Media are playing an increasingly important role in the lives of children and young people. They are increasingly coming under the influence of the media and the role of parents is therefore diminishing. In this chapter we will discuss the influence of the media on youth, the influence of the media on the tasks of youth care and the influence on the organization of youth care, on the basis of various topics. At the end of each topic there is a small conclusion.
- Influence of violence on TV and other media
- Influence of social media
- The media and the complications within the Youth Care Office
Influence of violence on TV and other media
In recent years, a discussion has started about violence on TV and its influence on children in particular. Scientists have conducted research into these influences and have drawn different conclusions. One person claims that violence has a harmful effect on young people and children, but other scientists believe that it is not too bad. According to the scientists, it is clear that TV and other media can influence the behavior of children and young people.
There are various theories about the influence of violence on youth.
- The reduction theory
- The stimulation theory
- No-effect theory
The reduction theory assumes that the viewer becomes less aggressive by seeing aggression on TV. Because the viewer sees the painful consequences of violence, he or she is less likely to exhibit aggressive behavior.
The stimulation theory assumes that seeing violence actually leads to an increase in violence and aggression. Within these theories there are different hypotheses. In short, they come down to this:
- There is a physical, emotional response that causes an increased heart rate and increased perspiration. This remains even after seeing the film. This makes children and young people more aggressive.
- Two elements are needed to stimulate aggression in the viewer. Namely a reason for violence and the connection between the violence on TV and its target. If both of these elements are present, the viewer is more likely to show aggression.
- The aggressive images become less and less meaningful and are therefore increasingly considered ‘normal’. This ensures that viewers find violence in real life increasingly normal.
- People naturally imitate each other. So when violent films or programs are often watched, people can imitate this in reality and that has a ‘contagious’ effect for friends or bystanders of the violence.
The No Effect Theory assumes that violence has no effect on the viewer because, for example, the viewer was already aggressive before watching violence and that it is natural whether someone is aggressive or not. All kinds of research has been done and things have been proven and proven for all theories, so there is no theory that is the right theory. They are probably all correct to some extent, but it mainly depends on the child himself. For example, if children quickly identify with the hero of a movie or have limited intelligence, they are more susceptible to violent programs and therefore possibly also to violence. Boys also watch violence on TV more often than girls. This is a difference in character and therefore does not automatically apply to every boy or girl. In addition to the children and young people, it is also the programs themselves. Violence in a comedy is generally taken less seriously than violence in, for example, an action film.
All in all, many people agree that seeing violent films, programs or games has a bad influence on children and young people, but other influences also play a role, such as the character of the child and the intention of the child. movie.
The influence of these consequences on the organization of youth care is of great importance. Youth care regularly has to deal with aggressive young people. Youth care generally pays a lot of attention to these young people . Youth care tries to provide good guidance to violent young people. These young people often have a disorder, problems at home or other problems.
Conclusion:
- Violence on TV therefore affects youth. This influence is probably mainly negative. It is claimed that violence on TV encourages children to use violence themselves.
- Violence on TV also affects the tasks of youth care. If it really is the case that children become more aggressive because of violence on TV, then this means that youth care has more work to do in the field of aggressive youth thanks to violence in the media.
- Violence on TV actually does not have much influence on the organization of youth care. It is therefore not a direct cause of the complications within youth care.
Influence of social media
Nowadays it is rare to see young people without a smartphone. During class, on your bike or in the shopping street: you come across smartphones everywhere. It seems as if today’s young people can no longer live without it. Maybe that’s true, and it’s more dangerous than we think. Or would it be innocent after all?
