Warning issued re: violence of 'Hunger Games'
Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow
A psychologist and author is concerned about how children will be affected by The Hunger Games, which opens in theaters nationwide today. (3/27)
The first installment of Susan Collins' trilogy The Hunger Games is rated PG-13. The plot involves a government-sponsored reality TV show that forces children to fight each other to the death -- the ultimate winner being the last one standing. Secular film critics are giving it high marks for accurately capturing the novel and making the narrative "perfectly understandable."But Dr. Brenda Hunter, co-author of From Santa to Sexting, warns the movie is really a story about child sacrifice. According to Hunter, the adults portrayed in the story are either impotent or voyeuristic and watch as children kill each other. Parents, she says, should be concerned.
"Their kids are being desensitized to violence," she says in warning parents about allowing their youngsters to view the anticipated blockbuster. "... There are over a thousand studies linking media violence to aggressive behavior in some children. Think of that -- a thousand studies linking this."
And once desensitized, she says, the children are no longer afraid or revolted by what they see. Hunter says "that begins to erode their God-given sense of humanity" -- a deterioration that remains with them as they become adults.
The psychologist goes on to say that what has happened in modern culture is that parental protections that were in place a few decades ago are gone.
"And there's a new philosophy that parents and adults seem to have in this culture," she explains. "And it is: Let's expose kids to everything. Let's expose them to sex. Let's expose them to violence -- and they'll be the better for it."
Not true, according to Dr. Hunter, who says the culture needs to change and parents need to learn to say no. Her recommendation: Don't let children go see The Hunger Games.
"Their kids are being desensitized to violence," she says in warning parents about allowing their youngsters to view the anticipated blockbuster. "... There are over a thousand studies linking media violence to aggressive behavior in some children. Think of that -- a thousand studies linking this."
And once desensitized, she says, the children are no longer afraid or revolted by what they see. Hunter says "that begins to erode their God-given sense of humanity" -- a deterioration that remains with them as they become adults.
The psychologist goes on to say that what has happened in modern culture is that parental protections that were in place a few decades ago are gone.
"And there's a new philosophy that parents and adults seem to have in this culture," she explains. "And it is: Let's expose kids to everything. Let's expose them to sex. Let's expose them to violence -- and they'll be the better for it."
Not true, according to Dr. Hunter, who says the culture needs to change and parents need to learn to say no. Her recommendation: Don't let children go see The Hunger Games.
Read review of The Hunger Games from Focus on the Family's 'Plugged In'
Is the child-on-child violence depicted in The Hunger Games
basically an endorsement of bullying?
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