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<title> Violence on TV or In Society - What Is Really the Problem? </title>
The article Locking Out Violence by Ginia Bellafante is about the problem of how to protect children from violence on television. One possible solution that is presented is a data-chip, which would give parents the chance to lock out tv-programs with a certain level of violence. Different arguments for and against this solution are laid out in the article. Opponents argue that this system would be nothing short to censorship but on the other hand a lot of people think this would be a major improvement and that it at least gives the parents a possibility to do something to protect their children. 

To begin with, when reading this article by Bellafante I realize that our society actually is obsessed with violence. It is everywhere: in the streets, in our homes and on the television. There is talk about it everywhere: in everyday conversation, in news and in debate-programs. There could, possibly, be a connection between the fact that our real life is becoming increasingly more violent, crime statistics is soaring and the escalation of violence in television and films. On the other hand maybe we, adults and children, need the dream world of fiction to be able to deal with the violence in reality. 

According to the article it would be unfair to adults to force all TV to conform to a safe-for-kids standard. Then the question immediately arises: why is it that adults must have violence on television? I would think it is harmful for adults too to watch violence, although not as much as to children. I think that the reason for the actual increase of violence in real life is not only because children have watched too much television but also because adults have watched too much television. We lower our level of reaction for violence and become indifferent to things we were horrified by before. So I think there need to be certain censorship to be able to restrict the violent scenes in programs and I agree with the idea that the scary programs should be sent on late hours. Above all I think that television is not the only or not even the main reason for the increase of violence in society. 

Nevertheless, I think that a responsible parent should be watching the TV together with their children. In that way the parent could turn off when there was anything they thought inappropriate. Furthermore the parent does an important job just being there, as a shield and to explain what the children do not understand. In this way the watching could also be a kind of therapy. We need somewhere to live out our emotions and instead of doing it in real life we could do it with programs on TV. The fiction-violence on TV could help us to deal with the violence in reality, both in the news and on the streets that we see and meet ourselves. The adults would also show the children how to humanly react to terrifying things. According to this I would say: do not lock out the violence from the TV but make sure it is tackled properly and that there is appropriate perception and discussion about it. Arguments then are that parents have not got the time to always watch television, but then children should not be in front of television all the time. 

In this way I think that the culture about television differs between America and Sweden. In America usually the television is on all the time. This custom is growing in Sweden but is not yet alarmingly high. It is also common in the United States to have a TV in the kitchen; this is, according to my experience, quite rare in Sweden so far. If television is on like a background all the time, I think that it is much more difficult to keep track of what your children watch. Moreover you teach your children a habit of watching television in this way; they have to have the TV on all the time and they watch without reflecting over what they see. 

In conclusion, I am a bit ambivalent about this question but this is due to the fact that I am not entirely sure that violence on TV, within limitations, is entirely bad. I am not against the possibility for parents to lock out violence from television. I think, though, it would be far better if they found the time to watch TV together with their children. The main problem is not really television but our society in itself with the current development of increasing violence, and the fact that parents do not take the responsibility they should for their children.
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