The issue of television violence and its deleterious effects on children, in the news again, is illumined by a recent paper by Sissela Bok, published by the Joan Shorenstein Barone Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

Polling data indicate high levels of concern over the amount of murder and mayhem young people are exposed to by the little screen in the living room: Almost 4 out of 5 Americans believe violence in television programs directly contributes to the amount of violence in society, according to one survey reported on by the Los Angeles Times. But after mentioning ``the contrast between high levels of public concern and weak public policy debates.