Have authorities discovered any evidence indicating that the two teenagers responsible for the Columbine H.S. masacre were influenced by violence in movies, TV, and/or video games? In the aftermath of the shootings, these industries have recieved a lot of criticism but I have not heard of any proven link between their products and the shooters.
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Researchers have been trying to prove a link between violence in the media and that violence inspiring youths to commit crimes in the real world for ever. So far, no proof.
Obviously, there's been a lot of speculation, and many self-righteous people have claimed that: "Well, a kid growing up will have seen umpteen murders on TV, it must have an impact."
Circle - reasoning does not make for proof.
Research during the last ten years show, however, that it's not watching too much violence on TV, that makes a kid violent, it's watching too much TV, period.
Kids growing up in front of the idiot box will have a shorter attention span, will always be searching for new kicks, it induces shallowness and kids will get a false idea about the real world.
Or in other words: Watching too much TV is bad for you. It's not the TV that is to blame, it's the parents.
The guy doing most research on this - Brandon Centerwall of U of Washington - claims that without TV, there would be 10.000 fewer murder-victims in the US annually.
It might be that Wheel of Fortune is more to blame, than Profiler.
CT
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