Television violence and common senseIt is obvious that children are influenced by television. They often pretend to be their favorite character, reenact movie scenes and wear clothes depicting their media heroes. As a child, I pretended to be one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles while practicing my fighting skills against invisible villains. While these things are usually a healthy part of growing up, it would be foolish to assume that children aren't affected in a negative way by all the violence that appears on television. American children watch television an average of twenty-seven hours a week and perhaps up to eleven hours a day in larger cities. The American Psychological Association estimates that the average child will witness 8,000 murders and 100,000 acts of violence while attending elementary school (“Television Violence” 1). The numbers are...... middle of the paper... common sense conclusion that there is a link between children's aggressive behavior and the violence they see on television. Works Cited Levine, Madeline. “Violence in the media harms children.” Media violence. Opposing points of view. Ed. William Dudley. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. 28-36."Television Violence." The CQ researcher. March 26, 1993: 1-8. Online. Available at http://libraryip.cq.com.