Since we're debating comics, I find it timely that Mark Evanier has a bit about Seduction of the Innocent, a 1954 book by Fredric Wertham which was about the allegedly pernicious influence of comic books on children. Wertham's books led to Senate hearings, chaired by future Presidential candidate Estes Kefauver, and calls for censorship that eventually led to a "voluntary" industry-imposed Comics Code.

The parallels with TV/movies/music/video games/the Internet/whatever, as described here, are pathetically amusing. Seduction of the Innocent is long out of print and its methodology has been widely discredited, but that sort of trivia never bothers anyone.

You can download a copy of Seduction of the Innocent if you want to see for yourself the case that Wertham made.