Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Parents find it hard to control their children for the children are now influenced by many things outside home like television or movies. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.
你是否同意以下观点？现在的父母觉得很难管束自己的孩子，因为他们受太多外界事物（比如电视、电影）的影响。请用具体的理由和事例来说明。
There is a very old expression, “Monkey see, monkey do,” which describes how easy it is for people to be influenced by what they see and hear. In the days before mass communication and electronic media, it would have been much harder for children to be exposed to any role models other than their own parents, family members, and neighbors. Nowadays, however, it is practically impossible to keep impressionable young people isolated from the images they see every day on TV or in the movies. Try as they might, modern parents have a much harder job than ever before to protect their children from the negative images they encounter in the media.
One of the most distressing results of such exposure to detrimental influences is the increase in bullying among young people. Bombarded every day by images of beautiful people with perfect bodies, even elementary school students become quick to judge other children based solely on their physical characteristics. It doesn't matter if a child is smart, or sensitive, or creative, or musical-if he or she is too chubby, or too short, or too “ugly,” there will be bullies on hand to make their young lives miserable. As much as parents would like to intercede in such cases and protect their children from such attacks, they can't always be there on the bus, or in the classroom or the schoolyard and neither can the parents of the bullies, who might be able to put a stop to the behavior if only they could witness it firsthand.
While bullying may lead to awful ends （such as a persecuted child committing suicide）， it is not the only behavior that parents seem to have no control over. From violent video games, children learn that many of life's problems can be solved with a weapon, particularly a high-power, automatic rifle. And it does little good for parents to assert controls over what their children see and hear at home-there are too many opportunities for children to play violent video games at public arcades and their friends' houses.
In the mid-fifties, many parents were scandalized by the “pelvic gyrations” of Elvis Presley on the Ed Sullivan Show, and vowed to do whatever they could to protect their kids from the evils of rock 'n roll. Little did they know then that the problem would only get worse.
