It's summertime, the living is easy, and the movies are …
violent? While dramas and Oscar nominees may reign during the
winter movie season, summer releases are typically action movies or
light comedies. With young people out of school and in the
theaters, moviemakers tend to try to lure the lucrative teen market
by producing high-budget films, light on story line but heavy on
sex and violence. Although violent movies have been around for
decades, we have become more accepting of them in recent years --
or at least our teens have.
In 1977, when Gallup asked teens between the ages of 13 and 17
whether they felt there was too much violence in the movies, more
than four out of 10 (42%) said yes, they did*. While few people
would dispute the idea that movies have become more violent
rather than less in the past quarter century, in 1999 less than a
quarter (23%) of teens answered yes when asked the same question**.
A similar trend emerges with regard to sex in the movies, with 44%
of teens in 1977 saying that there was too much sex in the movies
and only 28% agreeing with this statement in 1999. Given all the
forms of media currently available to teens, including the
Internet, video games, and a plethora of cable and satellite
television channels, they appear to have become considerably more
desensitized to graphic depictions of violence and sex than their
parents were at their age.
Teen-age girls are slightly more likely than boys to feel that
there is too much violence and sex in movies. About a quarter (26%)
of girls compared to 20% of boys believe there is too much violence
in movies. The more striking difference occurs in their opinions
regarding sex in movies, with about a third (34%) of girls and only
22% of boys believing there is too much.
Overall, however, teens are quite positive about the influence
of movies on their own lives and on American society as a whole. In
1999, a majority (70%) of teens felt that movies have a very or
somewhat positive effect on their ethics and morals. Despite the
fact that girls were more likely than boys to feel that there is
too much sex in the movies, more girls than boys believed that the
effect of movies on their ethics and morals was very or somewhat
positive (74% of girls versus 66% of boys). Almost two-thirds (63%)
of teens said that the effect of movies on the ethics and morals of
the American people has been very or somewhat positive.
It is difficult to discern exactly what young people consider a
"positive" influence. According to a 1999 Senate Judiciary
Committee report, "Since the 1950s, more than 1,000 studies have
been done on the effects of violence in television and movies. The
majority of these studies conclude that children who watch
significant amounts of television and movie violence are more
likely to exhibit aggressive behavior, attitudes and values." The
conflicting messages are somewhat disconcerting and raise the
question: are such studies overhyped, or are teens simply unable to
recognize the negative influence excessive movie violence may be
having on them?
*Findings are based on interviews with 502 American teens, aged
13 to 17, conducted from September through November 1977. For
results based on this sample, one can say with 95% confidence that
the maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects
is ±5%.
**Findings are based on interviews with 502 American teens, aged
13 to 17, conducted from January through April 1999. For results
based on this sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the
maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects is
±5%.
