Children don't learn violence, they unlearn it – Telegraph Blogs

Tuesday 28 July 2015 | Blog Feed | All feeds

Daniel Hannan


Children don't learn violence, they unlearn it

Where exactly is the evidence that films make children aggressive?

The Dark Knight might scare children but it won't make them violent

It's August, there's no news, and so the pundits are rushing to opine about whether children should be allowed to watch The Dark Knight. Now it may well be that children shouldn't watch the film because it would frighten them. But tossing in the idea that films "teach children violence" is specious.

Watch how three-year-old boys play. The testosterone is flooding their systems in a way that it won't again until the height of their teens. They are bellicose and self-centred. The only reason they don't do more damage is that they can't curl their chubby fists around weapons.

The real question is not how boys learn to be violent, but how they learn not to be violent. Yet phrasing the question like that would risk closing down an entire industry of sociologists, not to mention attendant politicians and busybodies, who make a living from blaming bad role models, rap lyrics and so on.

You don't believe me? Then you obviously haven't yet taken up my recommendation for holiday reading. The human mind is full of surprises, and behavioural psychology is still a relatively young discipline. The sooner politicians begin to understand its rudiments, the better.

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