MAN, THIS is one violent country we live in! From video games to movies to music, one can't help but encounter extreme violence in popular media at least once a day. We may not want to admit it, but a large portion of the U.S. public loves carnage, at least in pretend form. The situation has gotten so bad that President Clinton ordered a Federal Trade Commission study of the issue. The results are now upon us.
And what do they show? The FTC stated that "the vast majority of the best-selling restricted movies, music and video games were deliberately marketed to children as young as 12." ("Violence in Media Is Aimed at Young, F.T.C. Study Says," The New York Times, Sept. 12) In other words, though this material is by definition inappropriate for children, children make up the essential marketing demographic for such products. Parents have to be more aggressive in filtering what their children consume as entertainment.
Nonetheless, the industry must do a better job of regulating itself, or our society will grow even more desensitized to violence than it is already.
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It is one thing if an 18 year-old wants to listen to Eminem's "music." Most people that age or older can tell the difference between the real and the fake. That condition does not apply to the younger audience that comprises the bulk of the rapper's fan base. When he sings lightheartedly about committing violent acts against his wife, many of his younger fans will receive the message as "violence is okay." No, they probably won't go out and kill anyone. But they will begin to see violence as a perfectly acceptable form of behavior.
In reality, violence in popular media is far more desensitizing when it can influence the consumer in different forms. That is, playing a violent video game by itself is not nearly as numbing as when one accompanies it with music that celebrates violence or movies that portray violence as an acceptable behavior.
Though they receive the bulk of media attention on this issue, children are not the only ones this culture of violence has influenced. What were the most popular video games on your floor/suite when you were a first-year student? Mariokart, of course, and, what else, 007, a game that offers the option for you and up to three of your closest friends to hunt each other down like animals and blow each others' heads off.
The most disturbing finding in the FTC's report is that the entertainment industry is intentionally marketing the worst material to the exact audience that should not be consuming it. The Commission took a sample of movies, CDs and video games based on either their status as top-sellers or their appeal to the underage audience. The study found that all 55 CDs in the sample with parental advisory labels were marketed to children under 17. The same went for 35 of the 44 R-rated movies in the sample, and 70 percent of the video games.
The industry should not face blame if underage buyers suddenly flock without invitation to a product that is not suitable for their age group. It is parents' job to prevent that from happening. But as the study showed, this is no longer the case. The industry is now making a strong effort to entice underage consumers to buy their products. When the entertainment industry blurs the line between what is appropriate for adults and what is appropriate for children, certain inappropriate materials are bound to slip through the cracks. These are the same materials that have contributed to the culture of violence we now see all too often.
The impetus for change in this situation falls entirely on parents and the industry. Difficult as it is, parents need to make a stronger effort to monitor what their children watch, instead of letting the television do the job of raising them. The entertainment industry, on the other hand, needs to draw a greater distinction between material for adults and material for kids. There is no single cause behind our society's growing propensity for violence, but resolving the issues that popular culture raises would go a long way toward solving the problem.
(Timothy DuBoff's column appears Thursdays in The Cavalier Daily.)
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