Many parents try to explain to their children the difference between real world violence they might see in a news broadcast or a documentary and that shown in cartoons and television action dramas. Unfortunately, this is not always effective. This may be in part because the majority of programing, even children's programing, contains violent content. Some children, especially ones who are exposed to television violence at an early age, seem to have difficulty understanding the real world consequences of violence.
Parents often try to limit the amount of violence their children are exposed to through their television. Some groups of parents have tried to get broadcasters to reduce the amount of violence in the programming schedule, replacing it with more character driven stories. However, television broadcasters are motivated by profit, and since violent action shows draw high ratings, they continue to broadcast them. In fact, while many parents decry violent programs, when programs are broadcast that have less violence, viewers often fail to support them by watching.
As complaints from government officials and private individuals about television violence mounted, the television industry created a ratings system to help parents choose the programs they allow their children to watch. Known as the TV Parental Guidelines, these ratings are based on the movie rating system that has been in use since 1968. In addition to this system, there is also the ratings system of the Parental Television Council. This system attempts take into account the time slot during which the show is broadcast. However the flaw with these systems is that children develop at different rates. As a result, children who are the same age might react differently to television violence.
Children have a tendency to imitate what they see others do. This can be a positive trait if the things they see are positive in nature. However, this same trait induces some children to see violence as the answer to all problems. The characters they see in television action shows and cartoons deal with problems in this way all the time, which cannot help but impact their thinking. They see no nuanced shades of gray, instead there are just good guys and bad guys.