Violent Media. What Is Its Effect? Is There Even One?

What do you think about violent media? Do you think that they really do cause/sole cause of violent behavior in children?

There have been much controversy over this issue as many of you are probably aware.

Personally, I feel it's more of a blame-game/scape goat type of scenario. It would seem to me that feelings of inadequacy by the parent/guardian to properly take care, watch over, and be aware of what their child/young adult is feeling is being transferred to something that the child/young adult invests much time into.

In this case, it would be videogames and other forms of media (TV, movies, music). Pretty soon, I suspect that Internet will be blamed.

Below, are some links to some things that have occurred recently.

April 2007, Virgina Tech incident
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seung-Hui_Cho

another article
http://www.livescience.com/technology/051204_video_violence.html
"The assertion that video games make people violent got a boost in May of 2000, when the American Psychological Association issued a press release saying that violent video games can increase aggression. That conclusion was taken from a study by two researchers, Craig Anderson of Iowa State University and Karen Dill of Lenoir-Rhyne College in North Carolina. The pair claimed that they had found a link between violent video games and aggression.

Yet an examination of what the researchers actually found shows how tentative their conclusions are. The study seems to show some association between the playing of violent video games and concurrent aggressive behavior and delinquency. Yet, as any social sciences or psychology student knows, correlation does not imply causation"

"Violent Video Games Under Attack"
http://www.wired.com/gaming/gamingreviews/news/2004/07/64101
"The debate reflects a divide in the way people perceive games. Are games harmless, perhaps even cathartic, as many people who grew up playing them believe? Or are they teaching kids to be more aggressive, and in extreme cases, to kill?"

American Psychology Association
http://www.apa.org/science/psa/sb-anderson.html

"FAQs on Violent Video Games and Other Media Violence"
http://www.psychology.iastate.edu/faculty/caa/video_game_faqs.html

You be the judge of the issue. What do you think is wrong/right about violent media being the absolute cause of violent behavior in many videogamers or users of violent media?

What do you think about this? Please comment below.