HOLLYWOOD is playing an active role in the raising of children in the country, albeit a negative one, while parents and society are blaming the government for the unravelling of the social fibre.

This is the opinion of Deputy Justice Minister Tommy Nambahu Contributing to an unopposed motion on domestic violence tabled by the Speaker of the National Assembly (NA) yesterday, Nambahu said children are exposed to violence on television from a very young age and emulate such actions later in life.

He was supported by Justice Minister Uutoni Nujoma, who said television programmes such as 'Dangerous Women' that used to air on the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) aggravate violence.

Nujoma said violence was unheard of in socialist countries such as Russia and Cuba, where many Namibians used to study in exile. Both Nambahu and Nujoma spent some time in these countries during the liberation war.

Nujoma highlighted the shooting on an island off the coast of Norway were many young people were gunned down in January 2012 and the Connecticut massacre of schoolchildren in the USA in December 2012 as extreme cases of violence in Western societies.

He said sexually explicit material shown on television exposes young children to such 'evils' at an early age and thus corrupts society.