Violent movies and vidos gmaes contitbute to violent youth

                                  Violent movies and vidos gmaes contitbute to violent youth

        Within the pasy two weeks, I have seen three movies. On very good family oriented movie ("Mary Poppins Returns), One comedy that was so bad that people actually began to walk out, *"Holmes and Watson"), and as of today, a rellay good suspense/action movie. ("Escape Room"). However, my commentary here is not about the qaulity of these movies. Rather, it concerns the quality and qauntity of violent movies that our youth are being exposed to nowadays. I am not so prudish that I do not understand horroe movies. When I was ten years old, I begged my mother to allow me to watch "Jaws,' and "Pirannah.' My friends and I in high school watched Freddie Kruger, and Jason main hordes of people in "Nightmare on Elm Street,' and in "Halloween." So, I understand the attraction.

           However, times have chnaged and the movies have gotten worse, and ar ebeing advertised to younger audiences with rating of "PG' and "PG-13." Virtually everyone of these movies  has as protafanist an adolescent or teenager, brandsining a gun, sword, knife, bomb, etc., while killing others, incuding family members, in the process. The perfect examples of this are pet Semetary, base don the Stephen King novel, and "Prodigy," which is advertised as being bought to by the creators of "The omen." Based on the trailer for this particular movie, it uses basically the same plot. Those of us of certian age know how this movie ends. \The child murders his family.

         As a writer journalsit, community adovcate, someone who works with thin the school system, and concerned uncle, this not only bothers, but scares me. How are we to prevent chidlren form murdering their parents, and shooting up classrooms, when we have movies showing protagonists who the same age sof our teenagers, doing the same thing. Not only that, but portraying them as heroes. There is one movie, in which a kid being bullied at school, pulls out the sword excalibur, and saves the world, nd of course there is violencein it. However this is not what I am referring to here. Rather, i ma referring to a movie such a "Prodigy' that takes a six year old genuis child, whose family is running form him, because he is a psychopathic kid, and end the railer by the kids sneaking up on his mother in in bed, and says to her: "Mommy, will you love me no matter, what I do,"as a look of fear overtakes her.

       Unfortunately, we no longer live in a time in which parents are there for their kids. Even in well-off suburban families, teenegaers are given all the material things in life, but no affection or bounidries. (examples: The Menendez Brothers, and Keibold and Harris shooting up columbine in the 1990s. Excpet twent years later it has escalated to something that is no longer the occasiona anomally, but something on the nightly news so much that no one sees it as unusual anymore. On top of that, we have violent vido games that encourage young people to shoot human looking characters in a matter of seodns to get to the nex level.

        Yes, guns are a problem, and we need  backgorund checks. However, every teenager has gotten his gun from his parent;s gun rack. We have more resource offficer than guidcne counselor in schools, and one of the aspects of every shooter drill is tomake sure cell phones are not in use, because it could set off a homemade explosive. Question: Where are students getting these ideas? The movies? At the very least susch movies are leading our youth to look this stuff up on the internet.

     As a writer, I am against government censorship. As concerned citizen I am for repsonsible parenting, and that includes not allowing your kids to see these vioelnt movies, and purchaisng these violent video games. It also means picketing these movies studioes putting out this stuff,as much as we pciket any gun show or "NRA" gathering.