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<title> Violence on Swedish television </title>
In the article "Locking out violence" by Ginia Bellafante, it says that; "To many parents of young children, television is something far more intimidating than the vast wasteland it has been called." I couldn't agree more. Today young children in Sweden are "fed" with different types of violence on television. Everyday there are violence on the news, in movies and even in some children's programmes. There is a big increase of violence on television today, compared to how the programmes looked like a couple of decades ago.

There are all different kinds and levels of violence. I guess you can call it "good" and "bad" violence. There are, of course, the horror/thriller movies containing murder, massacres, bloody fights and heavy shootings. Those types of movies you can (hopefully) easily forbid your children to watch, but there are also less obvious cases of violence in almost everything on television today. The exceptions are the quiz/game shows and perhaps the cultural programs like "Antikrundan", (but it wouldn't surprise me if someday in the future even those kind of programs contain a little violence - just to get greater viewer numbers). 

On the news there is almost always some scenes from wars, riots etc., and on regular TV-shows and series there are often violent scenes - not as bad as the ones in the horror movies of course, but they are still violent. 

Even some cartoons have a certain amount of violence - but, of course, in a funny and nice way -, for instance Tom & Jerry. All that cat and mouse do are fight against each other. If Tom & Jerry had been a "real" and not an animated series - with the methods they are using, it would have been worse than the most terrible horror movie ever! But because it's a cartoon we just laugh and think it's funny (and it is!). It's weird, I think. 

I remember, when I was a child there was not much violence in the programs especially made for children. The only "action" me and my friends got to see was perhaps some fights in Astrid Lindgren's movies or in the cartoons. While today there are so much more to choose from. I think the most debated children's programme might be "The Power Rangers", where the theme actually is violence. On the average, other cartoons (the cheap produced ones) also contain a lot more violence than before. I think it seems like the recommended age limit of violent movies and programs are getting lower every year. Otherwise the parents of today are getting more and more tolerant regarding what their children are allowed to see. A lot of ten-year-olds brag about having seen horror movies or similar on TV; "- My mom let me watch it even if it was late", and so on. I wasn't allowed to watch the alien series "V" until I was 13(!), and there weren't even much violence in that. 

Why are there so much violence on Swedish television today? First of all I think that the Swedes are getting more and more tolerant when it comes to watching violence on TV - we censor less nowadays. Another reason must be the great production of programmes containing violence. Many years ago most of the movies etc. contained no violence at all - except for typical horror movies, but them you could only rent in a video store - they were never shown on television. Today it seems like the producers think that all shows and movies must contain sex and violence, otherwise people won't see them because they don't find them interesting. I feel ashamed to say so, but I think it's partly true. 

The new cable channels also contribute to the bigger amount of violence. Here they show movies 24 hours a day, so children can easily watch movies (perhaps not recommended under the age of 15), while their parents are at work.

So, is there anything we can do about the violence on television? Should we start censor more, or just let the broadcasters continue showing these kind of programs and movies? What is it going to look like in the future? Maybe even more violence? Who knows? All I can say is that if this is going to continue, the children in the future might not react at all when they see violence - on TV or out in the street. They are so used to it that they see it as a part of the everyday life.
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