Earlier this week, Jerry Beck's site reported the following interesting news item, regarding a study of violence in G-rated films. Quest for Camelot was found to be the most violent film in the study. A fair warning: The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was accused of including violence. That should give you some idea of how preposterous the article is.

LOS ANGELES -- A study by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health concludes that G-rated animated films contain a surprising level of violence, and that the violence is increasing.

One of the authors of the study, Kimberly Thompson, an assistant professor of risk analysis at the School of Public Health, said, "The amount of violence has increased significantly over time. The challenge here is that all of the films are very different in nature, and there is a wide range in terms of the amount of violence in all of the films."

The study, which examined 74 G-rated theatrical films available on video, was published in Wednesday's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. It defined violence in broad terms, including scenes where the body is used as a weapon or where there is sword-fighting, gunplay and other aggressive action.

The rambunctiousness of Tigger as he leaps on Pooh and bowls him over in "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" (1977) is categorized as a violent act.

Researchers cited a progression from "Bambi" (1942), in which Bambi's mother is killed by a hunter off screen, to "The Lion King" (1994), in which King Mufasa is killed onscreen by his brother.

"At least one character in each film committed a violent act with the intent to cause physical injury 81 percent of the time," the study states. "Nearly half of the total injuries were fatalities, while characters identified as bad were 23 times more likely to die from injuries than those identified as good."

The movies averaged 9.5 minutes of violence, with the 1998 King Arthur tale "Quest for Camelot" topping the list with 24 minutes of violence, or almost 30 percent of the movie.

Other films high on the violence scale included "A Bug's Life," "Happily Ever After," "The Pebble and Penguin," "The Sword in the Stone" and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame."

"We were surprised that every single one of them had some act of violence," Thompson said. "We're just raising the red flag. It's important for parents to be aware of the violence content in these movies."

Much cartoon violence is slapstick intended for comic effect, the influence of which on children's behavior is uncertain, said Fumie Yokota, a Harvard doctoral student in health policy who co-wrote the study.

"It may desensitize kids so much, they think it's OK and no big deal for somebody to be smacked in the head with a hammer," Yokota said.

The study says it is not clear "how our results for animated films compare with other entertainment for children such as G-rated nonanimated films."

Many of the movies may send the message that force is an acceptable way to resolve differences, the researchers said. "On balance, it is difficult to dispute the potentially powerful role of the media as a teacher of social norms to many young children."

Thompson and Yokota recommended that the Motion Picture Association of America consider changing its rating system to include more detail on the content of G-rated films.

But MPAA chief Jack Valenti said the ratings system in place since the late 1960s consistently receives "high approval marks" from parents.

Valenti said, "In the last 15 years, 70 to 77 percent of all parents with children under 13 find this ratings system very useful to fairly useful ... in helping parents make their own decisions."

The researchers also advised parents to screen G-rated movies beforehand or watch them with their children so they can discuss violent content. They noted that Web sites such as Kids-in-Mind and Screenit provide details about violence, sex and other content for many movies.

Correspondent Dennis Michael and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Gookie

Got News? E-Mail e-mail removed!