Email :

Phone : (301) 654-3091
Fax : 301-654-2394

May 4, 1999

ORGANIZATION CALLS ON CONGRESS
AND INDUSTRY TO STOP MERCHANDISING
VIOLENCE TO CHILDREN

LION & LAMB SPEAKS OUT TO SENATE
ON CONSEQUENCES OF VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES
AND TOY ENTERTAINMENT

Washington, DC -- Charging the media, toy and video game industries with "the same reckless disregard for the facts that the tobacco industry showed for so many years," the executive director of The Lion & Lamb Project today asked Congress to help parents protect their children from the corrosive effects of "entertainment" violence.

"Just as we know that not every person who smokes will get lung cancer, not every child who spends hours watching violent television programs and playing violent video games will grow up to perform violent acts," said Daphne White, Lion & Lamb’s executive director. "But a certain percentage will," she concluded. Noting that Congress has already taken action to protect young children from the marketing efforts of the tobacco and alcohol industries, she called on the nation’s legislators to extend similar protections in stopping the marketing of adult violent fare to children.

These recommendations came at a hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee in the wake of the recent outburst of school violence in Littleton, CO. As in Pearl, Paducah, Jonesboro, and Springfield, students at Columbine High School again turned guns on other students, bringing horror into the nation’s schools and prompting many to ask what could possibly motivate children to such hideous crimes.

While none of us will ever know for sure what led those two youths to murder their schoolmates in cold blood, this does not give us the luxury of not doing anything, said White.

Unfortunately, "parents are not on a level playing field when it comes to limiting their children’s access to violent videos, toys, television, movies, song lyrics and other forms of ‘entertainment’ marketed to children," White said. "It is disingenuous of industry to spend millions of dollars marketing violence to children, and then suggest that parents, ’just say no’."

In such a culture, where violence is so glorified, we need to give our children a clear message that violence is not acceptable -- violence is not child’s play. Doing this requires constant vigilance on the part of parents -- we must monitor the television our children watch, the movies and videos they see, the toys they play with, and the video and internet games they play.

"We can no longer afford to give our children mixed messages about the acceptability of violence in our society. We are giving children such mixed messages when we tell them that violence is ‘bad,’ but then give them a toy machine gun," White said. "We are giving such mixed messages when we tell them that hitting their brother is unacceptable, but then allow them to play ultra-violent video games."

The Lion & Lamb Project is a national, grassroots parents’ initiative working to stop the merchandising of violence to children. Lion & Lamb helps parents understand that violence is a learned behavior, and that parents have a crucial role to play in teaching their own values to their children.

Lion & Lamb provides parents with resources such as a Parent Action Kit, which includes information about how children learn violent behaviors and attitudes, and what parents can do to teach conflict resolution and anger management skills to their children. Lion & Lamb also offers parenting workshops nationwide. The organization is in the midst of a campaign to collect 10,000 violent toys nationwide, as a way for children and families to express their conviction that violence is not child’s play.