http://www.greatschools.org/students/media-kids/510-sexual-behavior-teens-learn-from-media.gs
Today some people believe that television does not affect teens, but take a look at this website to see why teens are affected by television.
Click to access ChildrenMedia.pdf
Check out this website for statistics and facts about sex and violence on television. 
As many people would think, early exposure to violence on television can led to violent behavior in the future. Huesmann et al conducted a study to find a relationship between the two. The study was done over 3 years and started with gathering data from 557 children around the world. They were observing their “TV-violence viewing, identification with aggressive TV characters, judgments of realism of TV violence, aggressive behavior, and intellectual ability, as well as parents’ socioeconomic status aggressiveness, parenting practices and attitudes, and parent’s TV usage” (Huesmann, 2003). Researchers gathered data from 320 participants ranging form 20-25. They measured adult TV violence viewing and their aggressive behaviors as adults. Comparing that to criminal records and moving violations of the participants the researchers found a relationship between the two. The results showed that exposure to TV violence as a child led to aggressive behaviors in both males and females and early TV viewing aggressions increase aggressions in adulthood.
This study is a perfect example of what we are arguing. The violence in television is doing more than just effecting children right now but will lead to even more aggression in their adulthood. Violent video games, exposure to school shootings and even aggression animated cartoon shows will lead to future problems. This is the problem we are trying resolve. Parents need to do a better job of monitoring what their children are watching. To cut down on future problems especially with children turning into aggressors in their adulthood, we need to look hard at the violence they are viewing on television and fix this before it escalates to a more worse situation.
Huesmann, L. R., Moise-Titus, J., Podolski, C., & Eron, L. D. (2003). Longitudinal relations between children’s exposure to TV violence and their aggressive and violent behavior in young adulthood: 1977-1992. Developmental Psychology, 39, 201-221.
The article I have chosen to refute was written by Adam Liptak of The New York Times, entitled “Justices Reject Ban on Violent Video Games for Children.” In this article Adam gives some first hand accounts on the reasons behind the Supreme Court decisions for not making it illegal to sell violent video games to children under the age of 18.
Justice Antonin Scalia was quoted saying, “We have no businesspassing judgment on the view of the California Legislature that violent video games (or, for that matter, any other forms of speech) corrupt the young or harm their moral development” (Justices Reject Ban). However, numerous studies have been done that directly oppose this statement that show a rise in violent behavior directly after the use of violent video games. While no study can conclusively say that a school shooting or massacre like Newtown is directly correlated to a video game because there are often many variables at play, Craig A. Anderson, a psychologist at Iowa State University says, “If you look at the literature, I think it’s clear that violent media is one factor; it’s not the largest factor, but it’s also not the smallest” (Shooting in the Dark).
Next, Justice Scalia writes, “Depictions of violence have never been subject to government regulation. “Grimm’s Fairy Tales, for example, are grim indeed,” he wrote, recounting the gory plots of “Snow White,” “Cinderella” and “Hansel and Gretel.” High school reading lists and Saturday morning cartoons, too, he said, are riddled with violence” (Justices Reject Ban). This outlook on media is far too old school and doesn’t take into account that video games aren’t just a regular form of literature. These games are becoming so technologically advanced that one can create a player in their exact image and instead of reading about a killing or murder in a book, the user themselves make decisions on who and how to kill in the game. They have to power to meticulously plan out a violent act, which in my opinion is far more deviant then reading about it in Romeo & Juliet. When a user is able to actually perform the act of violence themselves, and see the graphic imagery of their opposition being mutilated it is going to have a far more lasting effect on them as a person than if they were to read about it in a story and I believe they should be treated differently as such.
“Justices Reject Ban on Violent Video Games for Children.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 27 June 2011. Web. 14 Apr. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/28/us/28scotus.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0>.
“Shooting in the Dark.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 11 Feb. 2013. Web. 13 Apr. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/12/science/studying-the-effects-of-playing-violent-video-games.html>.
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While looking at violence on television, it is obvious that many people’s main focus is the way that it affects children. Many times on the news you see examples of violence being exerted in school such as the many school shootings that have happened throughout history and the most recent one being the stabbing that occurred on March 9, 2014. The fact that children and teenagers are some of the main people behind these acts is alarming due to the fact that they almost always have potentially seem themselves do these acts on a video game or something such as that.
In a study by Funk, Baldacci, Pasold, Baumgardner (2004) they talk about the use of video games as a way of “rewarding violence and desensitizing violence” (p. 25). Video games often reward violent behaviors in games and allow the user to feel a sense of accomplishment when they have done something bad to something or someone else. When it comes to real life situations, the users of these games may have felt themselves in charge of a weapon virtually, but now it is real in their hands and they may feel a sense of entitlement. The ability for someone to feel the reward of violence in their mind allows them to think that these feelings may come to them in real life due to their alter egos on gaming systems.
Although those who tend to use violence in the real world may not have gotten their exact motives and emotions from video games, the desensitization of the acts may have allowed them to think that these actions were reasonable. By censoring some violence on video games, it may allow the youth to feel less desire to enact violence such as the actions they perform during video games in real life.
Funk, J. B., Baldacci, H., Pasold, T., & Baumgardner, J. (2004, February). Violence exposure in real-life, video games, television, movies, and the internet: is there desensitization? Journal of Adolescence, 27(1), 23-39. Retrieved April 8, 2014, from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140197103000939
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http://jfredmacdonald.com/onutv/profanity.htm
Sexual content on television has much as an affect on children as does violence. “Because of the ultimate goal of TV programs was to sell commercial products, few advertisers were willing to spend large sums of money underwriting shows that might offend large numbers of viewers”. Television programs only care about the ratings and the amount of money that they make. To read more about the sexual content on television visit the website above.
http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/healtheducation/violencechildren/violencechildren.html
This website has a plethora of information of how violence on televisions affects children and adults. The website has a great deal of graphs and statistical charts of violence on television. This website compares the how violence on television is worse then having violence in music, readings, and video games. Please take a look at the variety of evidence that proves that violence affects children and adults that is shown on television.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-gail-gross/violence-on-tv-children_b_3734764.html
In this parenting blog, it states, “We know for the most part, children learn from both experience and social learning or role modeling”. While children are watching their role models in violence and sexual acts they believe it is good to do this as well because since their role models do it then it should be fine for them to do it as well. To learn more about the affect of sex and violence has on children visit the blog above.
Banning Violence and Sex on Television (Comm398O) 