Will President Bush Act to Reduce Americans' TV Watching to Curb Violence?

[Gary Ruskin]

Commercial Alert			March 29, 2002

Science Magazine released a study yesterday showing a link between TV
watching by adolescents, and violent and aggressive behavior against
others. Today, Commercial Alert urged President George W. Bush to make
it a priority of his administration to reduce television watching by
kids.  The letter follows.

Dear President Bush:

During the 2000 campaign, you repeatedly encouraged parents and children
to watch less television, or to turn off the television.  For example,
during the campaign, the Associated Press reported that you told a third
grade class in San Diego to pick up a book instead of watching TV.  In a
debate with then-Vice President Al Gore, you said that to prevent TV and
popular culture from undermining the values we pass onto our children,
"the best weapon is the off-on button and paying attention to your
children..." 

Your administration has not yet turned these campaign statements about
TV into action.  But now comes an excellent opportunity to do so.

Science Magazine published a study today by Jeffrey Johnson of Columbia
University that confirms what common sense tells us about television and
aggression. The study showed a link between TV viewing during
adolescence and adulthood, and aggressive acts, including violent
crime.  

The study, titled "Television Viewing and Aggressive Behavior During
Adolescence and Adulthood," found that adolescents who watched one or
more hours of TV per day were four times more prone to subsequent
violent acts than those who watched less than one hour of TV per day. 
The researchers discovered that only 5.7% of the teenagers who watched
less than one hour of TV committed aggressive acts when they got older,
compared to 22.5% of teenagers who watched 1-3 hours per day.  For those
who watched three or more hours of TV per day, 45.2% of males and 12.7%
of females committed aggressive acts.

The study found that TV viewing was associated with aggressive acts
against other people in general, as well as assault, robbery, physical
fights, threats to injure someone, and use of a weapon to commit a
crime.

As you know, violence and violent crime are a plague on our nation.  We
are sure that, as President, you would do everything in your power to
reduce violence and violent crime.  This new Science study reconfirms
what millions of Americans -- especially parents and teachers -- already
know: that we can have less violent, safer homes and neighborhoods if
our children watch less TV.  

This is just one of many reasons to make less TV watching a priority for
your administration.  There are more: childhood obesity, lack of reading
time, and too little time spent together between children and families. 
Is there a single reason to feel good about the amount of TV that
children watch today?  Of course not.

We urge you to mobilize your administration to reduce TV watching --
especially among our nation's youth.  In specific, we suggest that you:

•	Use the presidency and the "bully pulpit" to convince Americans to cut
TV watching by at least 50 percent over the next three years;

•	Instruct Attorney General John Ashcroft to integrate efforts to reduce
TV viewing into the Justice Department's strategies to curb violent
crime;

•	Instruct the new Surgeon General, Richard Carmona, to use his office
aggressively to urge Americans to halve the amount of television they
watch; and,

•	Support federal legislation to put warning labels on new TV sets that
say: "Watching TV may cause violent behavior."

None of this would cost the taxpayers a dime.  As such, they may be
among the most cost-effective actions that your administration could
take to reduce violence and violent crime in the United States. 

Sincerely,
Gary Ruskin, Executive Director, Commercial Alert

<-----letter ends here------>
WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP:
Please send email to Margaret Spellings, the Assistant to the President
for Domestic Policy.  Ask her to  make it a priority of the Bush
Administration to reduce television watching by children.  You can send
email to Ms. Spellings via her assistant, at <cwilson@opd.eop.gov>.

BACKGROUND:
The study "Television Viewing and Aggressive Behavior During Adolescence
and Adulthood" by Jeffrey G. Johnson et al is published in Science
Magazine <www.sciencemag.org>, 29 March 2002, Vol 295, pp. 2468-71.  An
accompanying article, "The Effects of Media Violence on Society" By
Craig A. Anderson and Brad J. Bushman, is on pages 2377-79.

