Parents Sue Gaming Companies Over ‘Video Game Addiction’, Because That’s Easier Than Parenting

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• jozza@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  This author seems pretty comfortable mocking the concept of games being addictive.

  Loot boxes need to stop for sure, but things like limited-time content are 100% designed to form habits and ultimately feed gaming addiction. Season passes or weekly achievements require you to log on and grind out challenges at regular intervals to avoid missing out on rewards that are required for competitive play.

  I know plenty of people who have had to make an active choice to stop playing certain games because they found they couldn’t play the game ‘on their own terms’. It sucks as an adult, but kids without fully developed brains capable of rational thinking would stand no chance.

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  • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    things like limited-time content are 100% designed to form habits and ultimately feed gaming addiction. Season passes or weekly achievements require you to log on and grind out challenges at regular intervals to avoid missing out on rewards that are required for competitive play.

    Hell, even subscription-based games like MMOs. After all, if you’re paying every month for something, you want to get your money’s worth.

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    • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      That’s part of why I never played WoW. I knew that I’d constantly be like “I’m paying for it I should be playing”.

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    • darkdemize@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      There’s a reason I used to call it World of Warcrack. That game was harder to quit than smoking cigarettes for me.

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    • AeroLemming@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      This is the real problem with subscriptions. Yes, they tend to be more expensive in the long run, but they also stress you out because you have to constantly think about whether or not you’re getting your money’s worth. If you buy a game, there’s no stress because even if you’re busy, you’ll have plenty of time at some point in the future to get your money’s worth.

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    • scorpionix@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Depends on the implementation: I liked Eve Onlines model where, yes, you had to pay the sub but your character would train skills even while offline.So at least to me there was less of this classical fear of missing out.

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  • BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I was quite addicted to a Facebook game back in the day. Never went more than a day without playing it and even then I had scripts to play the repetitive parts of the game while I was away. I might’ve spent $50 total on the game but I never really felt like I was missing out because of not spending money. When they got to the point where it was blatantly obvious I would miss rare items or other collectibles if I didn’t pay then I quit altogether.

    I think the system could use a change but I still prefer minimal interference. It could do a lot of good if players were notified (monthly/weekly) how much they’ve played the game and how much they’ve spent. The “micro” part is probably what gets a lot of people and they never realize what they’ve paid in total.

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  • Zaphod@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    know plenty of people who have had to make an active choice to stop playing certain games because they found they couldn’t play the game ‘on their own terms’.

    Yep, this is me. stopped playing at least 2 or 3 games they forced stupid unnecessary grind or daily/weekly quests (that are basically all the content there is) on me. Nope, not doing that shit anymore.

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• hellothere@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I don’t want to be all old man yells at cloud, but back in my day popular games were played a lot because they were primarily enjoyable for the story, the achievement of completing a particular level or boss, playing against friends, etc. And sure, you’d have the odd bad parent trying to claim their kid was addicted to Counterstrike 1.6, but it was broadly speaking nonsense. The vast majority of games were offline, or had very limited online modes built around direct competition with other players (FPS, sports games, etc), and publishers would get all their money from the initial sale, with only a few games having expansion packs, most notable The Sims.

  But in the early 2010s a few things changed:

  • broadband internet became ubiquitous in markets with high levels of existing gamers
  • distribution of games swapped from physical media to downloads
  • ’everyone’ had a pretty powerful computer in their pocket making it much more accessible
  • a bunch of people in the industry started reading about positive psychology - the idea that you can create habits through rewards - and apply them to video games to increase playtime
  • those mechanics turned out to be very powerful in driving particular user behaviours, and started to be targeted at monetisation models - and so we got loot boxes, etc

  So we went from a situation where video games were fun for the same reasons traditional games, or sports, are fun. To one where many video games include a lot of gambling mechanics in their core gameplay loops - loot boxes being the obvious one, but any lottery-based mechanic where you spend real money counts - in an industry with no relevant regulation, nor age limitation. It is definitely possible for people to get addicted to these mechanics, the same way people can get addicted to casino games, or betting on horse racing, especially when for some games that is literally what the developer wants.

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  • bassomitron@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I agree with all your major points, well said. I will only add that back in the late 90s, MMOs started to become more popular among PC gamers, and that those were definitely designed for mild addiction (to keep players paying a monthly fee).

