Sounds a lot better than the akward talk I had with my dad.
As for the violence part: not to say I know your son better than you do, but when I was twelve I had already seen Saving Private Ryan and Gladiator and various other violent movies. And I dont believe it scarred me, on the contrary: as long as it's not unnecessary violence I think it's okay to watch for a 12 year old.
Yeah, at 12 I remember having already seen a lot of violent content, and a fair share of sexual content as well. I wish my parents had been around to discuss it; I ended up getting most of my lessons in fiction interpretation through my English literature teachers, though.
One questions that will probably come up is why does this show in particular get to show such scenes while other TV shows do not. This could evolve into a discussion about media rules and regulations, and the differences between pay cable, and government regulated airwaves, and censorship. Although, too much talk about rules and regulations might be a bit boring to a 12-year old, heh.
Overall, it can be a light discussion about the general attitude of contemporary American culture and how we choose to regulate our own media and what our reasons for doing so are.
Applicable lessons could be - does the fiction on-screen reflect reality? If this possibly sparks up an interest in medieval Europe, it could be a good opportunity to read about history.
Comparing depictions of violence to actual violence can also bring up the subject of how violence and sex in media influences real life. You could ask him if he thinks that violence and sex in the media make us as a society more or less violent. It may or may not be surprising to him that actual real-world violence is on the decline, and that certain sex-related stats are trending in a positive direction, too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_statistics#United_States
According to the National Crime Victimization Survey, the adjusted per-capita victimization rate of rape has declined from about 2.4 per 1000 people (age 12 and above) in 1980 to about 0.4 per 1000 people, a decline of about 85%.[33] But other government surveys, such as the Sexual Victimization of College Women study, critique the NCVS on the basis it includes only those acts perceived as crimes by the victim, and report a higher victimization rate.[34]
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/us/27teen.html
A humorous and slightly satirical opinion piece about teens, sex, and violence in the media from 2004:
http://www.ideasinactiontv.com/tcs_daily/2004/07/porn-and-violence-good-for-americas-children.html
Last week, I responded to James Glassman's observation that American teenagers are doing better than they've done in decades by trying to figure out why that might be. Teen pregnancy is down, along with teen crime, drug use, and many other social ills. There's also evidence that teenagers are more serious about life in general, and are more determined to make something worthwhile of their lives. Where just a few years ago the "teenager problem" looked insoluble, it seems well on the road to solving itself. But why?
After that column came out, it occurred to me that I had the answer: Porn and videogames. That's what's making American teens healthier.
It should have been obvious.
...
But the real lesson is that complex social problems are, well, complex, and that the law of unintended consequences continues to apply.
When teen crime and pregnancy rates were going up, people looked at things that were going on -- including increased availability of porn and violent imagery -- and concluded that there might be something to that correlation. It turned out that there wasn't. Porn and Duke Nukem took over the land, and yet teenagers became more responsible and less violent.
Maybe the porn, and the videogames, provided catharsis, serving as substitutes for the real thing. Maybe. And maybe there's no connection at all.
Regarding violence statistics, here is a good book that I recently read that covers violence statistics and what the how the trends look in a historical perspective. It also has some material in regards to media perception and depiction of violence.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0670022950/?tag=neogaf0e-20
Here is a short TED talk by the author that briefly describes what is in the book:
http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_on_the_myth_of_violence.html
Personally speaking, I have always wondered why American culture approaches sex and violence in such different ways. I imagine part of it has to do with Puritan roots, but I also suspect that somehow we justify media violence since it's quite unlikely that someone will go out and murder people, but it is much easier to believe that reenacting sex would be much more likely, for whatever reason. It's a good discussion to be had: perception vs reality, and what that all means for a young boy growing up who will inevitably have to deal with these things.
