From children's violence to adult passivity: a black screen on shared responsibilities.

All contemporary research shows unequivocally that violence is increasing and that screens are to blame.

Not the screen itself: the content consumed.

And behind this rise, one factor is systematically identified as aggravating: exposure to violent content on screens.

📚 What Research Says

The data is solid:

• A meta-analysis of 24 longitudinal studies (Anderson et al., 2010) shows that exposure to violent video games predicts an increase in aggressive behaviors over time, even when controlling for socio-demographic variables.

• The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP, 2016) estimates that repeated exposure to violent scenes leads to emotional desensitization, trivialization of violence as a mode of conflict resolution, and a weakening of emotional self-regulation.

• In France, the Independent Commission on Incest (CIIVISE, 2022) notes an overrepresentation of early exposure to pornographic and violent content among young perpetrators of violence, with a strong correlation between uncontrolled viewing and acting out.

• A study conducted by Gentile et al. (2017) shows that violent games decrease cognitive empathy in preadolescents and durably alter behavioral inhibition circuits.

These studies do not say that every exposed child becomes violent. They say that repeated, unsupervised exposure reduces the ability to distinguish between games, fiction, and reality, especially when no adult verbalizes, limits, or names what is seen.

🙊 Children consume. Adults let it happen.

Letting it happen is being responsible.

You let your pre-teen play war games instead of car racing games, and you accept it so they leave you alone.

You let your older child play with your "little one" from time to time on Counter-Strike. Complicit passivity.

You go to a dinner at a colleague's house with your children, and the older child of the family plays violent games in the living room for two hours in front of your children. And you say nothing...

You don't care.

You don't set limits.

You don't see the harm: constructed unconsciousness.

In fact, you don't want to make waves, you don't want to "create a problem," so you let it happen. It's more comfortable. And generally, you find excuses for yourself.

Sorry if that stings.

But you need to hear it.

And maybe if your colleague talks to you about it—or if you talk to them about it—then things will change.

And if each person, in their own way, takes up arms against violent content,

then maybe something will change.