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<title> Reflections: Tom & Jerry (harmless or not? </title>
In this essay I will discuss what kind of violence on TV I think is unsuitable for children. What is it that makes it unsuitable?
	
What kind of violence on television is bad for young children? This is a difficult question to answer. To begin with I would like to point out that I don't think it's a good idea to entirely protect children from violence on TV. Violence is and will most likely continiue to be a part of our society. Therefore I believe, entirely keeping children away from violence on TV would give them an inaccurate picture of the world we live in. For example, I don't see it as right to forbid children to watch news broadcasts just because they include pictures of war and crime. Children need, and have the right, to know what's goin on around them. Also, I don't think it's harmful to allow somewhat older children, say children over nine years, to whatch movies containing some violence if it is not shown in a really brutal way. Of course, there might be a small minority of all children whose mental condition makes any kind of violence unsuitable for them to watch, but such problems naturally need to be dealt with in other ways than totally keeping them away from violence on TV. Most 9 year olds can wach Karate Kid without going about killing their friends. 
	 Nonetheless i believe a lot of programs on TV entirely directed to children contains kinds of violence that are utterly unsuitable for children to watch. A classical example of violence on TV directed to children is the cartoon Tom & Jerry, broadcasted since ancient times, I believe. Tom & Jerry might give a harmless impression, but is it really good for children to see two undoubtedly human-like creatures beating and smashing each other beyond proportion. I think not. Despite seeming harmless I believe Tom & Jerry gives smaller children the wrong idea about how the body of a living creature reacts to violence. The cat and the mouse always standing up fit for fight after any kind of physical abuse they have experiensed, like having been pushed down a stairway, run over by a steam-roller or put trough a meat grinder. 
	 But there are much worse examples than Tom & Jerry. The 1980s television series The A-team shows a bunch of outlaw Vietnam veterans going around helping people with problems for money. The solvation of the problems always results in hughe gun-fights (in each episode hundreds of shots are fired, without anyone ever getting hurt. This evidently gives the impression to children that guns really aren't made to kill people with. 
	 Another example of how TV programs gives children the wrong idea about violence is the TV-show Powerrangers. Powerrangers tells the story about a gang of youths, each with his or her individual supernatural powers (and individually coloured outfits), fighting against crime and evil in general. Powerrangers shows just the kind of hit-me-as-much-as-you-want-and-I-will-recover-anyway violence that I think gives kids the wrong idea about how much violence a human body can take without being severely damaged. I know for a fact that this specifical TV show has been critisized for being unsuitable for children, which is undoubtedly who it is directed to (16 year olds don't watch Powerrangers. I believe that the occasion for this criticism was when, a couple of years ago, two young children murdered a small child in Britain. This episode has just been one in a number of similar incidents in the last few years, which I believe is what really has risen the question about what kind of violence really is unsuitable to allow kids to watch. 

So what's my conclusion? I think that violence on TV surely can affect children in a negative way. It all has to do with the way it is shown. If the violence is described as harmless, suggesting that you can beat or shoot at a person as much you as you feel like and he will still be able to walk away from there, obviously children will get the wrong idea and tragic accidents can be the result. If the violence on the other hand is shown the way it really is with invalidity, death, destruction of lives and tragedy as the rseult, the outcome will be another one. Of course, realistic kind of violence isn't something small children, should watch, but at least I dont believe it gives them the idea that bullets and punches don't harm human beings.
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