Madam, - Victim Support recorded (The Irish Times, September 11th) that 18 people under the age of 25 were killed violently in the first six months of this year and that 61 young victims sought help in the case of sexual crimes. Ms Geraldine Byrne of Victim Support's youth awareness programme said there were many causes for violence among young people.
Much media attention, over the past year has been given to the problem of binge drinking by adolescents as a contributing cause of violence and illicit sex. The Irish Times/TNS mrbi youth poll on youth drinking makes disturbing reading. It does not, however, cover the topic of violence.
Another cause of violence which has not received much attention is the amount of time spent by young people watching violent shows on television.
That there is a casual relationship between film violence and social violence was demonstrated by a community-based longitudinal study (1985 to 2002) entitled Children in the Community by a team based mainly in Columbia University (US). The findings were published in the journal Science on March 29th this year.
Last year steps were being taken in both France and Germany to control violence in the media. President Chirac attributed much of the country's public insecurity and social violence to the media, especially television. In Germany, following the murders at a school in Erfurt by a former student, the federal government decided to tighten up weapons legislation, and to review existing legislation in order to ensure better protection for children and adolescents from representations of violence in the electronic media.
An extensive article on this problem was published in the Spring issue of our publication Media Report, which is still available.
We have urged the Minister for Communications, Mr Dermot Ahern, TD, to take measures to restrict the broadcasting of violence in the electronic media. - Yours, etc.,
IVO O'SULLIVAN, PhD., Chairperson, Family and Media Association, Blackrock, Co Dublin.