PAN- AFRICAN COLLEGE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP

AND PROFESSIONAL STUDIES

EFFECT OF VIOLENT FILMS ON NIGERIA

CULTURAL VALUES

BY

SHITTU OLUWABUNMI AYINKE

PAC/0921/UG/MMC/004

300 LEVEL

A TERM PAPER SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL

FULFILLMENT FOR THE AWARD OF BSC IN MEDIA
AND MASS COMMUNICATION

FEBRUARY, 2023.

1
 TABLE OF CONTENT

ABSTRACT 3-4

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 5-7

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 8-10

CHAPTER THREE: POSITIONING 11-13

CHAPTER FOUR: DATA ANALYSIS 14-15

CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION 16-18

REFERENCES 19-20

2
 ABSTRACT

No doubt, teenagers and youth generally, are vital segment of the society who could be
instrumental promoting African cultures. But unfortunately, the mentality and lifestyle of the
teenagers in African societies have been grossly affected by exposure to western films to such an
extent that rather than promoting African cultures, they have become hardened acolytes and
promoters of western cultures. The study therefore examines this situation with particular
reference to Nigeria adopting both qualitative and quantitative research methods and at the end
find out that western films exert great impact on the teenagers in Nigerian society thereby
creating cultural gap to the native cultures. The study then concludes by prescribing way forward
towards the restoration and promotion of African cultures as it affects teenagers with particular
reference to Nigerian society.

The most important concern in the debate about violent film has been whether or not it promotes
aggressive behavior among viewers most especially the young ones (Evra 1990). Researchers
have also shown that heavy exposure to screen violence can cause problems in other domains of
social behavior. For example, it can make people become both fearful of the world around them
and accepting violence in the real life as displayed by others (Evra 1990). Violence is one of the
global concerns today in all segments of the world. Antisocial behavior in human beings is
accepted to be associated to a number of physiological, psychological, domestic and cultural
aspects. The learning environments which a child is exposed to are also assumed to contribute to
the increase of aggressive behaviors and attitudes as well as his inclinations to customs, values
and norms of the society (Berkowitz, 2001).

The media, as one of the specific learning condition is believed to be a potential contributor to
the growth of antisocial attitudes and behavior in children and teenagers (Ibid). While social
scientists work on determining the major causation of violence, such as social environments,
cultural factors, family instruction, and group membership parents, teachers, politicians and
school administrators continue to blame the media for increased cultural alienation and
attitudinal change among adolescents (Fraser and Staub, 1996). Considerations about the effects
of films can be traced back to the 1920s. At that time, the earliest coordinated social scientific

3
research or investigation into the impact of these effects began in the Western countries. It was
intended at studying the harmful impacts of films on societies. The development of this medium
as a common mass entertainment and information source during the 1950s encountered similar
concerns about potential harms, especially in connection with young audiences (Gunter, 1994).
Nowadays, many concerns have been raised about the kinds of values and attitudes that may be
inculcated by exposure to certain kinds of media contents, especially enculturation and violence
in movies (Kubey and Larson, 2005).

Teenagers learn civility; indeed, they learn kindness, consideration, and all the other virtues
essential to good social relationships through interaction with loving adults and through adult-
supervised films. TV-viewing, by focusing a teenager's attention upon an impersonal screen,
drastically reduces his interaction with other real people. One of the indictments that recent
research has brought against TV-viewing is that it produces teenagers who are handicapped by
poor social skills.

From the beginning, movies have labored mightily to convince viewers that they need to make
themselves more attractive and align with dominant cultures as presented by the media. It has
offered up a ceaseless stream of advertisement for hair care products, shaving blades and creams,
body soaps, deodorants, and a host of other products designed to enhance the feel, the smell, or
the look of the human body. All these are sharp attack on the cultural values of the Nigerian
society and this is consequently manifested by the general way of life of the Nigerian teenagers.
In the last one decade and a half, the feelings and attitudes of the youth in general to conform to
western cultures is on the increase on daily basis.

