MARTHA MACCALLUM (HOST): You know you watch some of these games, and Carolina researchers say that it does not lead to violent behavior, however we do know that many of these killers in the school shootings, and here as well, are people who have been under psychiatric treatment, they've been medicated for it and they spend 12, 15 hours a day like Nikolas Cruz was one of them, Adam Lanza and now this young man, gaming.
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STEVE HILTON: The top neuroscientists now can actually show that extended exposure to these video games, all the overstimulation that comes with the games, the loud noises and the colors and the bangs and all that, it literally rewires your brain and it makes it harder for children who are doing this to control their emotions. That’s exactly what is a factor in these things because what it leads to is overresponding to a slight or to some kind of situation, if you didn’t have this stimulation you could let it go, if you overrespond it leads to conflict and violence in the real world.
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I mean, look, when we think of other risks to children and their health, for example smoking, we actually take action and we ban those things for young people, and I think that there's a role for that now.
MACCALLUM: Great point.
HILTON: For things like overuse of smartphones and games, we can step in and say 'This is not supposed to be how kids should be raised,' and we can do something about it.
MACCALLUM: Yeah, I think you're so right. I think people used to smoke cigarettes at 13, 14 years old, now you’ve got people using this stuff all day long at those young ages and I think there’s going to come a time in our society when we look back and say, 'Can you believe we let kids play those games for hours and hours in their cars, in their bedrooms, in the basement?' Something we really need to wake up to.