    After WoW took MMOs mainstream (by around 2010-2012 when its playerbase peaked), I feel that lines up perfectly when your observation that developers began incorporating more and more positive feedback loops into games. I only bring this up since I wonder if there’s an actual correlation there (along with the other elements you pointed out regarding accessibility, etc.) or if it’s just coincidental timing.

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    • d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      It had nothing to do with WoW, smartphones were basically to blame. 2007 was when the iPhone came out, Android followed next year, and by the early 2010s, smartphones became ubiquitous. Both the App Store and Google Market exploded exponentially in the number of apps, and mobile game makers eventually figured out that microtransactions brought in more money than upfront payments - all the popular games started exploiting this model, such as Angry Birds, Temple Run and of course the infamous Candy Crush.

      King, the company behind Candy Crush, generated over a billion dollars of revenue within just an year - their turnover exceeding that of several traditional PC/console game makers. They had a staggering 1000% growth in just an year. And that was the trigger. That was when everyone looked at them going, “tf, why the hell are we wasting so much time and money developing AAA games, and making way less money than some cheap mobile game?”

      And the rest as they say, is history.

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    • killeronthecorner@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Has everyone forgotten coin-ops? Or maybe I’m just old.

      This started a long, long time ago, pretty much at the birth of popular casual gaming. It’s not part of the evolution, it was part of the blueprint.

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• kibiz0r@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  One of my first tasks in my game development career was to change the data type used for the main currency in [Famously Addictive Farm Simulator Game], because a user had exceeded the maximum value.

  I eventually found out approximately how much IRL money this person had spent on this game…

  6 figures. And not barely 6 figures.

  People don’t spend that much because they’re just having fun.

  There is absolutely something different about these kinds of games. It’s abusive and dangerous, and we should consider it a health hazard.

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  • Jamie@jamie.moe ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I’m glad this comment section seems to agree that some fault lies on the game companies, too. I get it that parents gotta also parent, but when games are hiring behavior/psychology experts to design their games to become addictive and suck in people’s money as effectively as possible… adults struggle enough with resisting gaming addiction, let alone kids.

    I know a guy that spent all of his free time, and on average $2,000 a month, on Genshin Impact.

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    • EatATaco@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I have two kids. The idea that these games are not addictive is laughable. Something only someone without kids that have found roblox (or similar games) could possibly convince themselves is true. Even just looking at all FTP games I play, I can see how they are taking advantage of that need for the fix to pull money from you at the most opportune time. Lucky for me, I don’t really have an addictive personality so I’m easily able to set aside those things.

      But my kids have not developed the same level of self control or self-realization yet. They just continually want that dopamine hit. We definitely limit screentime and what they play (roblox is out now). In the times we have done “device free weeks” you can absolutely see the change in behavior from the withdrawal period right after you take away the game, to at the end of the week when they barely even complain at all that they can’t play.

      I remember when my older kid went away to sleep away camp for 2 weeks, and when he came back how his younger brother talking about the games seemed so foreign to him. He like had completely detoxed and didn’t care at all.

      There is definitely an element of parental responsibility here too. But you what the author doesn’t seem to realize is that it’s not so easy. All of the kids are playing games these days, and it is a common past-time. While you could just say “no games” and call it a day, I don’t know of a single family that does this. Even the ones who are very strict allow their kids to play some switch games. Even the ones that think their kid has some kind of gaming addiction (and have taken away all online games) let’s their kids play certain console games as well because they don’t see it creating the same behavior. And if you open the door a bit, it’s a constant battle trying to figure out where that line in, and you’re competing against big money using experts to figure out how to win that game. It’s an extremely hard game for a parent to win.

      It would be much easier if it were illegal to use these intentionally addictive mechanisms in games targeted at non-adults.

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• Kolanaki@yiffit.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I do feel like it’s kind of a bad thing that many large game devs employ psychologists specifically to come up with ways that psychologically addict players. They could be addicting even without being specifically designed that way, but going out of your way to ensure it is does not seem the least but ethical to me.

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  • topinambour_rex@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Like EA who use the same technics that casinos for their loot boxes. But you have better odds with casinos than EA…

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    • bassomitron@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      EA is hardly the only ones doing that. I’d even argue that there are far more offensive examples, sadly. Just look at the mobile market, it’s a cesspool of extremely exploitive tactics and even more accessible than traditional gaming.

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• Zeth0s@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I won’t read the article with such a stupid title.

  In other situations they call it victim shaming. There is a reason laws exists to forbid gambling for minors. Many video games are built as loopholes to circumvent such laws. Publishers and producers must be punished for this. Parenting is not a relevant topic here, as we are talking about society.

