Violent Super Bowl ads may influence children to be aggressive

By Staff Writer

Each year, the Super Bowl brings families together around the television. However, the content of many Super Bowl commercials may not be suitable for young viewers. Research from Iowa State University suggests that violent content in television commercials may influence aggressive thoughts in children.

For the study, which is called Television Commercial Violence: Potential Effects on Children, scientists surveyed focus groups of 42 children and 40 parents on their perceptions of media violence and its effects on kids. They also studied 165 children between the ages of 8 and 12 on their aggressive thoughts after watching television.

Violence was defined as "actions depicting intentional harm to victims who would not wish to be harmed." Parents from the first group showed little concern about violent commercials. Both parents and children agreed that realism was an important factor for violence to have an impact.

For the second group, the researchers found that exposure to ads containing violent content significantly increased the amount of aggressive thoughts that were generated by the children. They concluded that parents ought to monitor the content of the programs and advertisements that their children view on television.