Who would have thought that >50 years after the first congressional hearings on media violence that we would still be debating whether it contributes to real-life violence? As one leading group of researchers has stated, there should no longer be any controversy that a cause-and-effect relationship exists.1 More than 3500 reports, including 1000 research studies, have been made; <30 studies have found no relation.2 In fact, the connection between media violence and real-life aggression is nearly as strong as the connection between smoking and lung cancer.3 Given the complexities of performing social-science research, this finding is quite striking.4 Not everyone who smokes will get lung cancer, and not everyone who views media violence will become aggressive. In addition, as the authors of a study published in this month's Pediatrics Electronic Pages4 and the National Television Violence Study5 pointed out, context is extremely important, as...
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