Time for regulation of video game makers? - Class action lawsuit against Fortnite

[greenapple123]

Quebec judge has authorized a class-action lawsuit over 'addictive' Fortnite game. Would love to hear your thoughts on this.

montreal.ctvnews.ca/quebec-judge-authorizes-class-action-lawsuit-over-addictive-fortnite-game-1.6186022

Personally I think there is a need for some sort of regulation on video games, given the impact it’s having on young kids. And it seems like parents don’t know enough about the negative effects or how to effectively control video game use.

Cocaine is addictive. So it’s banned. It’s illegal for anyone to sell or consume cocaine.
Tobacco is addictive. It’s not banned. It’s illegal to sell tobacco to anyone under 18
Sugar is addictive. It’s not banned. It’s not illegal to sell sugar. There is more awareness about the impact of consuming foods and drinks that are high in sugar - For e.g., There is a tax on drinks with high sugar. Sugary drinks are not included in school meals etc
We already regulate some things depending on the extent and impact of addiction. So why not video games? What do you think?

Unreasonable - It’s parent’s responsibility to restrict the amount of time kids spend on video games. Can’t fault the companies that make video games

Not Unreasonable - We regulate other addictive substances. Why not video games?

@Beneficialchampion2 I did not say software is as addictive as cocaine. I mentioned several substances in my post , including sugar, to say that different things are regulated differently depending on the impact it has. For e.g, sugar can be addictive, but it is not banned. I probably should have made that more clear

I have more of an issue with sugar being everywhere and in everything and teachers giving sweets and chocolates to children than I do with Fortnite, to be honest. DS played it quite intensely for a while when he was ten going on eleven and then got fed up with it. By then almost everyone in his class was playing and some since age 7 or 8. He thinks it’s not very good now.
I do think manufacturers have a responsibility and I can see how it would be addictive (like any screen thing, really) but the game is a 12 and I don’t think very many of its players are actually that age. DS sees it as a game for younger kids.
But my much bigger daily battle is limiting sugar. Sugar is consistently marketed at children in various forms and socially acceptable to give to children.

Nanny state nonsense. Parental responsibility is what's needed.

YABU - it is up to the parents to limit what gaming time their children have. And like some PP said, if kids are not eating showering, then that is to do with their parents, not the game.

Maybe the developers could come up with skins/rewards for being offline for so many consecutive hours, or limiting gameplay to an hour.

Underage kids online is the bane of many a gamer. I game in VR, and am dreading xmas and the explosion of squeakers that come with it because lazy parents are using VR as a babysitting device.

I disagree. They are illegal because they are physically harmful to humans. People can be addicted to exercise but we don’t ban that.

Video games won’t be criminalized unless someone can prove they cause harm. Simply being addictive will probably not be enough.

I'd just like to know why - after it turned out that women riding bikes, people reading novels, children reading comic books, people watching television, listening to rock music, playing (non-fortnite) computer games etc. turned out to be not so catastrophic after all - this time you think it's different?