How is this effectively different from the cable TV, nintendo, home PCs and gameboy era of 20 years ago for kids? Microtransactions? I don't think the existen

How is this effectively different from the cable TV, nintendo, home PCs and gameboy era of 20 years ago for kids? Microtransactions? I don't think the existence of microtransactions is what makes it obviously worse. You could waste your entire childhood in front of screens back then too, and society quickly came to learn you should reduce screen time, despite the temptation of the TV babysitter. Those same lessons apply to the smartphone era of today. F2P games, like the almost 10 year old farmvillie? That is a bit newer, and I do agree that has a problem. I don't think that is new although.