is often considerable, even in programs which are not advertised as violent. Overall, weapons appear on prime time television an average of 9 times each hour.⁷ An estimated 54 percent of American children can watch this programming from the privacy of their own bedrooms.⁸

Children’s shows are particularly violent. Saturday morning cartoons contain 20-25 violent acts per hour, about 6 times as many as prime time programs.⁹Overall, 46 percent of TV violence occurs in cartoons.⁸ Additionally, these programs are more likely to juxtapose violence with humor (67 percent) and less likely to show the long-term consequences of violence (5 percent).⁸ Although some claim that cartoon violence is not as “real” and therefore not as damaging, cartoon violence has been shown to increase the likelihood of aggressive, antisocial behavior in youth.¹⁰ This makes sense in light of children’s developmental difficulty discerning the real from the fantastic.¹¹

Media violence presents a picture significantly different from that of true violence. First, the sheer volume of violence is exaggerated; 66 percent of television programs contain violence.⁸ More significant, however, are the skewed contexts in which media present violence. In media portrayals, 75 percent of violent acts are committed without remorse, criticism, or penalty; 41 percent are associated with humor; 38 percent are committed by attractive perpetrators; and 58 percent involve victims who show no pain.⁸

This inappropriate presentation of violence leads to inappropriate expectations of youth with regard to true violence. In particular, three major attitudes are learned: aggression, desensitization, and victimization. Statistical analyses show what type of media violence most likely teaches each attribute: violent episodes associated with humor, weapons, and attractive perpetrators increase real-life aggression; humor-associated violence and graphic violence lead to real-life desensitization; and graphic violence and realistic violence tend to generate fear and a sense of victimization in viewers.⁸