Paris February 19 {No.98-32} - Presenting a UNESCO survey on media violence and youth today, UNESCO Director-General Federico Mayor today urged "citizens to react to violence on the screen by exercising their democratic rights as citizens and consumers."

Mr Mayor; Jacques Moreillon, Secretary General of the World Organisation of the Scout Movement; and Professor Jo Groebel of the University of Utrecht, presented a 33-page summary, The UNESCO Global Study on Media Violence - A joint project of UNESCO, the World Organization of the Scout Movement, and Utrecht University. It was released ahead of the full report which will appear later this year. It is the first global survey on media violence and the largest ever inter-cultural study on its relation to children. Five thousand 12-year-olds in 23 countries were asked to answer questionnaires for the survey whose data was processed and analysed by Professor Groebel.

Explaining the Scouts’ participation in and support for the survey, Mr Moreillon said that UNESCO’s Programme Towards A Culture of Peace and Non-Violence was close to the ideals of Scouts. The survey was relevant, Mr Moreillon argued, as it concerned the young "whom we help educate by promoting their autonomy and sense of values."

Findings collected for the survey were divided into geo-cultural regions (Africa, Arab States, Latin America, Asia, Europe and Canada), boys and girls, children living in problem environments (high aggression environments) and those living in non-problematic environments. Consideration was also paid to the level of technological development (access to computers, Internet etc.) and its effect on children’s response to media contents. Out of school children, and those living in extremely remote areas, notably those without television, were not included in the survey.

The survey found that 91% of children in the sample had access to a television set at home and spent a daily average of three hours in front of the box, at least 50% longer than with any other out of school activity, including homework.

The report notes that an average hour of television programming contains five to ten episodes of violence, most of them presented as either thrilling and/or rewarding. The survey moreover showed that action heroes such as Terminator are known to 88% of the world’s children and that 51% of children in high-aggression environments would like to be like him, compared to 37% of those in low-aggression neighbourhoods. Terminator "seems to represent the characteristics which children think are necessary to cope with difficult situations," the report says.

Twenty-six percent of children world-wide, according to the report, perceive action heroes as their role models, while pop stars and musicians serve as role models for 18.5% of 12-year-olds surveyed. However, major gender differences appear: 30% of boys mention action heroes as role models, compared to 21% of girls. There are also important regional differences: 34% of Asians rank action heroes highest as compared to 25% of Europeans and Canadians and 18% of Africans lowest. While drawing attention to the fact that violent contents can encourage destructive attitudes and behaviour among children, the report recognises that "centralised control and censorship are not efficient and do not meet the criteria of democratic societies."

In his presentation, Mr Mayor agreed that censorship was not desireable, "but UNESCO can, and must, sound the alarm when the acceptable has been exceeded," he said, drawing attention on the need of parents and educators to exercise their responsibility notably by guiding the media consumption of children.

Professor Groebel warned against "the tendency of using television as a scapegoat and blaming it for all that is wrong." But he added, "surveys have proved that violence on the screen is increasing and though it is not at the root of our problems, it is not helping them either."

To tackle these problems, the summary report proposes increased public debate involving politicians, producers and pedagogues, the development of professional codes of conduct and self-discipline for producers and innovative forms of media education to promote active and critical media consumption among the young.

While focusing largely on television, the report says that "with communication systems like the Internet, the media will be even more omnipresent and universal," in the near future. "As a consequence," it says, "the new digital environment demands similar attention as culture and education in the traditional world."

The survey was conducted between 1996 and 1997 in the following countries: Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Croatia, Egypt, Fiji, Germany, India, Japan, Mauritius, the Netherlands, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, South Africa, Spain, Tadjikistan, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine. Information was collected by local members of the Scout Movement, the scientific supervision and analysis of the 350,000 data items thus collated were processed by the University of Utrecht.

The report is doubly interesting in that it highlights different reactions to media-contents depending on socio-cultural criteria and also teaches us a great deal about youth around the world. It shows that 44% of the children surveyed reported a strong overlap in what they perceive to be reality and what they see on the screen. reported Nearly half the children reported that they are anxious most of the time or very often. Nine percent had to flee their homes at least once in their life; 47 percent said they would like to live in another country; and, in high-aggression areas, 16% of the children reported that most people in their neighbourhood die because they are killed by others. In this group, 7.5% of children have already used a weapon against another person.

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