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<title> Violence, Television and Computer Games </title>
In Sweden most children grow up with both parents working. At a rather early age, they are left alone for a few hours every day, without supervision. When phoning home, any parent would feel secure when hearing the child is at home, watching TV or playing computer games. Perhaps that would not be the case if they knew what the child is watching or what games he/she is playing.
	As a parent, you are concerned to protect your child from the dangers of the world. When the news reports from a war somewhere in the world children are often prohibited from watching, especially since many of the scenes show suffering children. Children should not have to worry about war and other dangers. What we tend to forget is the level of violence we let them watch on children's programmes and films. Cartoons often contain an unnatural sort of violence. How many children have not seen 'Tom and Jerry', the cat and the mouse, who chase each other and use quite violent methods to catch the other. Tom is blown up with dynamite but is still alive. It is important that a grown up points out to the child that had Tom been a real cat he would have died. 
	Teenagers are also affected by violence on TV. In many films people beat each other up all bloody and still survive. They hit and kick over and over again with a nosebleed as a result. This is considered as entertainment. Doctors have often pointed out that one of those blows would be enough to kill a person. It is a parent's responsibility to make sure that the teenager does not watch this exaggerated violence and then thinks it reflects reality. 
	Another source for violence is computer games. The character that is controlled by the player often fights. The more times your killing kicks hit the enemy the more points you get. If parents are not there to tell their youngsters what is right and wrong, what is real and exaggerated, how are they to know? Not everybody realises how vulnerable a human being is. 
	One way to protect children from excessive violence and help working parents who are not always at home when the TV is on, would be to restrict the level of violence broadcast daytime and early evenings. Here in Sweden films have age limits when shown at the pictures (universal, age seven, eleven, fifteen and eighteen) and those limits could be repeated when the films are shown on TV. It would give parents an idea if the film is suitable for their children or not. However, it does not prohibit children under the age limit to watch the film on TV. Yet an alternative is the V chip (antiviolence chip), which means programmes with violence can be deleted. All shows are rated on a violence scale and parents then choose how much violence their children should be allowed to watch. Unfortunately, the V chip controls only the TV set it has been installed into and it could therefore be expensive for households with several TV sets.
	Parents must not deny the existence of violence. There are wars going on, we hear of massacres in Africa and the former Yugoslavia on the news and unfortunately there are crimes committed in each and every city. Violence that reflects the real world is not the same thing as violence in action films. Films about the Second World War and how the Nazi Germans treated Jews is one example. It is important that coming generations learn about the tragedies in the past so they do not repeat them themselves. As a parent, or teacher, one could show such films and discuss with the children how violence affects us and what damages it causes.
	TV is a fantastic medium that reaches out to millions of people all over the world. Adults have an enormous responsibility when letting children watch it. We cannot trust children to be able to judge for themselves what is real or not, where the limits should be drawn. We have to teach them, and explain to them, that far from all violence shown on TV reflects the world we live in.
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