Can you separate fantasy from reality? A lot of people know that the media has a desensitising effect on people, especially children and teens. Whether it's movies, music or video games, the effect of viewing violence can lead to aggression. Personally, these stories have never been a direct issue with me. When I was younger I always wondered why people wouldn't be able to tell which story should stay in a movie or in our imagination, and which is reality. However, we still see more and more news of violence and regular crimes, which is a direct consequence of watching movies and various media.
Last week, a video went viral of a battle between gangs of vocational students in Kalasin province after seeing the new Thai movie 4KINGS, which is a story about the fights between vocational students in the 90s. People think the movie caused imitation behaviour. Well, apparently it is. And who should be blamed for this incident? There are many young people who are ready for this kind of violent behaviour anyway, regardless if they've seen 4KINGS or not.
Adolescence is a period of rapid hormonal changes, and it is consistently associated with aggressive behaviour. Teens at this age need to express themselves and do it one way or another. But not everyone is so violent that they want to commit crimes. Rowell Huesmann, a research professor at the Institute for Social Research of the University of Michigan, says his research revealed that children who watched many hours of violence on television when they were in elementary school tended to show higher levels of aggressive behaviour as teens. And by observing these participants into adulthood, Huesmann found that the ones who'd watched a lot of violent content in the media when at eight years old were more likely to be arrested and prosecuted for criminal acts as adults.
American teen pop idol Billie Eilish recently made another headlines for saying she suffered nightmares after being exposed to "abusive" pornography. The 19-year-old singer opened up about the issue while appearing as a guest on Howard Stern's show on SiriusXM, where she revealed being exposed to pornography by the age of 11, and the experience gave her "nightmares". She said she feels "devastated" due to the exposure.
"I didn't understand [then] why that was a bad thing. I thought it was how you learned how to have sex," she said. "I didn't say no to things that were not good when I started having sex. I thought that's what I was supposed to be attracted to."
However, Eilish's comments was met with dissatisfaction, especially to those in the porn industry and sex workers. The American porn star Kissa Sins defended her profession and responded on Twitter to Eilish's comments: "How can celebrities get away with this kind of hatred against a specific group of people? When will sex workers get rights like everyone else? Don't watch porn when you're 11 and then blame us. It's not educational, it's entertainment. This is your parents' fault, not porn."
These are universal problems. It's a problem that can happen to anyone in the world. But is the media to blame? I don't think that's the whole solution. Porn and sex stories have been with humans since before we were born. It will never be eliminated and censorship based on sex or violence is never the answer.
What is the answer is responsible parenting. We need to monitor what our children are watching to make sure they're not involved in behaviours that could harm them. That's the reason why there is a "child mode" on devices with content and privacy restrictions. Kids today can access everything and anything via the internet. You wouldn't blame the media as much if you were a more responsible parent.
Tatat Bunnag is a feature writer for the Life section of the Bangkok Post.