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<title> PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY ON CHILDREN AND TELEVISION </title>
For parents concerned about their children watching too much TV violence, there may be a solution now. The solution is a computer chip called the "V chip". Once installed in the TV set, it can delete violent TV programmes and thus prevent children from watching them. The Senate and President are positive to the V chip and it is becoming more accepted in the House of Representatives. Opponents to the V chip claim that it will control the broadcasting too much and the broadcasters are worried about losing TV audience. Still, the chip seems an effective barrier to TV violence and that is hard to argue against.

Many times I have thought about how television affects young persons. When I was younger, there were not many programmes especially made for children. There was of course the show at six o'clock every day and when I got a bit older I watched "Bullen" (a show about love and other exiting teen stuff) on Mondays. Never did I, as many kids do today, watch violent movies; partly because of the fact that me and my friends were not allowed to and partly because shows like that were not broadcasted in day time and early evening. Now they are, however, and it is becoming a big problem for some parents. How to keep youngsters away from these dangerous shows? I would like to discuss in this essay the, in my opinion, parental responsibility regarding how much and what children watch on TV.

Television is for many people, not just children, a form of escapism. Many of us enjoy relaxing in front of the TV and nowadays we have the opportunity to choose from an enormous number of TV channels. A negative aspect of this variety is of course that a lot of crap is being broadcasted and seen by viewers; for example violent shows and pornography. It is nearly impossible to prevent these kinds of shows from being broadcasted since it all has to do with democratic values such as freedom of speech. Thus, it is up to ourselves to protect us from for example, excessive violence. The most important ones to protect is not always ourselves but the children. Children are very receptive and they trust adults. Adults produce the TV shows and do often not take into account that children watch them or they just do not care. A lot of grown ups have a hard time distinguishing between what is real and what is not, so how can we expect children to know the difference? In fact, we cannot. Instead, it is the parents responsibility to decide what is best for their children. Many parents may not have the authority or even the time to pick and choose what should be allowed in the home. For those who do not have cable TV the situation is less alarming. With Swedish channels as SVT 1, 2 and TV 4 the opportunities to watch violent shows are few. However, for those with cable TV this is indeed a serious issue worth consideration. At least, I think it is. But I am not sure. Do we know for a fact that TV can affect the children in a negative way? Suppose we do know; anyway it seems the most probable. Young boys might watch some cool gangster or street fighter on TV and, quite naturally, they would want to do the same things as he. Only they do not know that a harmless kick or punch may be lethal. This kind of behaviour is what parents can prevent, at least to some extent. They have to see to it that their children do not watch things that have a bad influence over them. And I think, in order to get the children to accept a decision like this parents need to discuss it with them. Although they might not know what is best for themselves, they have opinions and the right to partake in major decisions concerning their lives. The urge to do the opposite of what parents say is less strong if the child itself feels that he/she is taken seriously. 

Television can, as discussed above, be a tremendous source of inspiration and information. The important thing is for us to know the difference between fiction and reality. That is not always easy, especially not for children. One way to protect children from bad influences could be the V chip. A less dramatic way is to discuss the matter with the children and make them understand why it is not suitable for them to watch violence. I believe this to be the best way because of what I said above; it makes the child feel important and taken seriously.
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