I think there is a very subtle assault on children's sensibilities going on. No young child could bear to attack someone, even in imagination, in a bloody and a gory manner. So cartoons and video games make it comical and funny. As kids get older the violence becomes less comical, less symbolic, more grisly, until the kids are finally immersed in things like Grand Theft Auto.

Well, that is my take, as the kind of mum who won't let her son play video games!