In 1952, the U.S. House of Representatives held hearings to debate the impact of TV violence. The conclusion was that the " ... television broadcast industry was a perpetrator and a deliverer of violence."
It is estimated that by the time a typical child leaves elementary school, he or she will have viewed nearly 110,000 acts of violence, 8,000 of which are murders.
In 1996, Congress proposed parental guidelines to the TV industry and the Federal Communications Commission. The guidelines went into effect in 1997 and work using V-chips, mandated in all TV sets manufactured since 2000.
Many who argue TV violence has no effect on real-life violence say the good guy always wins. The National Cable Television Association's National Television Violence Study, released in 1998, states that " . . . a steady 60 percent of TV programs contain violence . . . much of the violence is glamorized, sanitized and trivialized . . ."
From 1998 to 2006, violence during the 8 p.m. "family hour" increased by 45 percent, violence during the 9 p.m. hour increased by 92 percent and violence during the 10 p.m. hour increased by 167.