Children will watch anything, and when a broadcaster uses a crime and violence and other shoddy devices to monopolize a child’s attention, it’s worse than taking candy from a baby. It is taking precious time from the process of growing up.
-Newton N. Minow

How could tiny ten-year-old bodies conjure up inexplicable amounts of aggression fueling a plot like the one presented in Not Child’s Play?

It’s one of those stories you feel compelled to tell the people around you. In my case I would simply read the first two sentences providing the gist of it.

Parents nationwide are reacting with shock to news reports that a group of 8- to 10-year-old kids in Waycross, Ga., were so mad at their teacher that they apparently planned to knock her unconscious with a glass paperweight and stab her with a steak knife.
-Karen Springen

The author’s interview with a child psychiatrist, Elizabeth Berger M.D. explored possible causes for such effects. Of course the issue of violence in video games and television was not left out. Though aggression depicted through media may contribute to such hostility in reality, it doesn’t mean it is the sole reason. After all, violence is literally ancient history; just look at the Bible. Berger suggests personal problems with the family or one’s hardships at home are the driving forces behind such aggression. She refers to childhood as the progression toward self-control eventually enabling people to repress violent behavior. To address the opening quote, newscasters do not usually have such young audiences that are genuinely interested in the crime reported to them. And in this case, the only thing depriving kids from childhood are the bars that could possibly confine them.