What the hell is happening to our kids? Violence at school.

This was reported today by AP. 17 year old Joshua Magee was arrested after he was caught with a small arsenal at school. His intention was to hurt everyone exept for his three friends.

link

This was the second incident this week in the heartland. The first was among 2 grade 2 boys.

What is happening to our kids?

Violence and TV.
I am the first to love a good violent movie. My kids are 6-8 and know WAY TOO MUCH about guns, sex, drugs and terror, mostly from cartoons.

American kids are constantly exposed to violence from the moment the TV comes on. Even cartoons today are horribly violent (especially the Japanese animation). I remember as a kid hearing that the road runner/coyote was violent. Now compared to today's it is very very mild. Anyone old enough to remember when parents boycotted Tom and Jerry? Now cartoons use weapons of mass destruction, guns, violence and all glorified. You see those using the weapons as great heros. Then we have video games, also horribly violent.

Okay I love all those things but I am an adult. Talk to a kid today who is around 8 years old. They know about lesbian kisses, violence, war, queer guys doing make overs, terrorist and now jesus being murdered in a movie.

How can we expect them to not be acting these things out.

End result, parents parents parents. Turn off the TV, send the kids outside to play and stop buying them realistic looking guns and toys that promote violence.

I'll take a stab at this.

Parents are worthless? Over indulging their children? Working to long at a meaningless job and spending less time with family? Marriages going awry? Parents trying to fill thier childrens lives with meaningless structure? Teachers too busy getting kids to supply schools with Campell's Soup wrappers?

Kids are like anoy other group of people. Adults are going around killing people all day long. Why would kids be excluded from this type of behavior?...

Don't blame the TV. Parents need to teach and supervise. Shluffing off parental responsibility onto the TV is a cop-out...

Glad to see the answer "video games" not coming up...well yet. I'm sure someone will try to explain how these "violent" and "offensive" games have an effect on today's kids. How about we blame a lack of parenting?

Lack of parents. Lack of rerasonalbe corporal punishment.
Media being way too important. We don't know if any subliminal messaging is occurring.
Hey, maybe another case of a mind-control experiment?

Originally posted by nativeokie
They know about lesbian kisses, violence, war, queer guys doing make overs, terrorist and now jesus being murdered in a movie.

(...)

End result, parents parents parents. Turn off the TV, send the kids outside to play and stop buying them realistic looking guns and toys that promote violence.

First of all, you can't compare lesbian kisses, terrorism, and Queer Eye For the Straight Guy to The Passion of the Christ. The Passion includes violence that is necessary; if you don't want your child to watch it then don't let him, but dont put it in the same category as random terrorism. The Passion is a great movie that depicts the events in quite an in your face way; Gibson took no shortcuts when defining the violence that happened to Jesus. Showing that violence was necessary, that's how it happened, that's what Jesus went through for US.

Ok... With that out of the way... I'm only 19 but I agree with you on the fact that parents need to step in and monitor what their children are exposed to. But the blame can not solely be placed on violence in the media, be it tv, video games, movies, etc. I don't care what people say, I'm not going to believe that a child watching these kinds of things causes them to go out and kill. Those kids are f*cked in the head beforehand.

I grew up watching cartoons and movies that had violence in it, but you don't see me going out and kiling people. In the case of the Columbine shootings, people place the blame on Marilyn Manson and the Matrix. Those kids were teenagers, they knew the difference between right and wrong, no movie or song can make them go kill people. The media is the biggest scapegoat in this controversy, and honestly it pisses me off.

People need to put blame where blame is needed. Blame the parents, relatives, friends, etc. Where did they get the guns, I doubt they went out and bought them. Blame the kids in the school, blame anything but don't put all the blame on violent movies. Kids shouldn't be watching that stuff in the first place, but even so, I don't believe it makes kids turn violent and kill people.

The news puts almost all the blame on violent media, and this is so foolish. Put the blame where the blame should be put, stop using scapegoats like that. Phew... Ok... I'm done now. Sorry for the rant.

