this post was submitted on 07 Nov 2023
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They are the one that controls finances in the household and what their kids own.
That doesn't mean that we shouldn't regulate predatory practices. Many video games are built on social media and gambling models designed with intentionally addictive features. In not talking about fun features, I'm talking about addictive features. There are panels at game designer conferences you can listen to about this stuff.
It doesn't. But, doesn't excuse parental responsibility either, since they are the one with the final deciding factor. Especially over monetary access.
That's why the kid was distressed and the relationship with the father went south, because he said "no" and tried to help his child. That's the point when kids start to sell their belongings to school mates, steal from parents purses or take their credit cards or spent all money they make with a job on the game and even when they have no money to spent, their minds are in the game all the time and family life is 99% fighting about screen time.
This is not solely about parents not restricting money, this is game developers and publishers hiring psychologists to find ways to make their games as addictive as possible vs. normal people and their children, a multi billion industry vs. ordinary customers. To blame this solely on parents is just wrong.
They probably allowed the kid a decent amount of screen time and some money to spent, like normal parents do. That their kid got pulled into an addiction by an industry that does everything possible to make that happen did happen over time, hard to notice until it is already a problem.
Most people blaming only the parents do not have children and have watched their child cry for days because it can't have the skin "all the other kids have" and therefore gets bullied in school. All these games on purpose work with group pressure on top of addictive game and loot mechanics. They prey especially on neurodiverse children and adults, FOMO and more.
If you read the court documents this child is clearly on the spectrum, the parents ignored his symptoms for years and just allowed tons of unrestricted screen access. Then when the consequences of their actions hit them they shift the blame elsewhere because it couldn't possibly be their shitty parenting. This has been going on for decades, first it was comic books, then it was rock music, then it was violent television, now it's video games.
While this is a reasonable take, it ignores the fact that many modern video games (unlike the other things you listed) are specifically designed to be incredibly addictive while the marketing and PR does everything to belie this fact.
Both things can be true.
I don't care if modern video games peddle amphetamines. The fact is parents have endless amounts of information at their fingertips at all times to research said games before buying it for their children. Instead of doing their due diligence as a parent they pawn little Johnny off to the TV or Tablet with no care in the world about what they are consuming because it's easier than parenting.