4
 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Nowadays, the teenagers in Nigeria and Africa as a whole watch western films with impunity or
without caution. This shapes their thoughts, attitudes, associations, behaviors and general ways
of life. The knowledge adopted from violent movies has negatively influenced the cultural values
of many teenagers.

The problem of the study is that viewing violence oriented films on television seems to affect the
behavior of youths in Nigeria. Films have a dramatic effect on the perception of viewers whether
the person is conscious or unconscious of this fact for the process of any society. It is good to be
peaceful, eschewing violence and settling issues with dialogue and non-violence means.

Repeated exposure to violence tends to create stereo type in people minds and soon they
unconsciously start to re-enact the same scenes they see in films. This type of situation creates
problems for the society and if not properly handled may become a big problem for the society to
grapple with.

Some of the problems of teenagers’ exposure to violent films are inadequate policy to guard the
youths towards violence TV programmes, there is an erosion of the cultural values, the imitation
of Western cultures especially the American cultures, and the Nigerian youths are faced with
brain wash. These problems necessitate the needs to carry out a study on effects of violent films
on Nigerian cultural values.

Teenagers are most likely to become emotionally invested and interested in the situations that
pertain to their changing views of the world and growing status in society. These issues include
identity formation, high school graduation, and college, moving away from home, driving, and
parental relationships. The level of emotional involvement teenagers in general feel with the
film’s content can affect aspects of his or her psychosocial development. In Nigerian society, the
situation is quite alarming in that, teenagers’ attitudes, thoughts and general behaviors are
considerably influenced by western films and worse still, Nollywood films which are mostly

5
anchored on western models consolidate western films thereby promoting western values in
Nigerian society.

Over the time in the television industry in Nigeria, for instance, foreign and homemade films
have emerged as dominant media of entertainment both in private and public television
programming. These films, which are seriously threatening television programming, have
virtually displaced the television industry’s major role of promoting socio-cultural identity of the
society. They appear in the form of drama, action, horror, pornography, thriller, detective, mafia,
war, cult, etc., and contain heavy presence of violence and crime. These film species have
literally thrown the Nigeria youths and audience alike, nay the entire society into frenzy; and like
fire burning through the harmattan bush, the whole county has been consumed by it. Media
analysts and critics have criticized television for single-handedly inciting riots, promoting
alcohol and drug abuse and the rest especially in the youths.

In fact, the negative aspects of television are numerous. Stanley (2002) affirms that violent
movies are harmful to youths and their education, and can also negatively affect their brain
development, grades, mental and physical health as well as social behavior. More so, since
youths spend more time in watching television especially negative and violent ones, they are less
likely to be creative thinkers. Reissler (2006) seems to affirm the above assertion by subtly
submitting that violent media content may kill an urge for creativity and imagination and bar the
capacity for constructive, problem solving. It is instructive to note here that the reference to
youths in the context of this study takes consideration of the wider generation of young
audiences, whether they are “children”, “adolescents”, “teens” or even “tweens”, as long as they
are impressionable enough to be negatively influenced by exposure to violent television and
video film contents irrespective of setting and their distinct interests, levels of personalities’
development and, perhaps, presumed tolerance to violent contents.

The issue of media influence, as a matter of fact, has been an age long phenomenon. This is
evident from a very old account of renowned psychologist, Herbert Blumer’s examination of
somewhat diaries of some adolescent students’ record of how they thought they had been
influenced by their exposure to movies (Mead Project Source, 2007). He disclosed that

