Mary E. Muscari

About the author: Mary E. Muscari, associate professor of nursing at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania, is a certified pediatric nurse practitioner and a certified psychiatric clinical nurse specialist. She is the author of Not My Kid: 21 Steps to Raising a Nonviolent Child, from which the following viewpoint was taken.

Media violence can cause aggressive behavior in children, desensitize children to the effects of violence, and give children the impression that their world is more dangerous than it really is. American media is the most violent in the world; 80 percent of American television programs contain violence. Unfortunately, many children are unable to tell the difference between real violence and the fantasy violence on television or in movies. Many of today's video games also foster aggressive behavior in children. Music and music videos...