It seems to me like a fundamental line has been crossed and things are different now. I'm not sure exactly what that line is though.

Maybe it's that TV was manipulative (advertisements), but those manipulations were limited and not very effective. Video games were an honest transaction, you pay $60 and you get a game, and our focus has been on making the best game we can, we hope you enjoy the game.

Now, social media is much more manipulative and addicting, and video games are more likely to be designed around manipulation and micro-transactions rather than simply being a good game.

Both of those had some kind of enforced content regulation and much easier way for parents to choose what their kids were exposed to. Yeah, precocious kids could find ways around rules sometimes, but those are exceptions.

Tiktok and similar apps are completely different.

It’s completely different.

Agree. Difference being the amount of stuff competing for kids Attention has exponentially increased. Attention Theft is a phrase I read on HN a while back. Felt like a good description of the main dynamic in the Attention Economy.

Yeah, video games today have improved a lot compared to the 80s and 90s.

On PCs and dedicated machines? Yeah. On smartphones, it's hard to find something that isn't a Gacha game, and nearly impossible to find something that isn't pay-to-win. All the phone games with network multiplayer available to a 7-year-old right now are some variety of pay-to-win (with ads, regardless).

It's not going to corrupt the youth, but the kids deserve better.

You have to ignore a lot of things to make that comparison.