6
participant youths reported that they imitated the behaviors they saw in movies and copied the
actions of their favorite stars in their play. It is only imaginable how much negatively influenced
they would become when such behaviors and actions are saturated with violence and other anti-
social activities. Vasan (2010) also reinforces the link between media violence and subsequent
aggressive behavior by presenting The Tribune, 18 March 2003 report of a study conducted in
ten government schools by the Department of Pediatrics, PGI Medical College, Chandigarh,
India. The study revealed that perpetrators of violence among 15,000 students studied were the
ones who enjoyed seeing more action and violence-oriented programmes on the television and in
movies and for a longer duration of time too. In examining predictors of various types of self-
reported use of violent media content by 8th graders numbering 3,127 from 20 schools around
the US, Slater (2003) has noted that the use of violent media content by adolescents has long
been a matter of public concern and debate, a concern that was heightened by the reported use of
violent computer games and websites by the killers at Columbine High School in 1999. The
killers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, twelfth grade (senior) students, had murdered 12 students
and one teacher among several injured others before they eventually committed suicide. Igreja’s
(2015) study on “Media and legacies of war: responses to global film violence in conflict zones”,
also has significant implications for understanding the reception of mass media violence among
young people in conflict zones.

Movies play an important role in teenager’s lives, and open up windows on a better world, at
least on a world that questions the status quo. Films provide teenagers an opportunity to
experience different parts of the world they may never be able to experience in their own lives. A
teenager living in a small town may have little or no interactions with different ethnicities, but
through films, they are able to view a different part of the world. Also, by viewing foreign
situations in a film, teenagers are able to apply these situations to their own lives using their
evolving formal operational thought. Despite these values, it is depressing to hear the
conversation of today's typical teenagers. Yet the offensive behavior encouraged by the media is
not confined to speech. For the sake of supposed humor, the media frequently show children
acting naughty. Staged or cartoon-mediated disobedience, bullying, yelling, whining, rowdiness,
hyperactivity—all set an example for children in the viewing audience.

7
 CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW
Films also referred to as motion pictures, involves projecting a series of images into
the screen to create an illusion of motion. Films are one of the most popular forms of
entertainment, enabling people to immerse in an imaginary world for a short period. Subtitles
give the audience the opportunity to watch films that were not produced in their primary
language. This innovation therefore created room for rapid spread of films from their country of
origin to other countries, in which Nigeria is not an exception.

Unarguably, the films youths watch directly affect their behaviors and this helps to form
thoughts that they associate with real life. Hence, as youths watch television and video films and
see what their counterparts do elsewhere like in dressings, speaking, dancing, and how they
behave in their different homes, schools, etc., they tend to imitate and even improve on what they
already know. In Africa as in other developing worlds, over the years, Western films (movies)
shown on television have been blamed for encouraging or causing various unseeming habits
among many young people. This fall out of the influx of foreign motion pictures might not be
unconnected to the need for revenue maximization to the West from the international market as
Ravid & Basuroy (2004) suggest. The scholars, while analyzing project choice in the motion
picture industry in US, found that movies that are very violent or feature sex and violence bring
increase in revenue especially from the international market. In the light of the above, Uwaoma’s
(2012) observation that foreign culture, perhaps the prevailing culture of violence, has penetrated
every aspect of our lives, and will be difficult to be extinguished is a food for thought,
considering the fact that the major inroad to such penetration is the television, the contents of
which are largely patterned on western models. The fact, therefore, that the nature and content of
violent films shown on television and video, and the sheer exposure of the youths to these violent
films and their possible consequences is of great public concern; and invariably portends great
danger to the society at large, cannot be overemphasized.
Suffice here to say that no society exists without a way of life exclusive to their existence, which
inevitably affects their interactional process both internally and externally. The interactional
process of members of a society culminates into a value system for them which imply their views
of the world. Values of people could refer to perceptions on worthy or unworthy matter; liked or

8
disliked attribute and among other elements of the world view. When a particular world view is
held and defined by a cultural group over a period of time, it evolves into cultural value and
grows to become a legacy. Thus, against the backdrop, Kluckhohn as cited in Daramola (2005)
states that “culture is a social legacy that an individual acquires from his group, which comprises
of values, customs, beliefs, language, religion, technology, emotional patterns, behavioral
patterns and among many other socio-cultural symbols”.

