Actually, i blame quite a few things, but mostly i blame parents. Yes, i agree that some games are just way over the line when it comes to violence, but those are meant for adults, its the parents who control what the children play and what they are allowed to have in the home, so in the end, its the parents fault for letting the child have the game in the first place. The rating system isnt all that confusing either, I feel that parents these days are either to young, to overwhelmed, or to irresponsible to care for a child, OR they just dont care about the child and therefore they look to other sources for love and acceptance (gangs possibly). So its not just videogames fault, that and they are only giving the public what it wants, if it sells, they make more like it, because thats how marketing works. Not to mention television is actually becoming worse than videogames in my oppinion. There are so many shows that are just plain wrong, such as one I saw a commercial for recently called "Dance your pants off", where contestants basically striptease in front of an audience.
I am not saying the media has no effect on the child's mental disposition and nature, but it most definitely is not the SOLE thing causing the problem, and the fact that there are so many other things that can also contribute to the violent behavior in children and other variables makes it EXTREMELY difficult to pinpoint what has the most effect, therefor videogames have basically become the scapegoat for irresponsible parents who rely in the media for babysitting, which many parents have believed and jumped on the bandwagon for.
Also, not all videogames are bad. Nintendo is VERY child friendly, even to the point where many "shallow" gamers wont even play the products because they feel that it is "kiddy". Some of the best games in history are rated E, and are also for the old school systems (such as super mario world for the Super NES), but there are still good child friendly games out in the market today as well (for instance luigi's mansion for the Game Cube, Mario Kart Double Dash for GC, Katamari Damacy for PS2, We Love Katamari for PS2, as well as many others....) so not all videogames are bad.
Games are specifically tageted towards different age groups, but young children end up with Mature rated games mainly due to the ignorance or negligence of the parent, who in all cases should have the final word in the matter.
This is in no way an attack on any specific person, nor is it an attack on the topic starter, it is just an oppinion based off of personal experience as well as reading articles and oppinionated essays with research backing to support my oppinion.