10English-Teenagers need protecting from violent images in television, films and games

Teenagers need protecting from violent images in television, films, and games

A mystic figure lurks out of the gloomy dark, and with him comes a pointed object in his fragile and withered hand. He creepily approaches his victim and swoosh! The dagger had pierced his enemy’s skin and sunk right into his so-called “innocent” heart. We all know this scene too well, the bad guy strikes the good guy.

Most (and I mean most) modern shows, films and games have some sort of violence to it. Whether it be eliminating a player in the ever-growing Fortnite game or where Superman defeats the latest knock-off supervillain, there is a hint of violence in it. We all view things like this as if it’s normal, and this can especially target teenagers and our developing minds. For instance, let’s take films from around 30 years ago, where practically every scene was multi-generational friendly, and violence was basically just not a thing in movies. All of these movies seemed to have followed Christian values (meaning no violence, no discrimination and no sexual references outside of marriage). This has notably dropped over the decades, where now basically all modern things contain the opposite of the older ones.

For this argument, yes, I believe that the government and our elders should be more strict on what we can watch, and play. Take the “Restricted Label” for a fact. Its now-a-day meaning is “let your kids watch this if you allow them to”. This is wrong, the label is there for a reason, and the government should do more about it. Imagine this scene (get what I did there, Scene?) of where an innocent Mother buys their 12-year-old kid the latest Call of Duty release. The label is deemed R16 and the law restricts only a 16-year-old, or older, to play it. The child knows of this risk and relies most importantly on his mother, who probably has no idea what her child is playing. This is wrong and we need to do more to prevent and stop this altogether.

So, to come to a final conclusion, our elders and the government need to do more to raise restricted label awareness. The R label is there for a reason, and it’s not just an optional law. It is the law.