According to Larry Rosen, a psychologist at Cal State Domingues Hills University, social networks do more harm than good to the young and still in school. It is of course true that you can make good contacts via social networks or quickly find someone on the other side of the world, but there are also many disadvantages. Rosen conducted research into the effects of social media and discovered a link between the level of social media use and health problems. They are more likely to suffer from anxiety attacks, depression and physical problems such as stomach and sleep problems. In his research he also came across the result that young people become more antisocial and consume more alcohol the more often they log in to Facebook. These young people also skip school more often and experience concentration problems more often. For every fifteen minutes they study, they spend no more than three minutes actually studying. The rest of the time they spend checking their phones. Partly because of this, they also score lower grades. Yet, according to Larry Rosen, there are also positive effects. They can share and communicate with friends and take time to think about the response. This is especially nice for shy young people to come out of their shell. According to other recent studies, there are even more positive effects. People like it when family members who are on holiday or live far away regularly let themselves be heard via social media. As a result, people worry less often and that results in less stress.
There are of course more pros and cons. We list them briefly.
Positive influence of social media on youth:
- Shy young people can come out of their shell, because it is good for your self-confidence. This is, for example, due to the ‘likes’ you can get on Facebook. These can be interpreted as compliments and this makes young people more self-confident.
- You can communicate with friends, acquaintances and family who live further away, thereby maintaining ties, which has a positive impact on your health. In particular, the reduction of stress due to anxiety.
- It improves ties, relationships and friendships by maintaining contact more often. It is claimed that contacts are becoming more superficial due to social media. You don’t see your Facebook friends often enough in real life to have a truly deep friendship.
- It increases the network of friends, because you often speak to people you normally wouldn’t just approach.
- You unconsciously make contacts with people. Simply ‘liking’ something creates a positive relationship between two people. You are also more likely to ask something to someone you don’t know very well.
Negative influence of social media on youth:
- Perform less at school. Because social networks are very time-consuming and addictive, you have less time for school work or assignments.
- You can take things the wrong way online. If someone says something that they do not mean in a bad way, some people can still take it the wrong way because you do not see other factors online such as a laugh, sarcasm in the voice or posture.
- It can scare people. For example, you may become afraid of a disaster that you read a lot about, or you may become afraid of certain people who bully you online or bully someone else (online).
So you see that social media can have both a positive and a negative influence on children and young people. Youth care adjusts their field of work because their target group spends a lot of time online. Young people, but also parents, are active on social networks and youth care takes advantage of this. For example, they have a Facebook, Twitter and Hyves account.
Conclusion:
- Social media therefore has a major influence on young people. Both positive and negative.
- Social media also influences the tasks of youth care. For example, children who are bullied via the internet come to youth care. Youth care also has a Twitter account where they post tweets about, for example, a changed law on youth policy or tweets with links to videos, programs or newspaper articles on topics related to youth care.
- Social media also influences the organization of youth care. The previous point is of course also related to this. Youth Care tries to reach the target groups via social media. They need people to do that and of course that must be well organized.
The media and the complications within the Youth Care Office
- ‘PvdA: Youth Care Act needs to be significantly amended’
- ‘Youth care training below standard’
- ‘Boy (13) flees from Youth Care’
- ‘Children had sex in youth institution’
- ‘More frequent sexual abuse in youth care’
As you can see from the headlines above, youth care is mainly reported negatively in the news. The headlines above are only a small part of all the negative messages about youth care. A website has even been created, called Anti Bureau Jeugdzorg, especially for people who want to share their negative experiences and opinions about youth care.
The criticism is often about the intervention of the Youth Care Office. They are too early or too late or they tackled traffic d. Professionals in youth care find themselves in a difficult position: on the one hand, they are told not to get involved, that all is well in the family, that out-of-home placement is excessive, and on the other hand, especially when things go wrong, they are asked: Why? Didn’t you intervene, why didn’t you take this child out of the house, away from these terrible parents?
The Youth Care Office is faced with a very difficult choice. They can opt for out-of-home placement, but that can be traumatic for both children and parents. They can also choose to let the child live at home, with all possible consequences. Children don’t want to leave home, they want the abuse or neglect to stop. When the family guardian makes a choice, there are always pros and cons. There are always neighbors or friends who agree or disagree. And if the people who disagree with it then bring it out into the world, youth care will receive negative news coverage.
