A new report by the Parents Television Council, a watchdog group, says violence portrayed in prime-time TV shows has increased 75 percent since 1998.
The report, “Dying to Entertain,” found a 45 percent rise in violence in shows on at 8 p.m., when young children are most likely watching. Violence rose 92 percent in 9 p.m. shows and more than doubled in those on at 10 p.m., the council said.
Shows on Walt Disney Co.’s ABC network were the most violent, the council said.
Tim Winter, the group’s president, said on-screen violence also was more explicit and more graphic than ever before. He said the industry’s proposed solution, the V-chip, which lets parents block out specific shows, has not been effective in protecting children from TV violence.
“We have not yet reviewed the report, but are confident that our extensive standards review of all of our programming insures acceptable content for our diverse viewing audience,” said an ABC spokeswoman. Walt Disney Co. is based in Burbank, Calif.
Broadcast network programming is “far less violent” than shows aired on cable and satellite television, said Dennis Wharton, a spokesman for the National Association of Broadcasters.
“The goal of the PTC is to censor programming that a lot of Americans find extremely popular,” he said. “We think parents ought to be arbiters of television programming, not a special-interest group.”
As a way to give parents more control over what their children can watch, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission mandated that all TV sets with screens of at least 13 inches made after 1999 be equipped with V-chip technology. Sets with the chip can be programmed to block shows with certain ratings.
