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When I was a kid, I remember feeling that an hour a week playing the video game “Space Invaders” at an arcade was a sinful pursuit with no real upside. I knew intuitively that I was better off out in a park playing baseball or basketball. Over time, I managed to fight off a budding addiction. By comparison, today’s video game, internet and social media buffet feels like a gluttonous banquet — addictive and unhealthy for both body and soul.
We don’t know the exact role that video gaming and social media immersion played in the worsening mental health of 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, the alleged killer of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. But we do know he was steeped in that world.
The horrific events of last week are more than enough to alert us that we are underestimating the impact of social media as well as violent video games like “Helldivers 2.” The game won an award last year despite being a satire of a fascist multi-galaxy empire. Sadly, a reference to this game appears to have shown up in an inscription on ammunition found with Robinson’s rifle.
As Alyssa Finley wrote in The Wall Street Journal this week, in an insightful piece aptly titled, “Tyler Robinson and America’s Lost Boys”: “Marinating in an internet cesspool can’t be good for the young and malleable male mind. Might killing villains in video games desensitize the conscience? Studies have found an association between violent video games and aggressive behavior, though most people who assume online avatars and fight monsters don’t become violent.”
But they do become lost in cyberspace. They do enter and stay in a dissociative reality that discourages social interaction and moral development.
In March 2025, the FBI warned the public of a growing network of exploitative online social media threats to young people. The Internet Crime Complaint Center wrote: “These networks exist on publicly available online platforms, such as social media sites, gaming platforms, and mobile applications commonly used by young people… These violent actors target vulnerable populations to include children as well as those who struggle with a variety of mental health issues, such as depression, eating disorders, or suicidal ideation. Threat actors often groom their victims by first establishing a trusting or romantic relationship before eventually manipulating and coercing them into engaging in escalating harmful behavior designed to shame and isolate them.”
Indeed, those with a propensity toward mental illness are the most easily targeted for exploitation. Recent research reveals that adolescents who spend three hours or more per day on social media have double the risk of anxiety or depression.
Multiple studies have shown that most children and adolescents who are heavy social media users end up feeling worse about themselves. And there isn’t a strong distinction here between video gaming and social media. It is all part of an online presence—a saturation of virtual reality that is diversionary but also isolating, the last thing a growing child, adolescent or young adult needs.
WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT
There is little a parent can do by the time someone is 22-years-old, like Robinson, but there is plenty of time before then.
We already had a wake-up call last year when Luigi Mangione, 27, who had a background in video game development, was indicted for the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Limits should be placed on social media, cell phone and internet use, and on video gaming time. Parents should set an example by limiting their own screen time and social media engagement.
Dinner should be a time for open discussion, including about topics like the Kirk murder, which should not be off limits. But the focus should be on more positive emotions—kindness, caring, compassion and courage — all of which course through the same emotional centers of the brain as fear and hatred.
The aftermath of a horrific event such as this one can be a time for expressing faith and coming together to mourn. It is the worst possible time for further division and political attacks, which are also contagious.
Social media, video games and avatars easily amplify our worst instincts.
We can do better. We can teach our children to be their best selves in a world without avatars.
The post DR. MARC SIEGEL: Charlie Kirk shooting suspect shows the dangers of kids lost in gaming culture appeared first on Fox News.
