Many blogs and new sources have been mentioning the new study that shows that there is more violence in traditional nursery rhymes than in early evening TV shows. I think that everyone who has read nursery rhymes and folk tales understands that they are violent, cautionary tales. And now experts are coming out to refute the results of the study: What’s next, labels warning of violence for the Brothers Grimm?
The researchers admit that they did the study rather tongue-in-cheek, but the way that the media has seized upton the results worries me. We are comparing literature to a visual medium. They are vastly different. In one the children are usually with an adult and having to create images with their imagination. In the other children are simply exposed to images that they may not be ready for. It also must be pointed out that they were looking at early evening TV, not the prime time of CSI, ER and others.