  In a society the distribution of parenting capabilities has large variability, and it does not always depends on the parent itself, but on environmental factors (such as work-related stressors).

  As society we need to fight any predatory business model that exploits society and individuals weaknesses.

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  • Lmaydev@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Many games work on the exact same feedback loop as gambling. Squeezing as much dopamine out of your brain as they can.

    Big companies spend a huge amount on psychologists to make their games as addictive as possible.

    The same way my parents had no idea how dangerous the internet could be in the late 90s, many parents won’t know about this.

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    • ParsnipWitch@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      You are also not allowed as a parent to enforce your child not playing after a certain age. It will depend on the country, but where I live you are, among other things, not allowed to forbid social contacts of your child unless there is significant harm involved. No judge would see “they are playing video games at their friends house” as serious harm.

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• PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Yeah let’s just disregard the prevalence of gambling mechanics deliberately intended to induce addiction in minors to juice them for their parents’ cash.

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  • criticalthreshold@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Exactly. There’s a lot more nuance than just ‘oh video game good, can’t control addiction, bad parents’.

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  • zepheriths@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    True but parents have a responsibility to look at the game before letting their children play it. Should the mechanics exist? No. But should the parents look into the game beforehand? Yes

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    • CosmicCleric@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      True but parents have a responsibility to look at the game before letting their children play it. Should the mechanics exist? No. But should the parents look into the game beforehand? Yes

      Switch the word game with the word drug and the word play with the word use, and your comment still reads the same.

      We outlaw addictive drugs.

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    • CmdrShepard@lemmy.one ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      How realistic is this though especially when certain mechanics get unlocked later in the game? The fact that these micro transactions, loot boxes, and everything else only exist to enrichen a few select people at the expense of everyone playing the game, it makes it hard to feel sympathetic toward these companies.

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    • Cyberdyne2121@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      This isn’t viable because the systems these companies use to get the kids gambling is not obvious, even to a watchful adult. This is by design. Companies are also not obligated to give any information parents can use to identify this. Lastly, a lot of these games are free to get into, so the parents have no reason to know/ find out their kid is playing fortnite for example.

      Again, these aren’t circumstance, they are deliberate design choices to skirt the law and prevent potential action to stop it early.

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• pete_the_cat@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  This isn’t shitty parenting, companies are intentionally creating addictive mechanics in games. Instant gratification causes a release of dopamine, which keeps the person playing over and over again. It’s the reason why people “grind”.

  They’re virtual Skinner Boxes. If you don’t know what that is, I suggest looking up the term and B. F. Skinner himself.

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  • Furedadmins@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Parental controls are a thing on all of these systems aren’t they? If not they should be.

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    • zipzoopaboop@lemmynsfw.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      They are, though to be fair they are usually very difficult and confusing to use, and in the case of Sony child accounts cannot be turned in to full accounts down the line so any purchases would have to be lost to enable a now adult to control their own account. 1st parties could do a hell of a lot better.

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    • pete_the_cat@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Nope! Why would the company intentionally limit the way they designed the game? That’s counterproductive.

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• the_q@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Aren’t a lot of current games built with gambling mechanics built in? Is that not done with the intention of wanting a person to keep playing and buying? I agree parents should be policing their children’s activity, but these companies shouldn’t get a pass for creating the fire people burn themselves on.

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• dojan@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  In the past I might’ve been more critical of the parents, but honestly in this day and age?

  Large publishers and developers exist to exploit people. They exploit workers by overhiring, overworking, and then firing them gracelessly whenever they’ve managed to push out the next paint-by-numbers turd they have planned. It releases to the public in an unfinished state, yet the consumer is expected to shell out hundreds of dollars not only for the base game, but for season passes, FOMO mechanics, in-game shops, gambling and other anti-consumer bullshit.

  They scheme to create more and more insidious systems to keep the player hooked, all the while they’re abusing their workers, playing with their lives, and sometimes literally stealing from them.

  The modern AAA gaming industry is worse than it ever has been, and these parents aren’t wrong; the games are designed to be addictive. They’d outright encourage people to mortgage their home and steal their parents’ credit cards if they thought they could get away with it.

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• JakenVeina@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  “Parents Sue Cigarette Companies Over ‘Tobacco Addiction’, Because That’s Easier Than Parenting”

  When a company makes a product they don’t just KNOW is harmful, but BECAUSE it’s harmful, and they’ve ENGINEERED it to be harmful, for the sake of profit, it ceases to be solely about parenting.

