Violence on TV may have peaked — report

Press, 19 December 1986, Page 2

Violence on TV may have peaked — report

Violence on television appears to have peaked and could be decreasing, said the deputy director of the Mental Health Foundation, Dr Hilary Haines, yesterday.

She based her comments on the foundation’s latest Media Watch survey of violence on television. The survey covered all dramatic programmes screened from November 29 to December 5.

During the 121 hours of programmes watched, there were 781 episodes of violence, an average of 6.4 episodes an hour. The survey at the same time in 1984 found an average of 9.5 episodes of violence each hour and 6.7 episodes in 1983. Dr Haines said the survey followed up promises by Television New Zealand to reduce the amount of violence screened and

to move the screening time of adult programmes from 8.30 p.m. to 9 p.m. She said the trend looked promising but there was still too much violence on television. The foundation wanted no more than two episodes of violence each hour.

“That would bring our television programmes down to a level similar to some European countries,” she said. The. foundation was pleased that TVNZ did not seem to be buying some of the more violent programmes from the United States.

“In particular, we are glad that the rash of violent cartoons promoting war toys that have been produced in the United States are not being screened here,” said Dr Haines.