Families asked to tune out violent behaviour

The Families Commission is calling for a national campaign against family violence that would include asking parents to switch off violent TV programmes.

Chief Families Commissioner Rajen Prasad says media violence is desensitising people to the effects of violence and making it easier to behave violently in real life.
He wants a multimillion-dollar, multi-year publicity campaign similar to the ones that have dramatically reduced smoking and drunken driving. It would include advertising, school programmes and support from business, sports teams and other groups.

"What is needed is a sustained campaign that denounces violent attitudes and promotes the concept of strong, supportive relationships," he said.

The Families Commission has a budget of $7.5 million a year, mainly for research and education. It was a sponsor of the country's biggest-ever domestic violence conference, which ended on Saturday.

Dr Prasad told the Auckland conference that New Zealand's levels of family violence were frightening, and were part of a wider culture of violence.

"About a third of women and a fifth of men are abused by their partners at some point in their life," he said.

"Think about the huge range of violence we watch on television and movies. We play computer games that teach us how to kill. We watch as our sporting heroes use their fists and feet to make a point.

"There's bullying in our schools and in our workplaces, drunken fights in the streets, attacks on hospital staff and teachers, and our teenagers are listening to the violent lyrics of gangsta rap ...

"How often do we hear a competitive win described as 'a thrashing' or listen to sports commentators calling for players to 'show more mongrel'?"

Children were given few opportunities to learn about relationships and often picked up what they knew from the media.

"And let's face it, good role-model relationships and information on how to make and maintain healthy relationships aren't exactly abundant in our mass media. Quite the opposite."

He said the Families Commission planned a study of people's attitudes and behaviour towards family violence as a way to work out what would trigger them to change and would then talk with other agencies to plan a public campaign.

It was supporting a "mediascape" website being developed by Christchurch Polytechnic, which will provide information for parents and others on the effects of media violence and other issues.

Dr Prasad said the campaign would also need to be backed up by increased support for anti-violence programmes and parenting education so they could cope with the likely increase in demand for their services.

Children's Commissioner Cindy Kiro, speaking at the same conference, endorsed the proposed campaign.

Unitec psychologist Geoff Bridgman, who co-wrote a study of TV and violence last year, said the link between the two was complex. Apart from imitation of violence, prolonged TV watching led to obesity, loss of social opportunities and lower attention spans, fuelling an epidemic of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Children's normal brain development depended on interacting with the environment and with other people. British psychologist Dr Aric Sigman proposed this month that parents should ban children younger than 3 from watching television and restrict older children to an hour a day and teenagers to an hour and a half.

"In general, parents should be monitoring their children's TV regardless of whether it is violent or not," Dr Bridgman said. "Just don't leave it on all the time!"