The Nigerian government has made tremendous efforts towards the promotion of indigenization
in all sectors of the economy including the promotion of indigenous television and radio program
and production of indigenous consumer programs for her citizens. The aim of the Nigerian
government towards her indigenization policy has been to encourage the Nigerian youths who
are already caught in the dilemma of embracing the local cultures and holding firm unto adopted
foreign cultures. The thrust of this paper is to explore the Nigerian youths‟ reaction to foreign
television programs, the impact of such programs on their lifestyles, and the possibility of
making the Nigerian local content more attractive to the Nigerian youth.

It is only apparent that television has become so much part of our ordinary life and a powerful
agent of socialization which invariably affects the youths in several possible ways. The fact that
almost every household in Nigeria as elsewhere has a television set which the youths devote
most of their times to watch is a clear pointer in the above direction. Therefore, too much
viewing of television especially violence can lead to anti-social behaviors in youths, academic
troubles, promiscuity and health problems, among others. In fact, Anaeto et al. (2008) affirm that
heavy television viewing, no doubt, distorts our perception of the world we live in, making it
seem more like an utopian world. In another cross-sectional survey on tobacco use among pre-
university students in Bangalore city, Elegbe et al. (2014, p.200), cite Bhojani (2009) who
discovered that nearly one out of every five male students and about one out of every 20 female
students reported their desire to use tobacco after watching movie/TV stars using it on screen.
Although there are differing views on the reality of media effect, especially with regard to
violent television films, Murray (1994, p.824) cites Leonard Erons’s strong summary in a
Congressional testimony on the subject: There can no longer be any doubt that heavy exposure to
televised violence is one of the causes of aggressive behavior, crime and violence in society. The
evidence comes from both the laboratory and real-life studies.

9
Television violence affects youngsters of all ages, of both genders, at all socio-economic levels
and all levels of intelligence. The effect is not limited to children who are already disposed to
being aggressive and is not restricted to this country. The fact that we get this same finding of a
relationship between television violence and aggression in children in study after study, in one
country after another, cannot be ignored. The causal effect of television violence on aggression,
even though it is not very large, exists. It cannot be denied or explained away. We have
demonstrated this causal effect outside the laboratory, in real-life, among many different
children. We have come to believe that a vicious cycle exists in which television violence makes
children more aggressive and these aggressive children turn to watching more violence to justify
their own behavior. However, the reality of media effect on youths cannot be entirely
disassociated from how the individual youth uses the media as part of his or her daily activity.
Also, due to the changing nature of our society, youths especially now turn to television as
source of learning because of its ability to disseminate information to a very large audience;
hence their attachment to it. This explains why Uwaoma (2012), affirms that the media trigger
audience attention to specific issue, reaches the greatest number of people, and reaches special
interest, as televisions through the help of technology, develop their content as to how the fun
seeking public will be better satisfied. In all, it is only apparent to note that the media invariably
wield tremendous influence on the teeming audience, among whom majority are the youths.
Hence, “one must not dismiss the extensive, cumulative evidence of potential harmful effect
associated with viewing violence in film, video, and television” (Murray, 1994, p.825).
Nollywood has attracted academic scrutiny in recent years following its rise to stardom. Some of
the investigations have dwelt on the factors responsible for its rise; its marking value and as an
agent of propagation of African culture. Other scholars have beamed their searchlight on its
influence on different segments of the society and their behaviors. Udofia and Ekaette (2013) on
the `Evaluation of Nollywood Movies’ Explicit Contents and the Sexual Behavior of Youths in
Nigerian Secondary Schools’ found that many of such movies contained explicit scenes. They
observed that youngsters model their sexual behavior after what is portrayed in Nollywood
movies which they watch. They, therefore, recommended that ‘Nollywood operators should
reduce the rate of sexually adjusted movies which tend to increase the rate of sexual activities in
their movies’

10
 CHAPTER THREE

POSITIONING

Researchers have shown that heavy exposure to screen violence can cause problems in other
domains of social behavior. For example, it can make people become both fearful of the world
around them and accepting violence in the real life as displayed by others (Evra 1990). Violence
is one of the global concerns today in all segments of the world. Antisocial behavior in human
beings is accepted to be associated to a number of physiological, psychological, domestic and
cultural aspects.

