The source of violence among children

Once again, a child has been killed, and another has been sent to prison. If our children are walking around with weapons, it means the situation is serious. Under normal circumstances, children should be coming together to play, have fun, and share the excitement of preparing for life. However, we have recently been observing that peer violence is becoming widespread among individuals of childhood age. The fact that violence has reached such an extreme level, even leading to murder, shows how tragic the situation has become.

What makes children think of violence instead of play or entertainment? Why do children feel the need to carry weapons when they go to meet their peers? How can the smallest argument result in murder? How has resorting to violence, attempting to kill, or even killing become so normalized? Why do individuals of childhood age, while still at the very beginning of their lives, choose to destroy and be destroyed rather than to develop, heal, and reinforce their existence?

Perhaps the first answer that comes to mind for all these questions is that our children and young people have lost their joy of life while still in the spring of their lives, or perhaps they have never tasted it at all. Children who so easily accept separating from life and being separated from it have either lost their joy of life in some way or have never experienced it.

Not experiencing or losing the joy of life. Unless the root causes of this are addressed, it will not be possible to prevent violent incidents and murders. We cannot simply dismiss the issue by attributing these events to momentary anger. It is necessary to reveal the background reasons for how individuals of childhood age turn to violence and to find solutions. For this, it is important to address and research the subject from multiple perspectives.

The family environment into which a child is born is decisive. From the moment every individual is born, they are exposed to the "code loading" of the people in their environment. A child develops their personality based on the behavioral patterns, values, emotions, and intellectual codes instilled in them. A child raised in a family environment where violent discourse and behavior are dominant is more prone to violence. Similarly, a child not receiving enough attention from their parents or family relatives during their growth process can also lead them toward violence. However, a child raised with love and attention is not expected to harbor codes of violence. Today, especially in large cities, children who are left in daycare centers from infancy because their parents are working, and who grow up away from the environment of love, attention, and trust they need, are perhaps led to feed their defense mechanisms primarily with a sense of self-protection.

On the other hand, children today are born into a computer environment and grow up interacting with virtual channels. Therefore, it is not easy to estimate how positive or negative the effects of the content they access through virtual channels are. It is important that the types of content children are exposed to are first and foremost well-known by families and that the necessary actions are taken.

Research also supports how significant the impact of television broadcasts, especially films and series watched by children, is. However, unfortunately, since most television series and films are produced with commercial goals in mind, they target emotions rather than being informative. This often leads to exposure to content heavily laden with violence.

And, of course, one of the most important factors driving individuals, and thus children and young people, toward violence is economic conditions. We know that young individuals who cannot achieve the living conditions they dream of and long for due to economic reasons often turn this into anger. The solution to this problem is, of course, beyond the scope of families and falls under the authority of public officials. Directing children and young individuals toward areas that will make their lives more meaningful, creating opportunities where they can transform their energy into creativity, and offering possibilities where they can realize themselves in line with their talents, goals, and enthusiasms could ensure that the picture changes entirely across society.

It is of serious importance that our young people and children are saved from falling into a void, that they are given the opportunity to realize themselves, and that both families and public authorities come together to find solutions to these problems. It must not be forgotten that energy that is not transformed into creativity and self-realization can lead to dangerous explosions. Indeed, we see that this is the most important reason for all these explosions of violence.

No individual in this society should be unjustly torn from life or locked in prison at a childhood age. Both those who are torn from life by being subjected to violence and those who have given up on life enough to commit violence are the children of this society. It is the duty of this society to protect, look after, and bring them back to life, society, and the country.