I can remember growing up when my elder brothers would be watching an action movie that contained all kinds of punch-throwing; when it got to those scenes, they would ask my younger brother and me to close our eyes, or they would go as far as sending us outside to play with our peers. What they are trying to do at that moment is protect us from exhibiting such things outside.
Because children are always eager in putting to practice things they see and hear, so in that case, my younger brother and I are likely to punch other children in the face due to that movie. So sending us outside to play is a way of protection. Currently, if children come around the house, I don't watch any movie that contains certain actions.
With the world, the rate of violence is on the increasing side. Are we going to tag it to the movies? Or the things we hear? "Which one, please?.
Let's deviate a little: a few years back, I saw in the news that a boy around his early teenage age was found holding a plane while it flew in the air till it landed at the airport, that was when someone noticed a body beside the plane and went to check and found a very young boy. Then the news carried it and I saw it on the news as well. I was shocked how would you even think of doing that? The only thing that would make a child do that is from what he saw in movies or video games.
I know movies are likely to influence people into recreating those actions, but the effect is limited in adults. When it comes to children, the effect is more. Because at that stage, they are curious to try out those things. Children love learning, and they always learn from what they see and hear.
I also know how movies impact us positively and negatively. When two people watch a movie, they are likely to have different views on the movie, and that is how it affects us. I don't think, as an adult, it's the violent movies we watch that would have a great effect on us to the level of exhibiting violent acts, thereby causing harm to society. So, viewing violent movies does not cause a person with a conscience to commit violent acts. People tend to commit violent acts simply because they don't have a conscience, and these set of people are those who have the mind of causing violence to theirs, thereby increasing the level of crime in society.
I know often, when people who possess the act of causing violent acts watch a movie, they are likely to exhibit those acts by bringing the actions to reality. As humans, we are all different, though we were created the same, but then as we begin to form and grow up in different environments, our perspectives of things start to differ. It's our choices and how we view things that make us different as humans. So, every human reacts to things differently, even in movies.
So I'm gonna conclude by saying that "it boils down to the individual" and how they react to things. But I don't think it's the violent movies that people watch that the rate of violence keeps increasing. We all watch violent movies once in a while and we haven't entered the street to harm others with that act.