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  • CmdrShepard@lemmy.one ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Honestly I agree with your sentiment with regard to video games but not with tobacco. By this point, everyone knows tobacco is bad for you. If you choose to use and get addicted to it, that’s just you exercising your bodily autonomy.

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    • JakenVeina@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      For sure, but that doesn’t mean we’re cool with marketing it to kids.

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• Tosti@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  [deleted]

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  • FinalRemix@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Exactly. These are carefully designed to drip-feed dopamine rewards and keep maximizing “engagement” to maximize resultant profit, or at the very least, minimize the time the user spends doing anything else (including playing a competitor’s game).

    Parents barely stand a chance. In child education lit, we’re still relying on old 90s tropes of “don’t let your kid sit in front of the TV too long” and “no more than two hours, preferrably maxed at one hour, for screentime of any screen per day”.

    “Do you know where your kids are?” has been replaced by “have your kids gone outside today?”

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• HexesofVexes@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I mean, the gambling industry uses some mobile games as learning material in how to snare players and trigger “that next button press” (source, I used to work for a large gambling company).

  So, there are grounds to argue addiction on the same level as gambling addiction for some games.

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• uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  It’s also worth noting microtransactions and other player-directed revenue-enhancement schemes have been featured in games while still not being noted (even as gambling mechanics — Looking at you, EA lootboxes) by the ESRB, belying its funtion to protect children from adult content.

  To this day, AAA games are offered in bad faith as adversarial to the player with the interest of exploiting them.

  I’m not sure if the parents angle is the way to address these issues, but then out legal system really gives no fucks about the good of the public, case in point, SCOTUS stripping people of rights while giving corporations extended privileges.

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• plz1@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  The fact that most modern AAA games have some sort of “loot box” (aka actual gambling) mechanic, and those mechanics are literally identical to the design patterns for slot machines, seems to be completely missed by the author of this article. Gambling addition is a real thing, and pushing that psychological behavior pattern onto impressionable youths should be illegal. As a citizen of the US, I can’t legally go online and gamble with real money directly, but I can get the same “fix” by playing most of the big titles from EA (with real money, just one layer deeper, and with no way to get my winnings back into the real world), says a lot.

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  • TwilightVulpine@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Absolutely. This isn’t just that kids like games and that’s bad, it’s that games are literally being made with conditioning tactics to get people playing them as a habit and paying. Not only they have loot boxes that are psychologically identical to a slot machine, but games as a service have mission and reward structures designed to get people returning as a habit, not because it’s fun. Look how many games have players going “I need to do my daily missions”, not because that’s fun, but because of a sense of obligation and Fear of Missing Out over trickling rewards.

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• reverendsteveii@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I love it when the title of an article tells me the opinion I’m supposed to have.

  The fact is there’s a lot of work that goes into designing games to drive behavior. The article details some of the work that game designers do to induce compulsive behavior, like occasional free gifts to keep people from getting frustrated with certain levels. The article then poopoos this idea by pointing out that heroin addicts never get free heroin from their dealers so this can’t be a real addiction. Wanna learn a fun fact that I know as a recovering addict that y’all don’t know? Your dope dealer will take a short. He’ll sell you a ten dollar bag for five dollars. Not every time, but every once in a while, and for the exact same reason that these games do it: he wants you stuck in, he wants you in his debt in particular and he wants you coming back to him. A sick junkie doesn’t make anyone any money, we mostly just lie in bed and sob. It keeps you in the reward loop, the same as free gifts to get you past frustrating parts of a video game.

  The article also acknowledges that gaming addiction is in the DSM, but tries to dismiss that as well based on notes that say further research is needed. Further research is always needed for everything, especially to do with mental health. The fact that it’s in the DSM at all means that, while they may not have found the fire, they can feel heat and smell smoke. The article even concedes that 13 hours of gaming/day indicates that “something is going on here on a psychological level” but because it’s not at the level of an active heroin addiction it’s not worth discussing despite the author’s intuition that “something is going on here” combined with the opinion of the mental health community that, from the article about the DSM linked in this one, “There is neurological research showing similarities in changes in the brain between video gaming and addictive substances.”