Now wait, as a parent you have a huge amount of obstacles to deal with today. both parents working, stress levels out of control, no one getting any sort of break and working so many hours.

couple that with irresponsible TV and video games and you have a recipe for disaster. If you think these things don't influence kids, talk to one. Find out what they know compared to what you knew at the same age, it is frightening. Parents are the first line of defense but don't you think these factors make that job even tougher? Now that both parents have to work the kids are exposed to much more than in the past.

Look I love violent video games and I am a huge fan of Adult Swim and other shows. The fact is we don't have a good process in place to shield the younger kids from these influences yet we don't want to blame them either. You know what, it was not an issue when I was a kid, these things did not exsist. Neither did kids show up and school with guns or rape each other.

You cannot address this issue by blaming only the parents. Don't you think investing in programs to counter these influences is important? Can you sit here and blame the parents when they must make these huge sacrifices in family time to keep the lights on and the cars running and buying food?

No one wants these things taken away from adults, we just need them away from kids.

Originally posted by Thorfinn Skullsplitter
Don't blame the TV. Parents need to teach and supervise. Shluffing off parental responsibility onto the TV is a cop-out...

Honestly TV and the media is the reason for increased violence. Take two minutes out of your life and read this thread �Brainwashing and The Media�, you will have a much better understanding of the influences of TV. It's disturbing.

Quote by Faisca: People need to put blame where blame is needed. Blame the parents, relatives, friends, etc. Where did they get the guns, I doubt they went out and bought them. Blame the kids in the school, blame anything but don't put all the blame on violent movies. Kids shouldn't be watching that stuff in the first place, but even so, I don't believe it makes kids turn violent and kill people.

The news puts almost all the blame on violent media, and this is so foolish. Put the blame where the blame should be put, stop using scapegoats like that.

Don't you think that a person predisposed to violence could watch these things to whip themselves up?

I agree. Parents, friends, etc. have to share the blame, but so does the media.

one word gangster rap and gangster hiphop.
created by criminals inducing or kids. listening to
these texts its becoming normal for them to use
violence the music justifice violence just listen to
the ligns...

another thing is that parent both work and birng the kids to a kindergarden and when they are older they are alone at home with out control and supervision to correct them in what they say or speak about what they have don't or have heared at tv or radio...

[Edited on 19-3-2004 by MarkLuitzen]

Honestly TV and the media is the reason for increased violence. Take two minutes out of your life and read this thread �Brainwashing and The Media�, you will have a much better understanding of the influences of TV. It's disturbing.

Is it? I grew up watching very violent movies and playing very violent games. I have been a loner my whole life. I got my first gun at 13 and had three by the time I was 15. I was often around drugs and violent people during that time. I was often unsupervised also. Yet, i've never killed anyone. So is there really brainwashing going on, or does it just depend on the person?...

Originally posted by Faisca

First of all, you can't compare lesbian kisses, terrorism, and Queer Eye For the Straight Guy to The Passion of the Christ. The Passion includes violence that is necessary; if you don't want your child to watch it then don't let him, but dont put it in the same category as random terrorism. The Passion is a great movie that depicts the events in quite an in your face way; Gibson took no shortcuts when defining the violence that happened to Jesus. Showing that violence was necessary, that's how it happened, that's what Jesus went through for US.

First of all the trailers played during early hours for this movie are horrific. They are violent and bloody. I realize this is a "passion" because it is Jesus but you assume everyone wants their kids exposed to that. Why is it okay for them to see Jesus being tortured for a few moments on TV and not see Mel Gibson being tortured in lethal weapon.

Don't confuse your love for Jesus with the reality that it shows such a violent scene without hesitation. Do you think I wanted to explain to my 6 year old why god was being killed (his comment the first time he saw the trailer). I think the trailers for Dawn of the Dead are also too violent to be shown before later hours.

It is all tied in together, parents no longer have choice in what their kids see. There is not responsibility in the media for this and that is wrong.

