In her spare time Anja Riitta Lahikainen enjoys painting.

Researcher profile

Children first

For Anja Riitta Lahikainen in research it's children
and in life it's grandchildren

Text: Karoliina Kantola
Photo: Jonne Renvall
Translation: Virginia Mattila

Generally even the shortest violent scenes and images stick in children's minds, and so far we don't know for how long. Moreover, children's sleep is the more disturbed the more they are exposed to media violence.

Anja Riitta Lahikainen and her work group have researched the wellbeing of children of five to six and also the role of media in the world of children. For the sake of comparison the ten-strong work group has researched children in both Finland and Estonia, first in the 1990s and then at the beginning of the 2000s.

Their research shows that small children are already active and interested with regard to television and capable of regulating their viewing. Children are frequently unwillingly passively exposed to television images.

"If the parents are watching television, children are likely to watch more in their company than if they were alone," says Professor Lahikainen.

As an example Professor Lahikainen mentions a five-year-old who was terrified that an elephant shot on television would rampage through the screen and into the livingroom.

A farewell to arms

"Adults are not well informed on children's fears. You can't see into children's inner worlds unless you discuss things with them." says Professor Lahikainen.

Parents might avoid watching television when the children are around; for example, parents could read the news on the Internet in the evenings. Professor Lahikainen would be glad to see no more weapons at all on the television news.

Massacres in schools cause the researcher to think that with Internet content there's no telling what is fact and what is fiction. She perceives a connection between glorifying weapons and the vast amount of visual violence available.

"And when the most recent case was reported, how many children once again saw a weapon pointing towards the viewer?" she wonders.

Professor Lahikainen points out that the perpetrators of the recent school massacres in Finland had planned their actions when they were adolescents. She believes that adolescents really need support so that the Internet is not their only network. We cannot expect adolescents to be too independent.

Amid all this violence there are still positive media influences to be found in children's lives, but those investigations are still ongoing.

Grandchildren and nature programmes

Conducting research on extensive projects and teaching keep Professor Lahikainen busy seven days a week. She lives in Helsinki so as to be able to spend as much time as possible with her grandchildren. She points to a picture on her office wall featuring three happy children.

"It is important to me to be there in the children's everyday lives and to watch them grow."

If time permits, Professor Lahikainen enjoys painting watercolours, jogging and yoga.

"And I do indeed watch television," she smiles.

"I like to compare the various news broadcasts during the day and I keep up with certain reality TV series for the psychological aspects. Nature programmes are a nice substitute for travel."