Importantly, researchers have empirically proved that most films appeal to the emotions of its
viewers and ultimately affect their worldview. Because of the developing emotions of
adolescents as a result of the onset of puberty, films can have a huge effect. In a study of
retention rate of film details between different age groups, Rosen (1979) found that “both
children and adults remember best material that has a high emotional appeal, that is easily
understood, and that is concerned with the movie’s plot.” The material that adolescents will
emotionally relate to differs not only from adults and children, but also from teenagers to
teenagers.

Considerations about the effects of films can be traced back to the 1920s. At that time, the
earliest coordinated social scientific research or investigation into the impact of these effects
began in the Western countries. It was intended at studying the harmful impacts of films on
societies. The development of this medium as a common mass entertainment and information
source during the 1950s encountered similar concerns about potential harms, especially in
connection with young audiences (Gunter, 1994). Nowadays, many concerns have been raised
about the kinds of values and attitudes that may be inculcated by exposure to certain kinds of
media contents, especially enculturation and violence in movies (Kubey and Larson, 2005).

The learning environments which a child is exposed to are also assumed to contribute to the
increase of aggressive behaviors and attitudes as well as his inclinations to customs, values and
norms of the society (Berkowitz, 2001).

11
The media, as one of the specific learning condition is believed to be a potential contributor to
the growth of antisocial attitudes and behavior in children and teenagers (Ibid). While social
scientists work on determining the major causation of violence, such as social environments,
cultural factors, family instruction, and group membership parents, teachers, politicians and
school administrators continue to blame the media for increased cultural alienation and
attitudinal change among adolescents (Fraser and Staub, 1996).

Nigerian youths are increasingly adopting wholesale cultural values that are alien and not
compatible with the Nigerian way of life. The Nigerian youth may not be totally responsible for
lack of appreciation of our culture. Famous among vehicles of cultural imperialism are the mass
media. Television, with its visual, audio and motion capacities ranks among the most influential
medium of communication in recent times. Television programs are transmitted at the local level
to the local audience, national level to the national audience who cut across different ethnic
groups and religion, and global level to the international community or audience who are situated
within different countries of different continents.

Global television, which includes satellite transmission of programs from one country to many
other countries, is the most vibrant instrument of cultural imperialism. For instance, school
principals, mothers, and young people were surveyed for their perceptions of factors influencing
home cultures among youth. The results showed that violent messages in rap music and violence
in the movies are perceived as the factor among others, influencing the formative process of the
teenagers (Kandakai, Price and Telljohann, 1999). Also and importantly, the question of cultural
promotion in the developing world has been hampered by blind acceptance and practice of
western cultures by the young ones. Findings however show that film as a medium of mass
communication is one the major contributors.

The media as a secondary agent of socialization has to a very large extent influenced the lives of
many cutting across different socio-cultural and economic status. Its role in the lives of people
and especially young people cannot be overemphasized. This is supported by Iorza (2014) who
said that “youths are the most vulnerable victims of cultural imperialism. Socialization and
culture are two sides of the same coin and therefore, they remain inextricably linked”. William
(1977), and Devadas and Ravi (2013) defined culture as an ongoing integral part of the existence

12
of every society and is learned, taught transmitted from one generation to another using varying
agents of socialization.

