Customer Reviews

Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill: A Call to Action Against TV, Movie, and Video Game Violence

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As a former reporter, I'm probably conditioned to be skeptical of claims that media violence is a problem. I was skeptical until I heard Colonel Grossman, then read his book. There is no doubt in my mind that Grossman is substantially right in his assertions. I now work for Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan, who, after consulting with Grossman, successfully urged at least two national chains, Sears and Montgomery Ward, to stop selling violent video games to youngsters. The immersion of our youngsters in violent imagery is a much bigger problem than our society acknowledges and promises to grow as an issue of public concern in the years to come.

Do violent video games, television shows and movies contribute to juvenile violence? Yes, say the authors. And the facts to that answer are backed up with an extensive body of impressive research. This book thoroughly documents their assertion that violence in media does have an impact on children.

Not only do the authors document with research, but they have practical ways of showing how that research can help parents, teachers, law enforcement, society as a whole, to understand how this violence affects our children. That violence desensitizes has been proven, and is undisputed by most mental health professionals. President Clinton, in a speech on June 1, 1999, said:" [The entertainment industry] and the rest of us cannot kid ourselves. Our children are being fed a dependable daily does of violence - and it sells. Now, thirty years of studies have shown that this desensitizes our childen to violence, and to its consequences." (direct quote from the book)

Whether one believes that playing violent video games, watching violence on tv or in movies leads to violent acts or not, it would be wise to consider whether these shows and games are good for children. It has been estimated that children play these games at least ninety minutes a day, and watch tv for another several hours. All this "screen time" is taking away from reading, exercising or recreating outdoors, and playing with peers.

Many parents report that their children seem to have an "addiction" to these games, saying that their children would rather play the games than eat, play outdoors, or participate in activities that they previously enjoyed.

Chapter Five is entitled "Don't Just Stand There... Do Something!" It is a chapter that is full of information on why these violent shows and games are damaging, and what parents can do to limit their children's exposure. They discuss the various ages and developmental stages of children, and have guidelines for what is appropriate for each. They say that, the younger the child, the more important it is to protect them from all forms of violence in entertainment. They address the question: "How do we protect our kids and at the same time empower them to to know what is going on?" Buy, beg, borrow, or steal (just kidding! ) this book to find out the answer!

This book was one that helped me to reinforce my belief that very little is to be gained from children having access to these form of "entertainment," and there is much to lose. I believe all parents, teachers, etc., would benefit from this well-written, thoroughly researched, scholarly-but easy-to-understand book. I refer to it often, and recommend it heartily!

This book was an eye opener. It makes sense. It states fact and makes you think. Good reading.

As

a person interested in martial arts/proactive personal protection, the psychological and physiological responses to critical incidents and having had the opportunity to study the research of/work with several the best masters and combat instructors in the world;

one who has worked in pubs and has had to short circuit, defuse and quell many brawls;

a teacher who has worked with a large number of students considered to be "at risk ", who has had to separate feuding gangs and had to disarm flailing machetes, edged weapons and the likes;

one who has attempted to provide support for victims of crime and their families, as well as at other times for the perpetrators (and their families) of unfortunate crimes;

a father, partner, uncle and community conscious member

I ask you to seriously consider the thrusts of this book.

You may have been fortunate enough that violence has not yet personally touched you, your family or friend's lives. However, when it does, it is often totally unexpected and not pretty - lives are often changed forever.

From my limited experience, I would suggest it is far better to recognize a problem exists, identify key components, and do something proactive, rather than acting after the event, striving to re-establish some order back into fragmented lives.

I believe this book makes an immense contribution to doing this. I commend and thank the authors greatly for their efforts.

Like Ret. Col. Grossman I too served in the military and utilized the MACS, a Super Nintendo Title available to military units that emulates the experience of firing an M16A2 rifle at a telivision monitor. What Grossman calls in his book a murder desensitiser we call a zeroing tool.Zeroing, for the rest of the non shooting community is a term for adjusting the sights on a standard weapon so that the sight corresponds with the view a shooter has so that when they aim they can hit the target. Mr. Grossman would have you believe that this process numbs the soldier to killing human beings. Not only is this preposterous as you are shooting at little green silhoettes which do not behave in a human fashion (they pop up and then pop down) but they do not pose any threat to the firer.

I can understand that Grossman and concerned parents want answers as to why these horrific acts of violence are occuring. But Grossman blatantly ignores the facts resorts to fantasy and molds statistics in a way to prove his political agenda at the expense of portraying reality in a fair light.

I wish that Grossman was right because then you could end teenage violence by removing a few intergers here and a few intergers there. But Grossman is not right in his stance or his calculations.

