This question is inspired by the Australian law that bans people under the age of 16 from social media. But then when I though about it, couldn’t the same argument be made for video games? I mean there are kids just waste their time on video games and not do any of their school assignments.

This purpose of post isn’t me arguing for or against the Australian law or any hypothetical law about a similar ban on video games, I just want to see Lemmy’s opinions on video games compared to social media. To me they seem like both have valid arguments of being harmful.

Edit: Added “Why or why not?” to the question.

  • Dizzy Devil Ducky@lemm.eeEnglish
    2·
    3 days ago

    Highly dependent on the game and features in it. I most certainly wouldn’t want a 3 year old playing a game like Gears of War but wouldn’t want them to be outright banned when they could be playing edutainment games specifically designed around kids their age.

    I also wouldn’t want kids near almost any online games with voice or text chat since even with the best moderation you’ll probably still find the most toxic and exploitative messages sneaking through.

    Same goes for games with the legalized gambling feature called loot boxes (or whatever cute and quirky name they decide to give them to disguise the fact it’s teaching kids to gamble). Ironic thing about the gambling thing is I grew up with some sort of casino game on PC, but there was never any incentive to keep gambling.