EFFECT OF VIOLENT FILM ON NIGERIA CHILDREN

                                                 
Film is a series of moving picture recorded with sound that tells a story- shown on the television or at the cinema. As part of mass communication, it the use of vision and sound (audio visual) in transmitting and disseminating its message. These message can be used in educating, informing, entertaining and socializing its target audience. One of the most debated aspects of film is the extent to which violence of the film influences social behavior. Also there has been scant scientific evidence to prove causal relationship such as one between violence of films and increase in crime rate. However, from the earliest days of medium, adults have expressed concern about the influence of films on the children parents have shown anxiety about the influence of violence of film on children since at that age, a child’s social  adjustment or mental health is affected.
Researchers monitored brain activity in a group of children while they watched a variety of films scenes ranging from a bloody boxing match in the Sylvester stallion films, rocky iv, to image of baby animals. When watching rocky iv, a section of the children brain was activated that is also believed to hold long term memories of traumatic events. It is where rape victims store memories of being attacked, for example, and where traumatized war veterans store their experience in battle. The senate professor john testified before the US that the brain treats entertainment violence as something real and stores this violence as long term memory.
The brain is treating it as serious stuff many parents labour under the misapprehension that by accomplishing their children to the cinema or by sitting with them in front of the television they can counter the effect of violence on them. Others, unrestrained by common sense, argue  that by teaching children media literacy in other words explaining that screen violence is not real well immunize them from any effect, but new
neurological evidence shown that children are unable to distinguish between frictional and actual violence and indicate that parents can do nothing to minimize the long term effects of what their child is seeing just by being present or discussing it with them comparing the brain activity of non aggressive adolescents with those diagnosed with disruptive behavioral disorders while they watched moderately violent scene provided further insight. in another view,adolescents with DBD showed less activity in their frontal lobe the area responsible for decision making behavior, impulse control and attention than those who had little or no exposure to such materials before, even more interesting was follow up research which found that watching screen violence had change the frontal lobe brain function of the normal adolescents to be more like that of the children with DBD.
The entertainment industry claims no two films or indeed video games will affect the same people in the same way and argue that you can’t generalize video games may exert on even more powerful effect on a child and now is there further evidence to show precisely what happens to a child brain while he or she is shooting the bad guys. A study published in journal human brain mapping describe how brain areas associated with emotional and appropriate social response are suppressed with every new round on the video game, the players reacted more violently with less emotion to the threat of violence conditioning their brain to respond this way in real life. The younger the child, the more easily the size, structure and function of their brain can be attacked permanently as a direct result of what they are exposed to, a good example of this is the finding that learning a musical instrumental by the age of 12 will actually make the left temporal region of a child brain large. This gives them a better verbal memory and vocabulary in later life. Equally, The brain size and function of children raised without nurturing or love is also different to those raised in a warm loving environment what we must take from these and many other example is that children brain are in transition and it vital that we control censor what they experience in order to provide the best condition from their development.
However, the evidence of the potentials danger posed to a child’s brain development by these violent film does not seems to features in the decision made by those entrusted to look after their interest. Earlier this year in removing brains on certain video nastiest, the British board film classification reportedly stated that while they were tasteless, there was no evidence the films caused harm to viewer. Again the public health community, based on over 30years of research, is that viewing entertainment violence can lead to increase in aggressive attitude, values and behavior. According to some communicate theories like the technological theory that the rightness or wrongness of an action will depends on the consequence which the action will give rise and deontologists believes that the judgment of whether an action is god or bad should be based on the action itself and not on the consequence it produces. The minimally powerful media theory is on perception. This perception here refers to the ways that people perceive media massages targeted at them.
    When we talk about selective exposure under these theory is the idea that people expose themselves or attend to those messages that are consistent with their they pre-existing attitudes and beliefs on the other hand they avoid those messages that contradict their predisposition .When a child views kidnap, rituals and crisis or any other violence films you find out they attach more importance and meaning to what they view, they begin to do selection on which one to take and act on and from there, their behavioral change, if not corrected, will lead them to take to violence, which will lead to not respecting their elders and even their parents at home or even abandon their education for violence in the society.                           
    Generally in conclusion, the national broadcasting commission (NBC) should not only make laws for the broadcasting houses in Nigeria but also make sure that the laws are strictly implemented, films censorship commission should monitor all the films aired in the television house in Nigeria for every quarter and make sure none of them parades violence. The above bodies should withdraw the license of any television houses that parades violence. They should organize lectures every quarter for all the television and film producers on the effects of violence on the children and all television houses that air violent films should have supervisors to ensure that every program meets the standards required in (F.c.c) code. All film producers should produce more educational films for the children.