This article discusses the results of a study on television violence and its effects on children. It was written by United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Romania, the National Audiovisual Council (CNA), and the Centre for Media Studies and New Communication Technologies at the University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania. "The report gives a clear picture of violent content in TV programmes and makes a classification of the frequency, duration and intensity of violent scenes that can be seen on different TV channels. The research aims at making the general public aware of the impact media violence has on children and the responsibility of the family, the school and the mass-media to protect young viewers."

The project uses quantitative and qualitative methods to analyse the violent content of eleven TV channels. Data collected on the average number of violent scenes on TV indicate that, per hour, 9 - 23.4 violent scenes appear, a number that increases on the cartoon networks to 20 - 27 scenes. Data on duration of violent scenes varies from 3.6 minutes per hour to 22.6 minutes per hour. Single scenes might average 11-60 seconds in duration. Statistics include two types of violence: 44% verbal violence and 33.6% physical violence. According to the study, "[a] factor that impacts on children is the fact that nearly 44% of the time the media fail to present the effects of violent acts on the victim, and in 66% of the cases they fail to show the consequences of violent acts on the perpetrator....This research... indicates an increase [since 2004] in the number of violent acts that can be seen on TV programmes in Romania." Location of the acts of violence was a part of the study. Homes were represented as the scene of 25% of the TV violence. However, the majority of the violence was verbal and took place on talk shows, representing the TV studio as the scene of violence. Intentional violence was attributed to 85% of the violent acts, while 7.5% of them were attributed to an accident.

Responding to the report, the President of the CNA declared that the CNA "will show zero tolerance to any deviation from audio visual legislation on TV/radio stations, especially since some channels might think of adding violent content to their shows for the purpose of boosting their audience during the economic crisis." There is a risk, according to Professor Ioan Drăgan PhD, Director of the Centre for Media Studies and New Communication Technologies of the University of Bucharest, who coordinated the study, that: "In the society of screens, children are growing up in a world of TV and virtual communication which becomes their reality. A consequence of this is the risk of not knowing right from wrong anymore."

YPMN-Youthful Media listserv on August 19 2009, and email from Codruţa Hedeşiu to Teh Communication Initiative on September 2 2009. Photo source: www.cna.ro.