Quote Originally Posted by 'Bigfish',index.php?page=Thread&postID=188528#post 188528

Quote Originally Posted by 'AtroxCasus',index.php?page=Thread&postID=188521#p ost188521
A recent study showed that in countries where the television is/was introduced and becomes common place, including the US, the incidents of extreme violence doubled in 15 years. (That's a generation of 15 year olds for those counting). For the US they used FBI statistics on violent crime from the 50s, and then the early 70s.

Correlation does not equal cuasation. You could just as easily make the case that rapid industrialization and improved communications technologies in said countries allows for better reporting and tracking abilities.

Oh, and http://www.schoolsafety.us/pubfiles/savd.pdf. School shootings are way, way down.

As for better reporting, my source was "On Combat" by Andrew Grossman, and the way I read it, the information was taken recently, going back 50 or so years. So the reporting and tracking has no bearing on the data, which was recently researched. As far as I know, no country every did a quick "what was violent crime like 15 years ago" survey after everyone had TVs.


School shootings may be very well be down, but it doesn't change the fact that schools are much more prepared and willing to be proactive for fire than they are for a shooting, and when was the last school fire with casualties you can find?

Regardless, I'm not saying WoW needs a rating change or anything. I'm just saying that to deny media impact on real world attitudes and events is foolish. Regardless of where you lay the blame, the media presents images and opportunities proven harmful to youth and it isn't really regulated like other harmful products. Another example in his book was of a case study where they took teens who had violent histories and behavior problems, and while they were at some school, they put them into 2 study groups, where one was not permitted television, and to everyone's surprise not only did the no TV group have the most significant improvement in behavior, but the worst kids of that gorup had the most improvement.

I know that you can study any issue and find evidence supporting both sides of it, so I'm not saying there isn't room for error. I just think dismissing video games, movies and TV as factors in some of the "aberrant" behavior seen in the last 20 years is risky.