WASHINGTON -- The American Psychological Association will present testimony tomorrow before the Senate Commerce Committee hearing on the recently released report of the Federal Trade Commission on entertainment marketing aimed at young people.
In the testimony, Jeff McIntyre, a legislative and federal affairs officer in the Public Policy Office of the American Psychological Association (APA), will address the state of psychological research pertaining to developmental issues in advertising to children and the impact of media violence on children.
Over three decades of research has shown that children's exposure to violence in the mass media may desensitize them to violence, lead to increases in aggressive attitudes, values and behaviors and may have long-lasting effects on behavior and personality.
In 1994, the Council of Representatives of the APA passed a resolution stating that viewing violence in the mass media can produce aggressive and violent behaviors in children who are susceptible to such effects. The resolution encourages parents to monitor and supervise television, video, and computer game use by children; supported the use of warning labels for violent materials and the development of technologies that block the broadcast of certain programming; and called upon the television and film industry to reduce direct violence in programming.
As the Federal Trade Commission report suggests, the industry's practice of marketing programming that is inappropriate for children to children is a cause for concern. Intrusive marketing that exposes young children to violence or entices a teenager to seek out entertainment that is not appropriate for them is clearly a problem for parents and families. Such marketing has the potential to undermine the very rating system designed to assist parents and protect kids from inappropriate viewing and games playing.
The American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington, DC, is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. APA's membership includes more than 159,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 53 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 59 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting human welfare.