Children Learn Violence From A Young Age

It seems like society is growing more and more aggressive with each passing day. Especially the younger generation seems to have been born with “hair on their teeth”. Ready to challenge or fight at the drop of a hat. There are as many theories about this phenomenon as there are “doctors” and shrinks willing to give an opinion.

The glamorization of violence doesn’t help much either. Every day our children get bombarded with countless programs on the tube depicting acts of violence and we let them watch these movies and programs without blinking an eye. Computer games that glamorize acts of violence are another source of “input” which young minds are not entirely ready to handle.

As adults we have become complacent. As long as they’re out of the way and quiet we let our children do whatever they want. Because of our busy lifestyles we aren’t always there to censure the input our children get from all that’s going on around their world. Of course it’s impossible to shelter a child from the world, but if we just let them go without some form of guidance, we are breeding tomorrows criminal.

As humans we often learn from example. A child that constantly plays at “killing zombies” with all the high definition (HD) gore and blood that’s associated with such a game may start to equate violence with fun. At first this may seem farfetched and illogical, but young minds are more impressionable then we may think. Children who see violence at a young age later emulate that behaviour when they grow up. That a scientific fact.

It has become universally acceptable that the more blood and gore we see the more “fun” and exiting a game is. The unguided young mind will assimilate this information and at an unconscious level try to re-enact it in real life. Does this remind you of any drive-by shooting cases you’ve heard about lately? To these kids, it’s a game!

Random and senseless acts of violence keep increasing on a daily basis. As adults it’s our duty to protect our children from becoming another statistic. We can only do this if we work together and pay more attention to the type of input we expose our children to.

NVP is the Non Violence Project Miami. We are dedicated to helping our City and community become more tolerant and less aggressive towards our fellow man.