It's not just the video games/cartoons influencing kids. What about all the ton of CSI, Cold Case, etc type shows. These type of shows basically step by step tell you how people were killed, and a person with a twisted and/or misguided mind could easily see these as a 'how to' on murder.

Many times kids are just left to go watch tv to stay out of the parents hair. The parents frequently don't supervise the viewing. And to top it all off many parents sit and watch tv shows like this with thier kids and never speak up on what was right/wrong with people's actions on the show, and never use the shows to help teach their kids reality from fantasy.

When I was growing up my mom not only supervised how much tv I watched but what I watched as well. Whenever I was watching tv mom would ask questions or point out things during commercials to help teach things to me. Heck mom even used real life situations (kid screaming and throwing a tantrum at the store/restaurant) to teach me how to behave and to learn lessons from things around me.

This is sadly lacking in many homes. Parents don't pay attention to the tv shows THEY'RE watching, to realize the influence on their kids, let alone use the time during comercials to teach their kids.