Following is the Associated Press report on the Johnson study.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31926-2002Mar28.html

Study Links Violence to TV Watching 
By Randolph E. Schmid

WASHINGTON –– A new study linking increased aggressive behavior to
adolescent television watching is adding weight to recommendations that
parents strictly limit how much time young people spend in front of the
tube.

"The evidence has gotten to the point where it's overwhelming," said
Jeffrey G. Johnson of Columbia University, lead author of a study that
found watching more than one hour of TV daily is followed by increases
in the rate of assaults, fights, robberies and other aggressive acts in
later years.

L. Rowell Huesmann of the University of Michigan said he was impressed
by Johnson's findings, which expand on earlier studies.

"Children who grow up watching more TV violence are at increased risk
for aggressive and violent behavior in young adulthood," Huesmann said.

Johnson's research team studied more than 700 people for 17 years.

The increase in aggressive behavior with more TV watched held true both
for people who had previous violent incidents and for those who had not
had shown earlier aggression. That means the findings are not merely the
result of people already prone to violence being more avid viewers.

"Our findings suggest that, at least during early adolescence,
responsible parents should avoid permitting their children to watch more
than one hour of television a day," said Johnson, who is also affiliated
with the New York State Psychiatric Institute.

While other studies have linked watching violent television to later
aggressive behavior, Johnson said this is the first to investigate the
total amount of time individuals spent watching and to follow those
people over many years.

"I was surprised to see a five-fold increase in aggressive behavior from
less than one hour to three or more hours," Johnson said in a telephone
interview. "I found that quite remarkable."

The study is appearing in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

Among youths who watched less than an hour of television daily at age
14, just 5.7 percent were involved in aggressive acts by the ages of 16
to 22, the study found.

But for those who watched between one and three hours the aggression
rate jumped to 22.5 percent, and the rate was 28.8 percent for those who
watched three hours or more, the study found.

The effect was most pronounced for boys, with rates of 8.9 percent
committing aggressive acts for those who watched less than an hour of TV
at age 14, 32.5 percent for one to three hours and 45.2 percent for
those watching more than three hours of television. For girls the rates
were 2.3 percent, 11.8 percent and 12.7 percent.

Dennis Wharton, a spokesman for the National Association of
Broadcasters, said Wednesday he has not seen the study but found the
results surprising. He cited recent research that suggests violence on
TV has fallen over the past two years.

Mark I. Singer of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland welcomed
the report, calling it "an important study" that covers a significant
period of time and takes into account potential outside influences.

Singer was not connected with this study, but is the author of a 1998
analysis that found increased violent behavior in youths who watched
more than six hours of television daily.

He said part of the importance of the new report is the indication that
there is a relationship in both sexes between television viewing and
aggressive behavior.

Huesmann added that a unique contribution Johnson study is that it
related the simple amount of TV viewing to later aggressive and violent
behavior, while previous studies have concentrated on violent
programming.

The study also looked at young adults, measuring television time at age
22 and the odds of a violent or aggressive acts by age 30.

Overall, just 7.2 percent of 22-year-olds who watched less than an hour
of TV daily were later involved in aggressive acts. For those watching
one to three hours the rate rises to 9.0 percent and at more than three
hours it's 17.8 percent.

The rates for males were 14.6 percent, 14.0 percent, a slight drop, and
18.8 percent. For women the rates were 0 percent, 3.9 percent and 16.8
percent.

More than 1,000 families started the study, ending with reports on 707
after people moved or dropped out for some other reason. The subjects
were in Albany and Saratoga counties in upstate New York, both urban and
rural areas. They were 91 percent white and 51 percent male.

Television viewing was studied through interviews in 1975, 1983, 1985-86
and 1991-93. The later aggressive acts were determined both through
interviews and from local, state and federal police reports with a last
check in 2000. 

<----article ends here----->

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-- 
Gary Ruskin | gary@commercialalert.org 
Commercial Alert | http://www.commercialalert.org/
Congressional Accountability Project | http://www.congressproject.org/
phone: 503.235.8012 | fax: 503.235.5073

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