Look the 70's and 80's were a long time ago but at that time there was responsiblity put forth by the media. Remember the move "the day after" about the nuclear war in the US. I remember all the warnings to parents, the fact they did not show trailers for it before 9pm. That movie today is very mild but there was a clear show of responsiblity by it's creators to make sure parents were informed and no child was scared by the scenes depicted in the trailers. Why is it today that level of responsiblity is no longer needed? Are we saying parents are more involved now to screen this out? Are we saying parents can spend more time with kids when bombarded with images?

I am not calling for any of your rights to be stepped on, just that we need more responsiblity from all to make this work.

Remember when we had it, things were different. When cartoons and video games were less violent, we had less problems. Those are the not the only reason for violence today (24 hour news is not the best either) but you have to connect the two and deal with the issues up front.

Originally posted by Thorfinn Skullsplitter

Honestly TV and the media is the reason for increased violence. Take two minutes out of your life and read this thread �Brainwashing and The Media�, you will have a much better understanding of the influences of TV. It's disturbing.

Is it? I grew up watching very violent movies and playing very violent games. I have been a loner my whole life. I got my first gun at 13 and had three by the time I was 15. I was often around drugs and violent people during that time. I was often unsupervised also. Yet, i've never killed anyone. So is there really brainwashing going on, or does it just depend on the person?...

Read the thread I provided. Brainwashing happens all the time, TV and movies put your mind in a hypnotic state so they can influence your deepest thoughts without you suspecting anything. You end up thinking exactly what they want.

Violence in and of itself isn't the problem. Speaking for the over 40 crowd, we saw reports on Viet Nam every night at 6PM. The problem is with the glorification and the unreallity of violence today. The message is, not is violence the only option it's the cool way to gain an objective. Matrix, loved the series, but a good example.

Originally posted by Thorfinn Skullsplitter
Don't blame the TV.

It is not directly the fault of television as much as it is the result of violence in the world. Every facet of society is saturated with real life violence. The anger that, growing up, children see in their parents about the world, the anger of people on the roadway (road rage), the anger of impatient people at the supermarket, at the mall. Because we as a society have not learned to deal with our own frustrations concerning modern world events so do we pass these traits on to those that watch us in order to learn what it means to be a human. It is a vicious cycle that propogandates itself without us ever realizing it.

The media is a convenient scapegoat as it showcases everything we are dealing with, either directly or indirectly, in a quick and easy format. The media is not the base problem nor is the story behind the media�s involvement. It is us; our society that creates these stories through our own inability to manage our anger, fear and frustration. This is what our children inherit from us, and their children from them until the cycle is broken.

I don't see what's all the fuss. Violence have always been present, and it will always be. We're animals, nothing more. To say we're different or better is a blatant lie.

The world is just turning crazier as time pass, so are the kids.

[Edited on 19-3-2004 by m0rbid]

Morbid, violence HAS always been present, but I have never seen a time that 7 year olds take a firearm to school. The worst done when I was younger was a rock, which is only right seeing it was the stone age.

The illness and crazyness, as it become more present and more though to avoid, is just striking at younger ages.

It's sad. But the society is not really doing anything to help it.

I think about 95% is the parents fault. The other 5% is outside influnces.

It is up to the parents to explain to there children that what they are watching,listening too,or playing is not real. Its just games and movies. It is also up to the parents to spend time with their children. And GUIDE and TEACH them. And most importantly,LISTEN to them when they are talking. If you listen and pay attention to them,you will know when something is not right.

I don't understand why an inainimate object gets the blame,when something bad happens. The problem is never going to solved by blaming tv,guns,music etc...
Parents and children need to be responseable for their actions. Keep the guns away from children. (unless its under adult supervision) Some people keep better care of their car keys than they do their guns. Teenagers are going to be curious,explain what the consequences will be if they use gun the wrong way. But on top of the explaination,the parent also has to be pro-active in keeping the house safe.
If the music is vulgar or violent,maybe a little parental guidence would be a good thing. You know, have the guts to tell your children,no. Change the channel if something is too violent. Tell them too bad,you can watch it when your older.
But,the bottom line is parents need to pay more attention to their children.