Infants watch TV for very short periods, if at all. What they see is mostly color and sound without context or meaning. By the age of two and a half, however, children have become active viewers and can recognize figures and understand simple narrative concepts like cause and effect. They are likely to imitate what they see on television. Toddlers are attracted to fast-moving cartoon characters, not violence, but because so many of the fast-moving characters in cartoons are engaged in acts of violence, toddlers who watch TV can be expected to see violent characters and scenes.
From pre-school on, children develop greater ability to understand all the elements of television narrative. They understand when acts of violence occur. They may also be able to understand the context in which violence on television occurs, but may watch their shows so casually that they fail to appreciate the context. While children often act out scenes they've watched on television, most are not likely to become much more violent in their play because of their TV viewing. Children who are emotionally disturbed or learning disabled, however, may show an increase in violent behavior after watching violent television. Some studies have also shown that children exposed to a great deal of TV violence were more likely to become violent adults.
Children are not necessarily drawn to violence. Rather they are drawn to the fast-moving action and production qualities inherent in violent scenes. Older boys may also be drawn not to a hero's tendency toward violence, but instead to the hero's strength. Authors of a Canadian Media Awareness Network study argue that television writers and producers could easily capitalize on these tendencies without resorting to violent television, creating narratives with strong characters engaged in fast-moving sequences without performing any violent acts at all. Filmmakers and actors, like Sarah Michelle Geller who played Buffy on TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, often defend their work, insisting that there is no proven connection between violence on television and children's behavior.
In The Media Violence Myth, Richard Rhodes argues that virtually all of the studies linking violent viewing to violent behavior in children are flawed. In doing their research, researchers do not duplicate the adult-supervised environments in which children usually play, instead allowing them to play without interference after viewing violent television. This difference between the experiment and real life is enough to account for the very small increase in violent behavior researchers record for children after viewing violent television. In fact, Rhodes cites international studies that show viewing television violence has a cathartic effect and can actually lead to a decrease in a societies' violent acts.
Parents can mitigate the negative effect that viewing violent television has on children by monitoring children's viewing, discussing television content with their children, limiting the amount of television children watch and promoting non-violent values. Researcher Dimitri Christakis insists that television's influence is not all bad and that even programming which is not in line with a parent's values can offer an opportunity to open up a dialogue with kids.