  I get it. I grew up in the 90s, when video games were new and scary and were gonna make us all smoke crack and shoot up our schools. This harmless hobby of mine was scapegoated into being the cause of so many of society’s ills, and it turned out to be 100% bullshit every time. But this is different. The people who design games are open about the fact that this compulsivity is what they’re designing for. The people who study this sort of behavior have already given the phenomenon a name, they’re studying it and they see it as a growing phenomenon. It’s likely to end up like beer, where there are people who can enjoy it sometimes in a healthy manner and people who can’t. From the psychiatry.org article linked in the OP’s article, it seems to be about 1% of gamers who develop problematic behavior around gaming.

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• Tom_bishop@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  If they succeed in suing, next I’m gonna sue google for my youtube addiction, then sue reddit for my scrolling reddit addiction, then sue tiktok for my child’s tiktoking addiction.

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  • Esqplorer@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Are you suggesting that YouTube shouldn’t have liability for the behavior of their algorithms?

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• sandriver@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I get the feeling that “Techdirt” may be a bit biased.

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  • cjsolx@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Perhaps a tad.

    Personally, I don’t much like being told what my conclusion should be from a report. Annoying headline. Unsurprisingly, Timmy goes on to be insufferable throughout the entire article.

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• kaiomai@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Good! Hit them in the wallet for their abhorrent behavior.

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• uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  As a disabled adult latchkey kid, we’ve given up on actual parenting (that is, letting the US public actually have the time and energy to parent) for half a century now. In the 1970s it took all adults working to support a houshold (contast one working adult and a homemaker in the 1950s) yet the quality of life didn’t improve. We passed parenting on to teachers, and then gave them larger classes.

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• robocall@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  If only gaming companies could figure out how to get kids addicted to algebra.

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  • sandriver@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    this is the entire cycle that keeps undergrad computer science going

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  • KSPAtlas@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Just one more variable

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• the_of_and_a_to@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  [deleted]

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  • FireTower@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    The US Image

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• ntma@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  It’s like when parents go after the drug dealers than blame their own kid for doing drugs.

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  • dragonflyteaparty@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    It’s also like when you ignore that video game makers research and develop how to make their game as addictive as possible and ignore an entire thread talking about it. Oh wait…

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    • ntma@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Because it’s never the responsibility of the user.

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  • Kase@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Uh… it’s pretty generally accepted that selling drugs to kids is bad. It’s also illegal. Do you agree that it should be illegal? And if so, doesn’t comparing the two support the idea that the games should be regulated?

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• lekor55@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  The recent lawsuits against gaming companies over ‘video game addiction’ seem to overlook the importance of parental guidance. It’s easier to blame external factors than to address the root causes at home. The principles of the AA twelve steps teach us about taking responsibility and seeking personal growth, which can be applied to parenting as well. Just as recovering from addiction requires commitment and support, guiding children through their challenges needs consistent involvement and understanding. Instead of looking for quick fixes, parents could benefit from actively engaging in their children’s lives and setting healthy boundaries around gaming and other activities.

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• Nastybutler@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  ITT: A lot of triggered bad parents

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  • Vqhm@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I would love to know how to be a perfect parent.

    If you have some amazing advice I’m sure we’re all ears here.

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    • CmdrShepard@lemmy.one ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      You know someone is well informed when they leave a 6 word rebuttal and think they just dunked on everyone in the comment section.

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    • Nastybutler@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      It’s easy: don’t reproduce. The world is literally burning, yet most everyone seems to think they’re special enough the world needs them to keep pumping out spawn. Wanna reduce your carbon emissions? Get a vasectomy.

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• nfsu2@feddit.cl ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Maybe those parents will understand if someone tells them that is the same thing as suing as any alcohol brand for their kid’s addiction.

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  • TwilightVulpine@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    As much as I see what a pointless move this is from the parents, we should acknowledge the alcohol industry and retailers have to take more responsibility to keep it away from children than game companies do. Stores can be punished if a kid goes there saying “I’m definitely 21” and they sell without checking.

    There is some neglect from parents, there is the way how our society is overworked gets in the way of parents who want to do better, but a fraction of the blame can be put on game companies that sell games with gambling-like monetization without even rating it properly. They are not wrong about there being “addictive features” and “predatory monetization aimed at minors”. Even Mario Kart World Tour has these, and it’s rated E

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    • nfsu2@feddit.cl ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Absolutley, you are completely correct. I also heard that in some countries microtransaccions that rewarded “Random” items are being prohibited since its the same as gambling. Which in that case suing them for that would make sense.

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