Violence is another type of TV immorality. In the United States, a TV critic for Time magazine recently praised the “grisly good humor” in a batch of horror programs. The series featured scenes of decapitation, mutilation, impalement, and demonic possession. Of course, much TV violence is less gruesome​—and more easily taken for granted. When Western television was demonstrated recently in a remote village in Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa, one bewildered old man could only ask: “Why are whites always stabbing, shooting and punching one another?”

The answer, of course, is that television producers and sponsors want to give viewers what viewers want to see. Violence draws viewers.

Certainly, the rise of the TV age has seen a corresponding rise in immorality and violence. Coincidence? Hardly so. One study showed that the rate of crime and violence in three countries increased only after TV was introduced into each of these countries. Where TV was introduced earlier, the crime rate rose earlier.