• The average youngster in the United States aged 2-5 years is watching about 27 hours of television per week or most four hours a day (1) and a typical child will watch 8,000 murders and 100,000 acts of violence on television before completing elementary school(2)Young violent offenders report that, as children, they were watching an average of 6 hours of television per day.(3)
  
  
• Approximately half of parents in the US have given up setting limits on what their children watch on television or how much (4), and 24 percent of US households keep a television set in the child's bedroom. (5)
  
  
• In two surveys of young male felons imprisoned for committing violent crimes like homicide, rape and assaults 22 percent to 34 percent reported having consciously imitated crime techniques learned from television programs. Those with a more savage history of violence were more likely to report such imitation. (6)
  
  
• Popular music videos tend to make heavy use of violent depictions. There is more violence on MTV than on three major TV networks combined. Music video violence has increased over time and features an average of 20 violent acts per hour. (8) More than 60 percent of the videos contain violent or suggestive scenes. (9)
  
  
• Public opinion indicates there is too much violence on television. A 1990 Gallup Poll showed 63 percent of people in the US believing television depicts too much violence. A Times Mirror poll in early 1992 showed 72 percent of Americans viewed TV as too violent.
  
  
• More than 3,000 studies worldwide in the last 40 years have looked at the impact of television violence, and the consensus is that there is a 3 to 15 percent likelihood of increased violent behavior among those viewing excessive television violence. Damage caused by television violence goes beyond prompting increased aggression among some viewers. It also increases fearfulness among young viewers and tends to desensitize viewers to violent behavior. (11)
  
  
• During one day of television viewing in 1992, the Center for Media and Public Affairs reported that there were 1,846 scenes containing violent episodes with serious assaults occurring in 21 percent of the scenes. Gun play was featured in 20 percent of the scenes followed by isolated punches and pushing which each appeared in 15 percent of the scenes. Menacing threats with weapons were made in 12 percent of the scenes observed. (11)
  
  
• In 1980, the most violent television shows in the nation tended to portray 15 to 20 violent incidents per hour. By 1992, twenty-five percent of the prime-time shows in the schedule were "very violent" and many programs were showing 40 or more violent incidents per hour. One program "Young Indiana Jones" led the field with 60 incidents in an hour. (12)
  
  

(1) A.C. Nielson Company. Report on Television 1990. Nielsen Media Research. Northbrook, IL, 1991.

(2) 1993 estimate of the American Psychological Association.

(3) Television and Aggression: A Panel Study. Academic Press, 1982; and Studies in Violence and Television. ABC, 1976.

(4) Americans Have A Love-Hate Relationship With Their TV Sets. The Gallup PolI News Service, 1990.

(5) Peter D. Hart Research Associates. Would You Give Up TV For A Million Bucks, TV Guide vol. 40, 1992.

(6) Studies in Violence and Television. New York American Broadcasting Company, 1976.

(7-9) Center for Media and Public Affairs. Analysis of Violence Depictions in Music Videos. Washington, DC, 1992.

(10-11) TV Violence, CQ Researcher, March 26, 1993.

(12) National Coalition on Television Violence. Champaign, IL, 1992.