Tv Isn T Violent Enough Mike Oppenheim Summary

Television Violence and Child Psychology Children will lead the future of this world, so we the people must carefully nurture their minds and steer them in the right direction. Children spend many hours a week watching television. Children possess underdeveloped minds and thus are more susceptible to the influence of television. Violence has become more acceptable in American society and people will now pay to feel scared at movie theaters. This should frighten people because this acceptance of violence may result in crime rates and domestic issues increasing. Mike Oppenheim argues in his essay “TV Isn’t Violent Enough” that children cannot succumb to television violence because television lacks realistic violence and instead teaches the cleanliness …show more content…
Oppenheim creates a loaded question fallacy when he states, “Who can believe the stuff they show?” (Oppenheim 138). The question possesses a built-in assumption that creates difficulty for someone to answer it without appearing ignorant. He also creates a hasty generalization by stating, “Professional gangland killers understand the problem. They prefer a shotgun at close range” (Oppenheim 139). This statement generalizes gangsters as a whole into the category of “preferring shotguns” and cannot receive verification without asking every gangster on the planet. He creates a straw man fallacy by stating that “children can’t learn cruelty from the neat, sanitized mayhem on the average series” (Oppenheim 140). The problem with television violence goes far beyond realistic violence. While many shows limit or somewhat censor their violence, other shows, such as South Park, over-exaggerate violence. At first glance, South Park may seem like a child-friendly television show, but as the show progresses, people realize that the violence and gore displayed is not suitable for children. Children possess underdeveloped minds, thus making children more susceptible to the influence of violent television shows. Some studies have shown that most children have “a twelve percent increase in aggressive behavior after watching violent television…” (Heffner Allpsych.com). As seen in the data, any degree of television violence can cause problematic effects in children’s behavior and psyche. “A 2010 national survey of television-watching behavior in children showed that 72% of children reported no time restrictions over television viewing while 52% reported that they were free to watch any type of content they wished” (Novakdjokovicfoundation.org). The largest problem consists of a lack of parent restrictions. Parents can help prevent the increase in