That is why the organization of the youth care office is so difficult, but also extremely important. An organization must take care providers into account, so that they can do their work as best as possible. The organization must also have a clear vision of how they can provide help to clients, a vision that supports care providers to deal as best as possible with the difficult choices they sometimes have to make. The organization must be such that employees pay attention to the safety and development of the child, but also to the positive aspects and possibilities of the parents and the educational situation.
Although there are many people who criticize the youth care agency’s approach, there are also reports from people who think this is unjustified. For example, Erik Gerritsen published an article on February 16, 2010 in which he gave his opinion about the fact that youth care often received such negative press. A few things he wrote:
‘I have become more or less accustomed to the one-sided critical reporting in the media. For once, good news sells less well than scandals, affairs and especially family dramas.’
‘If someone is murdered, the police are not blamed. If someone cannot kick their addiction, Jellinek is not to blame. But if a child is abused, the Youth Care Office (almost) always did it.’
‘Youth care often does not talk back for fear that the press will then find out about the always present dirty laundry. I am convinced that if administrators of youth care institutions allow journalists to talk to our professionals even more than we already do, they will be impressed by the amount of good work that is being done on the work floor.’
He is therefore not saying that youth care is all good, but that youth care should be frank about what is going on in youth care, because that criticism is usually unfounded. Other people completely disagree with his view. Melody Tollenaar responded to his article on May 25. She replied with an answer that was approximately as long as Erik Gerritsen’s article and said, among other things, the following:
‘I am now an adult, but I experience the consequences of what the youth care agency has done to me every day. I spent almost 6 months in a juvenile detention center. I was just a troublesome teenager, not a criminal!’
‘It does not come out of the blue that people who have had to deal with youth care are so negative.’
‘And that leaves aside the fact that there is a difference of just 3 years between the so-called pedagogical staff and the young people who need to be treated. That commands absolutely no respect and authority from problem young people!’
‘What a fantastic country! We just write a line and the problem is solved that easily. Is our government really that stupid or is it closing its eyes to this?’
‘At the age of almost 13, I decided to sound the alarm at youth care and that was the stupidest thing I could ever do. I have been through a lot, but I can wholeheartedly say that the only thing that has left me traumatized is being wrongly locked up in a prison.’
‘It’s crazy that people who need to be punished have more rights and benefits than people who actually need HELP.’
What is striking about Melody’s response is that she actually only talks about the fact that she was in a youth prison, where she thought the rules were far too strict for problem young people compared to criminal young people. She’s actually critical of politics and policy and justice and the fact that nothing had changed in that juvenile detention center when things had changed. Although she ended up there through youth care, other than that she doesn’t say much about youth care. Yet she starts and ends by saying that youth care is so bad.
Afterwards there are more positive and negative reactions and experiences about youth care. The differences in opinions are clearly visible in this way . Some people have good experiences with it, others don’t. Most negative reactions to this article are about the youth care agency that remains stuck in the process. That there is no progress. There are also reactions that the youth care office is already working to improve the organization. Bregje Arts (Social Work and Services student) replied the following on March 1, 2010:
‘Bureau Jeugdzorg Brabant is already working on raising its profile. Last year they had a broadcast made by Premtime to show what the work of a family guardian looks like and what challenges they face.’
Yet there are more negative than positive reactions to youth care.
The media has a lot of power when it comes to the image of youth care because they have the power to determine what is put out into the world and what is not. Then of course they will usually choose stories that many people will be interested in. People are naturally interested in bad stories and not just in a series of stupid facts. That is one of the reasons why youth care is portrayed in such a negative light by the media.
Conclusion:
The media has a major influence on complications within the youth care agency. They have great power mainly because they can choose what is published and in what way. As a result, more negative than positive things are said about the youth care agency because negative stories are more interesting to the public. This is also a reason that many negative things are written about the youth care agency.