Sure, Grand Theft Auto purportedly trains kids to kill hookers, but what about the decadence caused by the Waltz? According to The Times of London in 1816, this "foreign dance" was seen so unfit that the paper felt it "a duty to warn every parent against exposing his daughter to so fatal a contagion." Then came movies in 1909, blasted for causing many to lead "dissolute lives." The telephone? Yeah, that, too.

Wired has a few choice quotes from the advent of each of these technologies and art forms, among others. Of course, the point of this comparison is to show that the current hysteria over video games -- "known" to promote drinking, drug usage, and sexual deviance -- is just an initiation rite. Some works of art will always cause controversy (Catcher in the Rye, for some reason, is still not allowed in some schools).