Dept will not research effect of violent tapes

Press, 18 June 1986, Page 28

Dept will not research effect of violent tapes

Wellington reporter The Social Welfare Department has nq plans to research the effect on young children of exposure to violent and pornographic videotapes. There were two reasons for this decision, said the Minister of Social Welfare, Mrs Hercus. First, the department’s research programme was fully committed. Second, there would be ethical and practical problems in any method that would prove a link between the viewing of violent and pornographic videos and harmful effects. For example, Mrs Hercus said, the usual research method of comparing two groups, one exposed to the phenomenon and one not, could not be used. A further difficulty was the likelihood of other inadequacies in the home environment that would also have a bearing on the behaviour of children exposed to violent or pornographic videos. The Government should see some research is done, as a matter of ur-

gency, according to National’s health spokesman, Mr Paul East (Nat., Rotorua). It was a matter of considerable importance that research was done on the effect of exposing young children to violence and pornography. Many parents failed to exercise reasonable parental control and allowed their children to watch extremely violent and pornographic videotapes, he said. In some cases, videotapes were used by parents to entertain their children while the parents went out to parties or hotels. Widespread availability of violent and pornographic videotapes in recent years had had a direct relation to the increasing violence in the community. The Government had a responsibility to research this subject, Mr East said. It might well be that there should be stricter controls on the availability of such videotapes, especially if they were likely to be viewed by children.