Fox News host suggests young people are transitioning for internet fame
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From the March 17, 2023, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime
JESSE WATTERS (HOST): Dylan's not the only person who wants attention. Kids who see Dylan on TikTok, who feel that they've been ignored, might take this as their ticket to getting attention. "It worked for Dylan, why wouldn't it work for me?"
And what are we left with? We're left with an attention-addicted, gender-confused generation.
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So, if you're an ignored teenager, and you don't have a lot going on, and you're ignored by your family, maybe your friends at school, and you say to yourself, "Wait a second, I can change everything about myself, and then can I go on the internet and I can blow up and I could have all the attention I want." Is that what you think is driving a lot of the transgender situations?
DR. THOMAS KERSTING (GUEST): Well, I do, alright. So think of the word "thought." What is thought? It's the stuff orbiting around in our mind. Where does that come from? It comes from our experiences. And if our kids' experiences are online constantly, it shapes how they think.
The story -- remember the TikTok story? Where all the girls -- those girls were developing fine motor tics even though they didn't have Tourette's Syndrome? The doctors figured out that it's because they were on TikTok watching people who have Tourette's, and it actually made them now, in their brain, to begin to mimic those symptoms.
Alright, so think about what all this other stuff that kids are exposed to, how that might be shaping their mind and their thoughts. And then you layer in all this attention-seeking stuff, and they're getting nothing but feedback. It's the perfect storm.