WALSH: This Is The Real Danger Of Video Games. It Has Almost Nothing To Do With Violence.

We’re told that President Trump may be able to shoot someone on Fifth Avenue without losing his supporters, but apparently he can’t criticize video games. Trump faced intense backlash for briefly mentioning the rather self-evident fact that violent media has a desensitizing effect on young minds. He did not say that video games “cause” violence, nor did he “blame” video games for violence. He simply mentioned it as one factor among many that may, to one degree or another, contribute to the problem.

Video games are a sacred cow in our culture. You know they must be sacred if even Trump can’t get away with blaspheming them. This is an unfortunate situation because it prevents us from having a worthwhile discussion about the activity in which our kids spend over 15 hours a week engaging. We are permitted to discuss the pernicious influence of television, movies, internet, and social media — but video games, it is widely insisted, are an exception. All of those other forms of media — all of those other images that kids spend hours a day staring at, all of those other things that draw their eyes to the glowing screen — can be evaluated and criticized, but not video games.