I disagree that the book was all that much more violent than the movie. I thought they were pretty on par. And I was thrilled that they didn't hold back TOO much of the violence. I was afraid they were going to get cold feet about it.

The books get more violent as the series goes on, but that's true for a lot of series. Including Harry Potter. Like in the movie, a lot of the deaths happened "off screen" and Katniss never actually killed anyone when it wasn't in self defense.

I think it's a huge underestimation to think that teenagers and pre-teens can't handle certain content. I mean, look at The Giver. One of the BEST young adult books ever. That has themes of euthanasia, free will, dystopia, repressed sexual urges, etc. The Book Thief deals with the holocaust and numerous deaths. Hell, it's narrated by death. His Dark Materials trilogy has kids going off trying to kill god. It's fine. Young people can handle it.