The violence growing in today’s child

I recently attended training that focused on children and young adults who have committed violent crimes, and I was not surprised to find that one of the contributing factors the training pointed out were violent video games, music and music videos. During the training they talked about specific cases where children repeated crimes that mirrored actions they performed in video games like Grand Theft Auto and other adult games that are often bought for children. Music videos depicting people being killed, tortured, and raped can easily be found on TV or places like YouTube.

I remember the first time I watched a movie called “the blob” and how funny I thought it was. You could tell from the first few minutes that it was an old movie, long before they had realistic graphics. The 1958 movie was a sci-fi film about a monster. That type of “monster” in a movie today would not even get the attention of a 5-year-old. The violence introduced to children through video games, movies and music exposes them to a world they never would have seen before. A kid playing a video game will learn that if you shoot the cop in the head you will get more points and it will kill him faster than shooting him in the chest. They learn that it is cool to tie someone up and torture them because they did not pay the money they owe and they learn it is okay to take matters into their own hands when the rest of the world does not do what they want them to. They listen to famous music artists talk about it, they watch TV and see people doing it and they play the games and do it themselves. Children are influenced very easily, and they learn extremely fast. It is easy for them to blur the lines between what is real and what is not and they do not understand what they are doing when they repeat in real life what they have done a thousand times in a game. I have had a teenager confess to killing people only to ask a few minutes later if he would be going to prison. What would be going through his head to even question if he would go to prison for killing people?

In his book “On Killing,” former West Point psychology professor Lt. Colonel Dave Grossman observed that from 1960 through 1991 the U.S population increased by 40 percent, but violent crimes increased by 500 percent with murders increasing by 170 percent. With the desensitization of many of today’s children, mixed with bullying, depression and broken homes, children are learning that violence is a normal part of life. For example, the youngest school shooter to date was only 6 years old.

I have spoken before about the importance of knowing what your child is doing on their phone, tablet or computer, but it is also just as important to know what kind of music they are listening to and what kind of games they are playing. Be nosey and make an extra effort to know who their friends are, what they do when they are hanging out and make them talk about what is going on in their lives. It is easy to get caught up in our day to day routine, but if you do not stop to ask them about their day they may not tell anyone what they are going through. Helping them with the small things when they are young will go a long way to helping them with the important things when they are grown. There is not anything else we could do better with our time than helping to teach, mold and raise our children.