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<title> The responsibility of the parents </title>
There is no way we can avoid violent scenes on TV today. We see them both in films and in the news. It's well known that children, of all ages, get affected by this. The consequences are different. Some have nightmares or can't sleep at all, others copy what they see on TV in their games. We can't keep the children away from watching violence on TV, since even the cartoons made for them are full of it. For example, "Tom & Jerry" cartoons are extremely violent.

So the question comes up: Who should decide what children should watch and what they shouldn't? The most natural answer is, of course, the parents. But are all parents really able to take that responsibility? Should they be trusted with it? Well, nobody knows a child as well as its parents (in normal cases anyway). No good parent wants his/her child to watch things that aren't good for them, but parents are different. Some let their children watch anything without even thinking about the effect it might have, while others are almost too protective. Just like their parents, the children are different. Some of them are very easily affected by what they watch, others are not. And at what age should they be allowed to watch violent films? There are eight-year olds who are very mature and can watch almost anything without getting affected, and there are fifteen-year olds who certainly shouldn't be allowed to watch certain films.

Parents should, if they let their children watch violent films, not let them do it alone. It's important to watch together with the children, in order to explain what they are too young to understand by themselves, and also to tell them that it isn't real, try to convince them that there's no way the monsters can end up under the children's beds, etc. If the parents show that they don't get scared, the children feel safer. But it's still important to choose what the children should be allowed to watch. Just because you watch with them, it doesn't make the film less violent. A film like "Terminator 2" isn't good for an eight-year old, even if both his parents should be watching with him.

There are different kinds of violence shown on TV. If we don't let children watch violent films, how should we deal with the news? Children need to watch the news in order to learn about the world and what's going on in it. If we don't let them watch the news, they'll grow up to be completely ignorant about the world around them, and they'll think the world is always a good and happy place. So, the way I see it, it's important for the children to certain amounts of violence, but if they do, it should be together with their parents, and not until they reach an age when they are able to understand what's going on. If they are to young, it could get effects nobody wants. You should also remember, that children are smarter than we think. They are in fact able, at quite a young age, to distinguish between different kinds of violence. They can tell if it's fiction or reality. They also react differently to violence in a film or, for example, in the news. In films, most scenes have some kind of music and give a completely different feeling than violent scenes in the news, where the pictures are more "real" and have a seroius voice commenting on what's happening. The feeling that it's real often makes it even more frightening than when you can tell that it's "only" a film.

So, the way I see it, the only ones who can decide what children should be allowed to watch on TV are the parents. They know their children and are capable of seeing to the individual. It's important to rememver that all children are different. What it bad for one child might not have that effect on another. Adults would not like to be treated as if they were all alike, so why do that with the children?
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