Despite being a successful global brand, the term ‘Nollywood’ as name for Nigeria’s movie
industry has received some criticism from scholars. Agba (2014) posits that the coinage of the
name by a foreigner and its imitation of Hollywood and Bollywood rather than something
originally from Nigeria should be of concern to industry operators. Haynes (2007), however,
says that despite such reservations, the term has come to stay. Many scholars assert that
Nollywood is a force for good and has contributed a lot in repositioning Nigeria as a key player
in the global entertainment industry and a major source of economic empowerment for young
people. ‘Over the years, the industry has promoted certain identities and images about the
country which in a way have helped to boost the country’s reputation. Nollywood was
instrumental in to shooting up the socioeconomic profile of the country’, Alawode (2013).
Although its popularity might not have reached every part of the world, it has become a force to
reckon with in many African, European and American countries, and has gained enormous
popularity among Diaspora Africans. Miller (2012) argues that as a popular brand, the
Nollywood has ‘eclipsed’ Hollywood and Bollywood in many Sub-Saharan African nations.
This, according to her, has ‘provoked’ complaints of flooding the ‘smaller African nations’
screens with Nigerian movies.

Y O U T H S A N D F I L M S
Researchers have empirically proved that most films appeal to the emotions of its
viewers and ultimately affect their worldview. Because of the developing emotions of
adolescents, films can have a huge effect on their lives. The materials that youths will
emotionally relate with differ from that of adults and children. Youths are most likely to
become emotionally interested in the situations that concern their  changing views of
the world and growing status in the society. These issues include identity formation,
college life, moving away from home, driving and cutting out parental control.

13
 CHAPTER FOUR

DATA ANALYSIS

Findings show that young people are more apprehensive and could shun violence, crime and use
of strong words in their daily lives. For instance, when asked if they would retaliate when
offended, 25 out of the 31 people said it is not proper to retaliate when offended.

Similarly, majority of the respondents, 14 of them said they will report to the police if cheated by
their friends while only 6.4 per cent or 2 out of the 31 respondents said they will haunt down
(retaliate against) the offender.

When asked what would be their reaction if they discover that their friends is responsible for the
death of their relative, overwhelming majority, 87.1% said they will report the matter to the
police.

When we asked our respondents their impression about ‘violence begets violence’ majority of
them, 51.51 per cent of them said they do not believe in that while 48.39 per cent said they
approve of it.

We further tested the young audiences perception of crime and punishment before the watched
the moves and most of them, 64.52 per cent of the 31 member-group used in the study said in
their pre-exposure response that they would rather stay poor than to commit crime.

The responses follow a similar pattern such as when 70.97 per cent of respondents say they do
not find it fun watching violence, crime and strong worded movies as against 29.03 per cent that
said they do.

Post-exposure: After their exposure to the movies, we administered same questionnaire on the
group and the results show a radical departure from their pre-exposure reactions. For instance,
when asked again if they think violence begets violence, majority of our respondents, 61.29 per
cent of our respondents said yes, more than the 48.39% that answered in the affirmative before
they were exposed to the movies.

14
Similarly, after their exposure to the movies the respondents were asked again if they would
rather remain poort than commit crime and become rich, 58.06% preferred to commit crimes as
against 35.48% who expressed similar views before exposure to the movies.

Our data further showed that after watching the movies, more members of our study group felt
inclined to take laws into their hands than involve law enforcement agencies in settlement of
disputes. For instance, before their exposure to the movies they were asked how they will react if
they discovered that their friend is responsible for the death of your relative. Their response
shows that 87.1 per cent said they would report to the police. However, after their exposure to
the movies, the figure declined to 74.19 per cent. A similar trend was observed in when they
were asked about their reaction if friends set them up and they suffered heavy bodily injury. Pre-
exposure data showed that 61.27 per cent said they will involve the police but when same
question was asked after their exposure to the movies the figure declined to 51.29%. In fact
38.71% o f the respondents said they will retaliate. This is against 12.9 % said indicated so
before their exposure to the movies. When asked to choose between poverty and crime before
they watched the movies, 48.38 per cent chose poverty over crime. However, after watching the
selected movies 61.29 per cent opted for crime over poverty. Our findings disagree with our
hypotheses 1 which states that exposure to violence, crime and strong related Nollwood movies
do not influence the behavior of their young audience’s behavior. It is however consistent with
our hypothesis 2 which states that watching violence, crime and strong words- related
Nollywood movies influences the behavior and perception of their young audience.

