"There is much public interest in the debate about the effects of violence in the media on the behaviour of young children. But why don't people focus on the potentially pro-social influence?"
Throughout the existence of popular media outlets, critics have suggested links between the embracement of them in public life and negative aspects of human behaviour. In the Victorian period, the 'penny theatre' was attributed to corrupting the mind with scenes of "grossness, crime and blood". In ancient Greece the philosophers Socrates and Plato expressed similar worries, that the minds of the young were being corrupted by the factitious works of such poets as Homer and Hesiod.
In the latter half of the 20th Century to the present day, much emphasis has been placed on the role of television programmes in influencing, instigating and even promoting aggressive behaviour. The seemingly widespread distribution of programmes with anti-social messages has caused the public to become distressed about the effects such programmes can have on the more vulnerable minds of children.…
