The Role of the Media in the Violation of Children’s Rights

In today’s society where the mass media convey all form of negativity whether on the television, internet, videogames or even the radio, members of society need to become aware of what the younger generation are being influenced by so that values that are taught are not lost easily. The media violate the rights of a child by exposing them to crime and violence, giving them access to sexually explicit content and by creating a false sense of reality in which they believe almost everything they see. The media expose children to crime and violence on a daily basis.

This is so because everyday at least child watch the television, listen to the radio, play video games or surf the internet. Huesman (1986) as cited in Kundanis (2003) is of the view that children with poor academic skills are more aggressive and are the ones who watch more violence on the television. It is believed that violence in the media leads to aggressive behaviour. (Abel, 2005, Huesmann, 1986 as cited in Kundanis, 2003 & Johnson, 1998). All of these authors believe that if children are exposed to violence in the media it will have a negative impact on them in which they will become aggressive.

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Children who behave aggressively tend to carry this behaviour with them to adulthood and sometimes cause damage to those around them. According to Johnson (1998), children act out what they see in the television. Most of the things that children act out are the negativities. These include smoking, killing, fighting and killing just to name a few. According to Johnson (1998) many believe that the parents are the ones to be blamed for children being exposed to crime and violence in the media. However parents can do so much and no more to put a stop to that.

This is because, not all the time will they be around to monitor their children’s watching habits, the type of music they listen or the websites they visit. It is agreed that the can play a part in limiting it but not to the full extent. It is the media’s responsibility to protect children from materials that could harm them (UNICEF, 1991), however they are not playing their part and so children are at risk. Children need to be protected against anything that will in anyway seize their ability to grow up with the necessary morals and values. Being exposed to pornography will in some way hinder that.

Based on a research done by Ybarra and Mitchell (2005) 90% of the children between the ages of 12 and 18 have access to the internet. The more access a child has to the internet, the more exposed he or she is to the internet. Once the internet connection is there, sexually explicit contents are just a click away. Most times when children are surfing the net a pop-up screen window appears telling them that they have won the lottery or sometimes it is in the form of something very attractive. This is to persuade them so that they will be curious about what is happening on their screen.

While some will ignore it, there are others who will venture further into it not knowing what they are getting themselves into. Most of these things lead to pornographic contents. Children are unintentionally being exposed to sexual contents in the media (Ybarra & Mitchell, 2005). Most children log on to the internet with no intention of viewing porn however ends up doing just that. The media continues to exploit children’s rights by exposing them to pornography on the internet, in films and televised programmes (Media Code of Conduct, 2005).

Even though the media commit themselves to ensuring that they do not violate children’s rights they are failing in the process. Children believe what they see on the media, whether it be true or false. This is because the media produces many things that appear to be real. Children look to certain television characters as their role model, whether they star in a movie, a television show or something of the sort. However, what they fail to realise is that most of the time what their role models are portraying is not necessarily a good thing.

To children what is seen on the television is a representation of reality (Baran, McIntyre & Meyer, 1984). Therefore actions like smoking are acceptable and the amount they see on the television is normal because television is reality. According to Berger (2008) seeing is believing, so what a person believe is tied to what they have seen. Therefore when a child sees something he or she is confident that it exists. Seeing enables them to ascertain with their own eyes that it is in fact the truth.

Even though the Media Code of Conduct states that they commit themselves to ensuring that the media does not violate the rights of a child, very little is done to prevent that. This is so because children are still being exposed to all the negativities that the media offers. Greater emphasis needs to be placed on protecting children from the dangers that are present in the media. This will enable every child to live a healthy lifestyle which they truly deserve. It is in fact the media’s role to fulfil their promise of protecting children from the harm and dangers that they offer.