He will make money off of this book by selling fallacous arguments to concerned parents, working them up over the fear that their children are becoming trained murderers by using a joystick and shooting at ghouls on computer monitors. The fact is that parents have a responsibility to control what their children are exposed to, but crime has gone down since 1990 and he ignores this fact and makes claims that children are out of control- blaming video games for the lackadaisacal parenting that is going on in America. What next? A call to get all women back in the house?

Please, save your money.

This book is direct and to the point demonstrating how our society is being taught to accept violence and killing. Those who would ignore root problems and chose to look at symtoms of the issues of violence and killing take the simplistic view of placing blame on firearms and not at the mindset of people who wield the firearms. More importantly is why people, especially young people, are so quick to turn to violent and often times lethal means to settle differences. There have always been firearms in the American society, so what has caused the increase use of these firearms in a sometimes casual and cavalier manner? The facts are clearly laid out in this book showing the change in mindset amongst our youth as they have been and are currently being programed to view lethal force as a viable option to settle differences they may encounter. In my youth during the early and mid 60's a serious encounter with someone you didn't like consisted of a fist fight at the local park after school. Following the fight, win or lose, both parties shook hands and their differences were settled. Now some kids see killing as a first option in response to even minor issues. What has caused this dramatic shift? As you read through this book and chose to identify the facts it is clear the entertainment industry, in its various forms, has played a major part in searing the concious of our children. Movies and television during the early years depicted killing but without the graphic detail of today. The killers were viewed as abnormal and evil whereas today they are touted as victims who are merely doing what is natural - therefore not necessarily wrong. Video and arcade games have gone from pinball to killing simulators where a child may become an expert marksman. I believe this book is must reading for parents and everyone who is concerned for the moral state of our society. Kudos for the authors having the courage to take on the big money industries.

I could write a long drawn out response to this nonsense, but what would be the point? According to people like the author of this book, American youths are at risk for violent behavior because they enjoy watching violent movies and playing video games. Hey, I've been playing games and watching movies all of my life. Now I'm trained for hunting everything from mutant space aliens to helpless people. Maybe I should exercise all I've learned from the media, then I could rationalize all of your delusions. Of course, I wouldn't do something like that...for one simple reason: I'm not insane.
Do yourself a favor and don't waste your time or your money on this trash. Stop looking for a scapegoat, the media is not to blame. Place fault where fault is due: poor parenting.

This is a book that I just could not put down. Every well thought out sentence speaks boldly about an increasingly deadly situation which is sweeping over our young people today. The authors have, with unequaled clarity and scholarly effort, distilled the undeniable truth from a vast number of resources dealing with the issue of youth and violence. They focus directly on the problem and its cure, and do not cloud the issue with fear tactics and sentimentalized meaningless diversions. Nobody can read their work and come away unresolved to take some definitive action to reduce childrens' exposure to the devastating violence in the media and many video games. The authors reveal a gripping moral imperative to diminish and hopefully to end the greed driven stampede to create venues which teach our precious children that violence is an acceptable means to resolve conflict be it with others in society or within themselves. The information contained in these pages is absolutely necessary for every parent, teacher, pastor, and friend of children to know and understand so that they can become pro-active in rescuing young people from the insideous instruction in killing that is being offered them under the guise of excitement and fun. We as a "civilized" people are becoming pawns of those who would wound our most sacred gift--children. As a priest and active, sworn police officer, I see the effects on children who have been reared on a diet of media and video game violence, and how uninformed parents have contributed to their dysfunction. Whole family systems and others are negatively affected, sometimes with devastating results. The authors deserve our grateful thanks for their diligent and skillful work in shining the light of truth into a dingy dark back alley that is crawling with characters ready to devour the developing moral and spiritual lives of children who deserve the very best security that we as adults can give them. We, in our parish family, are using the information and resources provided in this book to develop programs to guide and teach our kids in healthy ways of living. WELL DONE!

All this book does is try to blame all of today's problems on video games, and other media. Studies have recently shown that the kids who are most likely to play violent video games are LESS likely by far to commit real violence. They are able to let out their frustration in a fantasy setting, rather then on their peers. There is very little plausible evidence in this book, and more clinical studies should have been done before releasing a book such as this.

I have always been on of the many who have rolled our eyes when people take up arms against media violence. I have said time and again that it is the parent's responsibilty, not the entertainment industry's, to monitor what their children watch, read, see and do. To some degree, I still believe that holds true. However, this book has given me great cause to think about those ideas. It was extrremely well written and researched. The ideas and facts were presented in a manner I, and those who thought as I have, could appreciate, understand and really chew on. Dave Grossman and Gloria Degaetano have presented their facts and ideas in a realistic way. They have a wonderful, seemingly inherent understanding and insight into the problem of the entertainment industry's power over the youth of our nation. This book is thorough and thought-provoking. I highly recommend it to anyone with or without children. There is something here for all of us.