According to Pennell and Browne (1998), recent affirmation has been made that viewing violent media materials (like films) on television could negatively influence children and adolescents who commit violent acts. To support this point, Pennell and Browne (2008) gave an example of when the screening of Oliver Stone 's film “Natural born killers " was delayed in the UK due to a claim that it had inspired the killing of up to 10 people. Pennell and Browne ( 2008) pointed out that in Dallas, a 14- year- old boy was responsible for the decapitation of a young girl and after seeing the film " Natural Born Killers" he had told his friends that he wanted to be famous like “the natural born killers in the film" . From this example, it could be said that imitation of scenes in films could have negative effects on children. Pennell and Browne (2008) point out that the problem of the effects of viewing violent films doesn’t always end up leading to short term consequences as they could also lead to long term consequences. Pennell and Browne (2008) found a correlation between heavy exposure to violence in childhood and violent crime in adulthood. To prove this point, Pennell and Browne (2008) examined a study by Huesmann and colleagues which was carried out on a group of people …show more content…
According to Pennell and Browne (2008), “researchers have come to the conclusion that screen violence could affect behaviour either by the imitation of violent roles and acts of aggression, it could trigger aggressive impulses in individuals, cause a desensitization of feeling of sympathy to violent crime victims, create an indifference to the use of violence or make people view violent acts as a socially acceptable response to frustration and stress”. Pennell and Browne (2008) found that, evidence proving the desensitization theory is seen in a study by Drabman and Thomas carried out on 8 year olds to determine which children will be more likely to seek help after witnessing a fight in the playroom and found that the children who watched violent film prior to watching the fight were less likely to tell an adult than children who did not see the violent film. According to Critcher (2008), this problem of the effects of media on children is more tasking to solve than it would have been when television sets were first produced in the 1940 's as televisions have now become a common household item which in turn provides children with more access to violent media content. According to Evra (1990), a study of family media habits found that children who have