I encourage you to read the WHOLE article, and then go buy Cheryl Olson's book, Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do. My favorite question asked by the interviewer was:
Q. Violence, not only in gaming, but in all kinds of media, has become more and more graphical and realistic, partly because some technical limitations came to pass, and partly because some taboos have fallen with time. Just to make an example, in old cartoons violence was depicted in a very comical way. Think about the Warner Bros classics. The poor Wile E. Coyote ended up smashed, minced, exploding, falling from deadly heights and generally prey to all kinds of normally lethal and quite bloody occurrences. Despite that, he always walked out without a scratch, or maybe with just a big bump on the head. Nowadays in an average animated production outside of the usual Disney movies such actions would have much more graphical and realistic consequences. The same “evolution” happened with video games. What do you think of the difference between these two kinds of portraying violence? Is the first one really safe for kids? Is the second one really a problem?
“Some researchers have worried about the effects of cartoon violence on kids; in fact, one of the better-known longitudinal studies of TV violence (following kids over time) included Road Runner cartoons on their list of most-violent programs. I think the fact that most parents grew up with these shows, and they and their friends did not act out such violence in real life or refuse to believe in the laws of physics, reassures parents that cartoon violence is not a big concern.
Also, children today seem to enjoy more sophisticated stories in their cartoons, not just the same old steam-rolling and exploding. Many researchers feel it’s important for children to see the consequences of actions, even in cartoons and that children too young to “get” cause and effect should have their TV watching restricted. In my experience, children are pretty clear on fantasy vs reality.
Too much of anything can be a problem, of course, and children left in front of violent cartoons for many hours a week might well be more aggressive, but that might have more to do with the lack of other healthy activities and exercise. Research shows that in a surprising number of homes, the TV is left on almost all the time, and this is linked to a higher risk for problems.
Similar to the situation with TV cartoons, I think as gamers become parents, there will be less concern over cartoon-type game violence. There may be greater concern over realistic violence, especially when it’s linked to moral issues such as war, sexism/racism, or benefiting from crime.
“Realism” is a complex concept; realistic graphics by themselves don’t necessarily make a game feel more real, and some games with simple graphics can feel real due to complex characters and realistic dialogue or situations.”
As a parent, who video games with her kids I agree that "cartoon-type" violence is not so much a concern of ours. We grew up watching Tom and Jerry and The Roadrunner cartoons and we turned out fine. And fantasy violence, such as the battles in the Final Fantasy series have always been played in front of the kids. But it's pretty difficult to emulate that type of violence in real life. How many of us have access to swords or lances?? Super realistic violence, such as battlefield scenes, or games where the character fights with a gun or his fists have NEVER been okay. It's too easy for our children to become desensitized to the horrific implications of that type of harm. I don't want my kids thinking its okay to go out and shoot people for "points". Later in the article the author states that she is NOT pro-video games or anti-video games, she is PRO-COMMON SENSE. And in the seemingly eternal battle of parents/media vs video games, that's really what we need. We need people to READ the back of the video game box themselves, sit down and PLAY the games with their own children and make decisions that are educated!
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