I remember days where grown-ups would tell obnoxious kids to "go play on the freeway"!
That's different. It's not a picture, for one thing. It's a lot easier to dismiss a line like that as just a parent talkin' trash. But if you actually have to look at it, then it's harder to deal with. It's more violent, if you will.
We live in a visual age where what was once hard language hardly registers any more. We just have to deal with it.