Date: 14th September 2000

But Do Movies Really Incite Kids To Violence?


Some analysts pointed out Wednesday that Congress and Hollywood are likely to engage in a kind of trench warfare for years to come given the lack of scientific evidence showing a cause and effect relationship between movie violence and real-life violence. "This is not like the connection between smoking and illness," media consultant Bob Alexander told today's (Thursday) Christian Science Monitor. "You can't draw that scientific conclusion."

The newspaper itself commented that even in the case of cigarettes, where cause and effect were demonstrated in numerous studies, "it took decades of battle in Congress and the courts to ban certain kinds of cigarette advertising and sales."

Source: Studio Briefing