There is a legal concept that applies here. It's called "attractive nuisance." Kind of like a mouse trap for humans. These game developers have created an attractive nuisance, and I think they bear a lot of the responsibility here. Apple bears some of it, too, since they provide the environment that makes this all possible. And parents, obviously, have to do their part. heh heh, if I take your position further. In my playing baseball scenrio, the lawsuit is asking my neighbor not only pay for their window damage themselves, they need to rebuild their house so that their window will be off the street so much that my child's baseball will never hit those window (I guess because it is going to be hurtful for my kid to find out that they can break the window ?? 8-))). Does that sound reasonable?
We have a lawsuit in California that go along that line reasoning regarding happy meal package with toys.
huffingtonpost.com
The ending question is who is responsible for raising our kids? The society as a whole (i.e. we need to build the society in such a way that all bad influence are keep out of our kids. But who got to decide what is bad influence and what is good influence? Mcdonald food is good for some family and bad for other, so should we outlaw McDonald food? And what age should the protection be stop? Can the kid change their view of the world right on the day that they become an adult and has no protection?)? or Me as their parent got to decide what my kid should be expose to and has the freedom to make that choice?
Good or bad, I want to decide how my kid will turn out to be and not some lawsuit or other parents' wishes and I take responsibility for that..
Many developers manage to make a lot of money in the App Store without resorting to that tactic. Game developer is the one pay for it, the 98 to 99% of folks who did not do in-app purchase or not going overboard on in-app purchase are paying for it because they have to pay up to use the app if the game developer change their business model. Why should the majority of responsible consumers pay for the minority of impluse comsumers? In my generation (I am 52), my parent decided what I exposed to. I decided what my kids (both are adult now) got exposed to and had to suffer any of the consequence if I didnot do my job right. So what should the next generation of parent do and who should bare the cost of raising their kids?
Is it that hard to ban a kid from playing a game? If that is the case, how do we control the same kid when it come to porn, cigarette, drug and other more serious issues? |
