Directors of bloody flicks like "Blade II" and "Hannibal" may be reaching a younger audience than they anticipate, as Dartmouth Medical School researchers have found that an average of 12.5 percent of children ages 10 to 14 have seen movies rated R for violence by the Motion Picture Association of America. The team found that exposure to “extremely violent” movies was linked to heritage, education and socioeconomic background.
The team conducted the research to fill what they saw as a gap in a field that has previously focused more on the effects of childhood exposure to media, according to the study.
“We know so much about the harmful effects of exposure to violent media content, but how much exposure children actually get has been largely ignored,” Keilah Worth, lead author of the study and a post-doctoral fellow at DMS and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center’s Norris Cotton Cancer Center, told the Office of Public Affairs in a press release. “Now, we’re learning more about the large numbers of kids seeing this material and who they are.”
According to the survey, several independent risk factors were associated with exposure to “extremely violent” movies. Boys, minorities, those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and respondents with low school performance were all found to be more likely to have seen the movies.
