Background to the Study

The mass media, most especially television have gradually become a part of daily lives, and sources of information, education and entertainment have been described as the primary functions of the media. Folarin (2005) assigned three functions to the media: Surveillance of the Environment (the news function), correlation of the different parts of the Environment (the editorial function) and transmission of the cultural heritage from one generation to the other (the cultural transmission function).

Film was introduced into Nigeria in the 1900's by the British colonialist who used it for propaganda purposes, while the church used it to spread the Gospel, The Colonial Administration and the Church saw film not only as a medium of entertainment but as an effective medium of communication (Akpabio, 2003). The British colonialist with the Christian missionaries used film amongst other media to persuade Nigerians to accept Christianity, education and the western culture.

On Monday, August 12, 1903, the first motion picture was shown in Nigeria at the Glover Memorial hall in Lagos by Mr. Balboa of Barcelona, Spain, under the management of a Nigerian, Herbert Macaulay, who later closed his exhibition in Lagos and left to continue showing films in other West African countries. After his departure, an enterprising European merchant, Stanley Jones, began to show films in the same Glover Memorial Hall, and he showed his first films in November 1903.Mgbejume, (1989) said gradually it grew and became popular in the 1960's. The Nigeria Home Movie industry thus, began from there.

Childhood development can be a frustrating and a worrying time for the young people. Apart from changes that occur in their interest and moral interaction, defining them and describing their position in the changing world, these changes increase their self-awareness, self- identity and their moral recognition apprehension, (Block and Robins, 2009).

Childhood development stages are noticeable by relentless psychological and emotional stresses (Armett, 2008). As they develop from childhood to adulthood they tend to explore more and new ideas. These changes normally occur in both boys and girls; however, Randy (2011) found that more difficult experiences in transition are seen by girls and boys. This implies that television is one of the tools that help in establishing the adolescent behaviour and their opinions and moral interaction (Bryant, 2011). Television enables children to gain perspective to the liberal moral world. Children watch television to describe effective roles and behaviour of people in the society. Robert (1982) observed that television portrays girls as more passive than boys. In most cases, they are mostly concern with grooming and dating. Programmes on television such as soap operas reveal women as being mostly acted upon as compared to men (Caplovitz, 2002).

Early research on the effects of viewing violence on television especially among children found a desensitizing effect and the potential for aggression. Virtually since the dawn of television, parents, teachers, legislators and mental health professionals who wanted to understand the impact of television programs, particularly on children. As a result of 15years of consistently disturbing finds about the violent content of children‘s programs, The Surgeon General Scientific Adversary Committee on Television and moral behavior was found in 1969 to assess the impact of violence on the attitude, values, and behaviour of viewers. Onokome (2004) stated that violence is one of the effects of home video. Children who watch a lot of violent films are prone to violent acts. There is the belief that people often accept the fictional representation