If Google care in the least for kids they would scrub all of those games that are predatory, introduce gambling addiction mechanics, use annoying and confusing in-game ads, and gateway to older even more addiction focused apps. Notice I didn't even mention all of the information hoovering.
And of course the Play store is desperate for you to provide a credit card at every single opportunity so you can maximize the potential of kids doing accidental buying.
It is a complete scam.
I honestly don't know how television got such strict laws and regulations on children's programming, when viewed in comparison to the complete wild west, that is the modern app store.
The sheer fact that I can't differentiate between "Has ads, and you can pay to get rid of them" and "Has 15 different currencies that make the game no fun unless you pay a fortune" in the Play store is proof that Google don't want to promote good business practices.
“Television” doesn’t have strict laws and restrictions.
Over the air broadcasts do. The broadcast spectrum is considered publicly owned and is leased to television operators.
I guess you could say the same about the cellular spectrum. But how deep do you want government regulation to go since Google operates over the internet? Do you really want the government controlling internet content “for the children”?
And if they regulate app stores, especially on Android, do they also regulate what you can distribute from your own website?
I see your point to some degree, but an app store is not the open internet, there is not freedom nor assumption of freedom. It is curated strictly in anticompetitive terms by both Google and Apple.
So yes, I do expect strict child regulation in it, especially since there isn't the open internet issue of a) who pays for it and b) who is the central regulatory nexus point. It is google/apple in both cases.
As a parent far on the liberal spectrum I am just fine with proper functioning government regulation, and the job they did in the 70s/80s/90s was perfectly fine.
You are obviously arguing for zero-regulation, or you think you are in the libertarian sense. I always like to ask libertarians if they think murder should be illegal, which they usually do. Well, guess what, you are in favor of government regulation, it simply comes down to what line in the sand you are drawing that obviously is convenient to your own self interest.
Not sure who is downvoting you, but you're absolutely right.
Just like Meta/Instagram, they're playing lip-service to the concept, but not really taking action.
Frustratingly, out of all the platforms & BigCorps, Microsoft's parental controls and support for child accounts seems the best.
For many parents this might be no big deal. But there are genuinely children who've ventured into self-harm, eating disorder, etc. content on account of the wild-westness of the Internet combined with weakness of this crap. And it's absolutely maddening to see how pathetic they all (including Apple) are treating this.
> I honestly don't know how television got such strict laws and regulations on children's programming, when viewed in comparison to the complete wild west, that is the modern app store.
With time and pressure.
Right now you have a fun new technology which people are still infatuated with, bought by one of the biggest companies to ever exist, in a country which openly permits business-to-politician payments through lobbying.
The wild west won't look anything like it does 50 years from now
No, it's because television was regulated as a tradeoff for using the limited resource of airwaves, but there isn't a limited resource of internet connections to game servers.
> in a country which openly permits business-to-politician payments through lobbying.
It's actually amazing how good of a tell this is. Nobody who says this ever knows anything about politics. I'm sorry, but politicians actually genuinely believe in most of the stuff they do you don't like, and so do their voters.
it's not like america is alone in this, they just have gigantic dollar figures. australia is a country which really struggles to move away from fossil fuels, and it also has gigantic coal-mining companies paying huge amounts to keep it that way
> it's not a secret that mega companies use huge amount of funds on lobbying to influence politics
Companies also spend billions on marketing. But there's no reason to believe either of these things actually /work/. And lobbying is not giving money to politicians.
And of course the Play store is desperate for you to provide a credit card at every single opportunity so you can maximize the potential of kids doing accidental buying.
It is a complete scam.
I honestly don't know how television got such strict laws and regulations on children's programming, when viewed in comparison to the complete wild west, that is the modern app store.