1. Media Safety Week 9 Course: Safety Education for Young Children
Department: Child and Family Studies
Instructor: Kyung Eun Jahng 1

2. Causes of Media Addiction
Social factors: (1) Children are left alone for longer hours (working moms).
(2) spend less time playing with peers and more time with media
(3) diversified forms of media and more exposure to media
2. Media related children’s characteristics:
(1) prefer fantasy world that animation shows
(2) TV watching as a routine
(3) imitating characters in the media
(4) inability to distinguish reality from the imagined.
Parental factors:
(1) let a child watch TV alone or use a computer
(2) allow a child to use computers as they like
(3) leave TV on even when it is not necessary
(4) never taught a child how to use media in a safe way
(5) parents themselves spend too much time in watching TV, doing computer
games or using phones.

3. Child’s Right to Be Protected
Children’s basic rights (as a consumer) include the right to be safe and
to choose
Particularly, children are just exposed to media (rather than they choose it)
Thinking of children’s tendency to imitate what they see, it is important that
the media to which children are exposed should not deliver any inappropriate
messages to children.
Therefore, between freedom of expression and consumer protection,
the priority should be given to consumer protection.

4. Violence
Violence is an intentional act of a character to make physical contact which
has the potential to cause injury or harm. Essentially, this is the use of physical
force by a character to achieve a goal. The intention of the acts ranged from
very violent acts as severe as murder or less malicious acts like hitting another
character for fun or laughs.

5. Violence on TV
Contextual factors that affect children’s learning violent behavior
(1) charming abuser (2) justifying the cause of violence (3) recurrent violence
using real weapons (4) violence with rewards or without punishment
(5) when victims did not get any visible damage or pain (6) humorous situation
Not every viewer is influenced by violence on TV in the same way. As for children,
their cognitive immaturity makes them think that violence on TV is real. It is
reported that children exposed to TV violence around the age of 8 are likely to
commit a crime in the future.

6. Game Blamed for Hammer Murder
Warren Leblanc, 17, repeatedly stabbed 14-year-old Stefan Pakeerah after luring
him to a park to steal from him. He pleaded guilty to murder. Stefan’s
mother described Leblanc, who confessed to police moments after the assault, as
“inherently evil.” Following the hearing she said her son’s killer had
mimicked a game called Manhunt in which the players score points for violent
killings. Manhunt was banned six months ago in New Zealand by censorship
officials. Mrs Pakeerah said: “I heard some of Warren’s friends say that he was
obsessed by this game. To quote from the website that promotes it, it calls it a
psychological experience, not a game, and it encourages brutal killing. If he was
obsessed by it, it could well be that the boundaries for him became quite hazy.”
She called for violent video games to be banned. She further said, “It should not
be available and it should not be available to young people.” Outside court Stefan’s
father, Patrick, said, “There were playing a game called Manhunt. The way Warren
committed the murder is how the game is set out—killing people using weapons
like hammers and knives.”

7. Research on Violence in Films
A “G” rating does not automatically signify a level of violence acceptable to
all children. The current rating system may provide a false sense of security
about violent content in animated films. Parents should not overlook these
videos as a source of exposure to violence for children
Most of the violence in these films shows characters fighting with each other
and using violence as a means for resolving conflict.
Character use a wide range of weapons in their violent acts like shotguns and
swords as well as common household items like brooms.
The study does not suggest that children should be prohibited from watching
these animated films. The study concludes that G-rated animated films contain
materials that may be disturbing to young viewers or could be dangerous if
imitated. Parents need to judge for themselves the appropriateness of the
material and should not rely on the current rating system.

8. Then, What Should We Do?

9. What Parents Can Do
Parents should be concerned about violence in all contexts, not just movies,
but books, computer games, television, music, and out on the streets. Parents
can watch these films with their children, discuss the appropriateness of the
actions given the circumstances, and explore alternative solutions without
the use of violence.
Research found that there is a significant amount of violence in some G-rated
animated films. There appears to be relatively more violence in G-rated
animated films now than in the past. Once parents are aware of the violence,
they can talk to their children about whether all violence is bad.

10. What Parents Can Do
Watching TV with children and having conversation over the program. This
produces an opportunity to prevent any negative impact of TV programs and
to help children learn new things through watching TV.
Need to recognize three types of danger caused by TV violence: aggressive
attitude, learned behavior, increase in a sense of fear, and insensitivity
to violent behavior

11. Internet

12. Internet as a Dangerous Place
There are dangerous websites that contain the contents such as obscenity, gambling,
violence, and suicidal. As to hazardous websites, about 10% of the hazardous
websites are Korean ones. Korean websites ranked the second as to the number
of dangerous websites in the world. English ones the first and Japanese the third.
It has been reported that there are many people addicted to internet use and
resultant social problems such as social maladjustment, discord within the family,
mass suicide, murder.
It is necessary to have strategies that protect children
from the problematic websites. Strategies can include
strict regulations, blocking systems, development of software.

13. Internet Addiction
Use internet for an extended period of time or obsessed with internet use
This overuse of internet leads to low grades, decrease in interest in building
social relationships, and offline activities.
Game addiction
Online chat addiction & Online fraud:
Cyber violence (Cyber sexual/verbal violence): through unwanted online
conversations (chatting or posting)
Pornography addiction

14. Media Education
Critical capacity: cultivating the capacity to criticize the contents given by media
and becoming a critical user
Media literacy education: building knowledge and competence in using media
and technology and helping children make better choices in their media
consumption habits
Citizenship education
Consumer education: since the content is regarded as a product, users are
thought of as consumers.
Character education