Gregg Easterbrook

About the author: Gregg Easterbrook is a senior editor of the New Republic, a monthly magazine of politics, foreign policy, and culture.

Many research studies have found a link between viewing media violence and engaging in real-life violence. For children, there is no question that movie and television violence has a serious effect on children's propensity to behave violently later in life. Until age nineteen, children and teens exposed to media violence are more likely to view violence as a normal behavior and to become criminals themselves.

Millions of teens have seen the 1996 movie Scream, a box-office and home-rental hit. Critics adored the film. The Washington Post declared that it "deftly mixes irony, self-reference, and social wry commentary." The Los Angeles Times hailed it as "a bravura, provocative send-up." Scream opens with a scene...