Killing Monsters for Fun and...well, Fun
Superpredators. Kids killing kids. Teen crime sprees. School yard killings. They're reported as if they happened next door, right down the street. Everywhere, really, and all the time. And we blame this horrible wave of evil children on things we don't much like anyway--fantasy, comic books, action adventure and video games.
But here are some facts: teen crimes are down all across the board; violent crime is down. Most assaults on teenagers are by adults. Most assaults on adults are by adults, too. Kids shooting up school yards are rare enough that we can name them: Columbine, Kip Kinkel....
In a book called, Killing Monsters, Gerard Jones tells us that far from being universally harmful, fantasy, including fantasy violence, in all its forms can often be beneficial. The world is a complicated and scary place. It always has been. As children much of it is brand-new and must be experienced, figured out and rendered manageable in ways that allow children to learn and grow and become adults. Fantasy, action-adventure shows on television and even violent video games can help kids deal with things that frighten them, things that make them feel helpless, or things that confuse them. Playing war games or identifying with the hero in a violent movie or becoming a first-person-shooter in a video game can help kids to manage their emotions, learn new skills, and gain confidence.
But what about all those studies that say that violent television makes kids violent? According to Gerard Jones, many of those studies are flawed, overinterpreted, or inconclusive. For example, one study was reported as finding that violent television made kids more agitated. The actual conclusion from the study? All television made the kids in the study (a small number in a lab environment) more agitated. Or it might have been the environment. Or it might have been the kids.
Not all violent television, scary comics, and gory video games are good for all kids. Kids with problems may get encouragement to violence and may find excuses not to learn to cope with the things they need to deal with, but the problems came before the entertainment not the other way around.
Stifling children's thoughts and expecting that they should only like what we think kids should like and only what we're comfortable with them liking, allows for no good way to see what needs to be seen. Kids need to learn the world in their way and though they surely need the guidance of adults to do so, they can't and shouldn't be expected to always do it in ways that make the adults feel good and safe and happy.