Advertisement

Study: Kid TV more violent than prime time

WASHINGTON, March 2 (UPI) -- TV shows made for and targeted at children are more violent than prime time adult shows, the Parents Television Council charged Thursday.

The PTC's three-week study of after-school and Sunday morning TV -- called "Wolves in Sheep's Clothing: A Content Analysis of Children's Television" -- found 7.86 violent incidents per hour. A similar 2002 study of adult prime time TV shows clocked 4.71 violent incidents per hour.

Advertisement

Researchers reviewed about 445 hours of programming last summer on ABC, Fox, NBC, The WB, ABC Family, the Cartoon Network, the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon.

"Parents often take it for granted that children's programs are, by definition, child-friendly," PTC President L. Brent Bozell said in a statement. "While a lot of entertainment programming for children is perfectly wholesome, parents nevertheless have to worry about the part of it that isn't appropriate."

The Parents Television Council, founded in 1995, is a conservative media watchdog group that files TV content objections with the Federal Communications Commission and rallies its members to boycott shows it finds offensive.

Latest Headlines