Topic: The government should control the amount of violence in films and on television in order to decrease the level of violent crimes in the society. Do you aggress or disagree?
Prompted by some incidents of television and film inspired crimes, the issue of whether the government should control the amount of violence in films and on television has been a contentious discussion. Views on the topic vary greatly.
Advocates claim that the practice of controlling the amount of violence in mass media is a brazen violation of the people’s basic right to know the truth of the world. For example, some films contain some violence, but they reflect the things happened around us. Rather than producing negative effects on audience, to some extent, these films educate them. Furthermore, violence in films or on television programs cultivates people’s senses of crisis and responsibility, which makes ordinary people and police work better for public security. Consequently, it is irresponsible and foolish to blame the media for violence in our society.
However, opponents argue that violence in films and on television is detrimental to audience’s psychology. Taking fantasy for reality, people become aggressive and eccentric. They believe things can be solved by violence. In addition, violence has negative impacts on the stability of society. Research findings reveal that 60 percent of crimes are committed by teenagers after watching films or television which had a large amount of violence. Teenagers are so vulnerable and immature that they cannot judge whether the activities performed in mass media are right or not. As an illustration, a boy killed his younger sister in Australia because he imitated the violent scenes from television programs.
In my opinion, the disadvantages of controlling the amount of violence in media outweigh the advantages. But I believe the government should label how much violence the programs contain on the screens, and parents and teachers have responsibility to guide their children and help them to distinguish right from wrong when they watch violent programs.
责任编辑：张梦璇
