Media Influences on Children and Advice for Parents to Reduce Harmful Exposure to Firearm Violence in Media
In this Pediatric Clinics of North America review, Dan Romer, Brad J. Bushman, and Michael Rich examine how entertainment media, video games, and social platforms depict firearms and lay out guidance for pediatricians and parents on managing that exposure. The authors note that firearm-related deaths are a leading cause of youth fatality in the United States and summarize research associating repeated media depictions of guns with increased interest in and comfort around firearms among children and teens. Rather than assigning a single cause, the piece frames media firearm content as one factor among several — alongside household gun access and community violence exposure — worth discussing at well-child visits, and recommends specific counseling scripts pediatricians can use with families on both media choices and safe firearm storage. TechKids Foundation cites it as association-based clinical guidance, not a claim that media exposure alone drives firearm injury.
The review states that firearm-related injury has become one of the leading causes of death among children and adolescents in the United States, framing media depictions of guns as one contextual factor pediatricians should discuss alongside household firearm access.
Romer, Dan, Brad J. Bushman, and Michael Rich. "Media Influences on Children and Advice for Parents to Reduce Harmful Exposure to Firearm Violence in Media." Pediatric Clinics of North America 70, no. 6 (December 2023): 1217–1224. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pcl.2023.06.015