15
 CHAPTER FIVE

CONCLUSION

On a summary note, this study has critically examined the reality of the enormity of the negative
implications of youths’ exposure to violent television and video films anchoring on qualitative
research approach and the explication of the interplay of the Cultivation Analysis and Social
Cognitive Theories and how they provide possible explanations to these negative implications.
However, it is quite instructive to note the fact that a lot of other social, economic, cultural and
psychological variables also interact with the media, television and video films in particular, to
impact negatively on viewers, especially the youths. What this means is that the media remain
only part of the many catalytic factors in the generation of youths’ violence and as such
contribute to violence in combination with other social and psychological factors. Nevertheless,
we do not need to fold our arms and leave our youths at the mercy of their fate in the face of the
barrages of violence from television and video films that threaten them and the society at large.

There is need for our television stations to rise to the occasion and show more of our indigenous
films that reflect good moral values and the cultural relevance of the country, as studies reveal
that majority of the anti-social behaviors are infiltrations from foreign films. When it becomes
necessary to show foreign films, they should be those that modify and encourage good moral
standards and social consciences. Furthermore, instead of the prevalent tendency of predisposing
young audiences to negative influences from screen contents, more importantly Nollywood
films, there is need for creators to consciously provide the enabling environment for positive
impact by laying more emphasis on how they could ideally employ some of film’s fundamental
roles of:

• Education
• Creative thinking
• Healthy social behaviors
• Creativity and imagination and the enhancement of capacity for constructive problem solving
skills, among others.

16
The government on their part through the film censorship board, the agency responsible for
regulating and monitoring activities in the industry, should step up on the good work they are
already doing to check the rate of portrayal of violence and anti-social activities like (robbery,
drug addiction, kidnapping, sex, etc.) in television and video film contents. Such ‘outrageous
violent and anti-social activities’ need to be completely barred from featuring in our screens
since they portend great negative influence to our children and youths and the nation at large.
Hence, any violation in the above regard should attract severe punishment from the agency as a
deterrent measure for further defaults. Video shops where films are sold and rented out should
also be banned from selling of such films and appropriate punishments mated out to violators.

The parents are not left out in all these efforts, as they have the great responsibility to monitor
what their children and wards watch and as such dissuade them from unnecessary attachment and
influence to these negative activities and their influences. To further draw from American
Academy of Child and Adolescence Psychiatry in these recommendations, parents can also
provide solution to youths’ exposure to excessive television violence by:
• Setting limits on the amount of time they spend with the television as well as consider
removing the TV set from the child's bedroom;
• Making them understand that although the film characters they watch might not actually have
been hurt or killed after all, that such violence in real life, however, actually results in pain or
death;
• Refusing to let the youths see shows known to be violent, and change the channel or turn off
the TV set when offensive material comes on, with an explanation of what is wrong with it;
• Disapproving of the violent episodes in front of the children, stressing the belief that such
behavior is not the best way to handle a problem; as well as,
• Helping them handle peer pressure among friends and mates by reaching out to other parents
and convincing them to also enforce similar rules about the length of time and type of
programme their children may watch, among others.

In clear perception of the harmful effect of youths’ exposure to prevailing televised violence
around us, there is need for parents/teachers to also adopt a level of media literacy as a form of
enlightenment for the younger ones in a media-dominated age like ours, in order to instigate

17
appropriate critical thinking among them. This is because teachers’ and parental involvement in
instilling those internal capabilities among Nigerian youth in achieving learning outcomes with
creativity, imagination and inspiration from the films they watch is very essential.

18
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