[Dragline45]

The problem with teen violence today doesn't lie within violent movies or video games, it 100% comes down to their family life and parenting. You need a strong parent figure/figures there to teach you values, rights and wrongs, and to discipline you when needed. I grew up playing violent video games, I was never not allowed to watch violent movies even at a young age, yet I turned out just fine. I have no criminal record, I am not violent despite all the shooting games I played growing up and the guns I own, and I have no desire to use them to harm anyone or anything. Heck, I cant even bring myself to go squirrel hunting let alone shoot a deer.

I am still relatively young at 26 and am closer to the current generation than probably most of you on here. I grew up about a 10 minute walk and a 2 minute bus ride from Boston. About 80% of the kids in my old neighborhood are in jail, just got out of jail, or are hard time drug addicts. Out of most of those kids just about the only two who really turned out alright were me and my cousin who lived down the street from me. Granted I was having to drag my cousin out of bad situations every now and then because he liked to follow the crowd, but both of us stayed out of trouble and went on to live good lives. We both have clean criminal records, went to college, graduated with business degrees, he ended up getting into law enforcement and I am in marketing. I can honestly say all this is owed to my parents.

The main difference between my cousin and I and the rest of the kids we grew up with were we had a strong family life and parents who where always there for us. Not only that, but if I did anything wrong I had to fear the wrath of god, aka my father. Because the last thing I wanted to hear from my mother back then was, wait till your father gets home! Anyways, most of these kids I grew up with, their parents were either drug addicts or alcoholics and just were either never their for them or just didn't care.

One of the kids I knew growing up father died when he was 13 from alcoholism, his older brother got him hooked on drugs at 15, and by 17 he was a hardcore heroin addict. Ended up stealing his blind grandmothers wedding ring and pawning it for a fix and is constantly in and out of jail. Steals from everyone he ever knew and pretty much got cut off from any family or friends.

Another's parents were heroin addicts. Never home half the time and just didn't care what their kids did. Him and his older brothers would constantly just beat the crap out of each other and snap for no reason at all. Started selling and using hard drugs since he was probably 14. As much as you want to feel bad for him, and I still see him from time to time, he is the biggest scumbag you will come across. He picks fights with people for no reasons, especially smaller people, and has been known to beat people unconscious pretty much for fun. A few years back he was showing off a picture of his bruised foot from where he kicked someone in the head so many times that he broke his toes, as if that was something to be proud of. Just a sick sadistic SOB.

I could literally go on for pages with similar stores like these, but they all pretty much start and end the same way.

I have seen first hand what difference a strong family life makes on the outcome of a person. Alot of these kids I grew up with never had guidance, they were allowed to do as they like and come and go as they please with no consequences. Their parents never showed them any attention or cared enough to discipline them when they did the wrong thing. Any problems I had I knew I could talk to my parents, my grandparents who lived below me most of my life, my sister, aunts, uncles, cousins and etc... I had people their to teach me right and wrong, I knew from a very young age there were consequences for my actions, I had people to talk to when things were bothering me or I needed advice. Bottom line is, it is the responsibility of a parent to shape and turn their children into respectable people with good morals and values. Let them run around like wild animals and do as they please and that is what they will grow up to be.