In the study of the effects of TV violence on regular television viewers, the main theme has been the relation between the amount of violence viewed on TV and viewers' aggressiveness. However, Gerbner et al. (1977) asserted that the relation between the amount of TV violence viewed and viewers' perception of the real world was more important. They substantiated the hypothesis that the more people watched TV, the more they confused the 'reality' in the program with that in the real world. They further claimed that heavy viewing mostly affected viewers' perception of safety in society and of trust in other people. This is not merely a follow-up to Gerbner's Study. He tried to find out the relation between the number of viewing hours and viewers' enculturation. However, in this study, the auther emphasized the type of program as well as the number of viewing hours. Thus, the purpose of this study was to clarify the relation between 1) the amount of TV viewing and viewers' perception of safety in the real world and of trust in other people, and 2) the number of crime-depicting programs viewed and viewers' perception of safety in the real world and of trust in other people in the case of Japan. 504 junior high school students were asked 1) to choose TV programs they often saw from the one-week program (from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.) list, 2) to state how many hours a day they watched TV, and 3) to answer five questions about their perception of safety in the real world and three questions about their perception of trust in other people. The results indicated that there was no relation between the amount of TV viewing and viewers' perception of safety in the real world and of trust in other people. However, there was some relation between the number of crime-depicting programs viewed and perception of safety in the real world. This indicates that some types of programs affect viewers' perception of safety while others do not. The fact suggests that in considering the effects of TV viewing, types of program, should be considerd, thougt they were overlooked in the past study.

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While the problem of "ijime (bullying)" has become serious among pupils, few scholars have paid attention to this problem until recently. Among the studies done by scholars, most of them are fact-finding surveys and are not enough to explain why pupils bully others. Pupils' ijime behavior is sometimes very violent and such behavior is often portrayed on TV programs. Thus, it is possible to consider the issue from the view point of TV violence. Many researchers have undertaken studies of TV violence in western countries. Several theories on the mechanics of how television violence affects the viewer have been raised. One such theory, supported by past research, deals with the effects of modeling as well as of desensitization. The objective of this study is to examine the effects of "ijime" TV programs on children within the framework of observational learning theory and desensitization theory. The following three hypotheses will form the basis for this study. 1) Pupils exposed to "ijime" TV programs tend to bully others. 2) Pupils learn ways of bullying more through TV than any other medium. 3) Pupils exposed to "ijime" TV programs are more desensitized to bullying behavior by others. A survey was conducted in order to test the above hypotheses. The subjects were 977 (male 497, female 480) junior high-school students. The questionnaire included the following headings: 1) sex 2) programs frequently watched 3) experiences of bullying behavior 4) media through which students learn this bullying behavior 5) degree of desensitization to real bullying (students were asked how they would react if they happened to see real bullying by others) The first hypothesis was proved as a result of a chi square analysis of the obtained data; while the others were not. By discussing these results, the following were suggested. 1) In measuring desensitization, our questionnaire did not seem to be sensitive enough, and this reminds us of the basic problem of difficulty in measuring attitude. 2) In the process of learning bullying behavior, personal media as well as mass media seem to function as sources of acquiring bullying methods. This suggests that it would be necessary to clarify the interaction of these two types of media. 3) Pupils exposed to " ijime" TV programs tend to bully others and this suggests the necessity to control the portrayal of bullying behavior on TV.

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