In 2001, two friends poured lighter fluid on 13-year-old Jason Lind's legs and feet and set him on fire in Torrington, Connecticut. In 2003, a 26-year-old Australian placed lit firecrackers between his buttocks. He is now incontinent and unable to have sex. In 2006, 19-year-old Joe White of Topeka, Kansas jumped from a car going 35 mph and ended up with an egg-sized clot on his brain and long-term brain damage. What all three, and many other teens and young adults around the world, have in common is that they were all imitating stunts they saw on MTV's show Jackass.1
In fact, according to a 2003 national media survey, more than half the Canadian students surveyed in Grades 7 to 10 said they have witnessed peers imitate a violent act from a movie or television show, including copying a dangerous stunt.2
The American Journal of Public Health published a related study in March 2003. Researchers from Emory University in Atlanta and the University of Alabama at Birmingham studied the behavior of 522 black females ages 14 -18 and found that those who watched 14 hours or more of rap videos a week were far more likely than their peers to engage in violent behavior, get arrested, have sex with multiple partners, and acquire sexually transmittable diseases.3
We don't really need scientific studies to know how susceptible human minds are to suggestion; just look at how much companies are willing to pay to parade their products for a few minutes during TV commercial breaks. We'd be foolish to believe that it is only the commercials that are peddling wares.
Knowing the power they wield with the younger generation, MTV now shoulders a great responsibility for our youth, and for our society-at-large, because it is our youth that will become the decision-makers of tomorrow and stewards of all our futures. One has to wonder whether MTV's programming choices reflect an understanding of the gravity of this responsibility.
In fact, according to a 2003 national media survey, more than half the Canadian students surveyed in Grades 7 to 10 said they have witnessed peers imitate a violent act from a movie or television show, including copying a dangerous stunt.2
The American Journal of Public Health published a related study in March 2003. Researchers from Emory University in Atlanta and the University of Alabama at Birmingham studied the behavior of 522 black females ages 14 -18 and found that those who watched 14 hours or more of rap videos a week were far more likely than their peers to engage in violent behavior, get arrested, have sex with multiple partners, and acquire sexually transmittable diseases.3
We don't really need scientific studies to know how susceptible human minds are to suggestion; just look at how much companies are willing to pay to parade their products for a few minutes during TV commercial breaks. We'd be foolish to believe that it is only the commercials that are peddling wares.
Knowing the power they wield with the younger generation, MTV now shoulders a great responsibility for our youth, and for our society-at-large, because it is our youth that will become the decision-makers of tomorrow and stewards of all our futures. One has to wonder whether MTV's programming choices reflect an understanding of the gravity of this responsibility.
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