Games

Yes, as I said, I agree that there is a problem. But the problem can be solved by just not engaging with the addicting elements (and setting limits on your childs gaming, and ultimately by bringing this as a case to the FTC).

Video games and cake are not necessary for life. You can choose to eat other things; do other things. Additionally, video games are not like cake. For example, a person can choose to only engage in the multiplayer elements of a game and not engage with any other part, wheras you can't decide that you only want to eat the egg whites in the cake. If you take a bite of that cake, you have to engage with every ingredient in that bite.

It may be better for games that include elements such as lootboxes or microtransactions to lock such features behind some sort of age gate, but this has the problem of the game requiring data on children, and that such a feature can easily be defeated or bypassed just like every kid that asked their grandma to buy them GTA.

Regardless, this is not really something that needs to be a lawsuit by private individuals, but rather is something that necessarily should be brought up to the FTC, which would have authority granted by the government to present the necessary arrangements for mitigation of the problem.

From another article on a similar lawsuit filed in Illinois last year (interestingly, the minor in this case is referred to as D.G, and in the Arkansas lawsuit the minor is referred to as G.D.):

The 9-year-old Illinois resident, who goes by D.G. in the complaint, “experienced severe emotional distress, diminishes social interactions, loss of friends, poor hygiene, and withdrawal symptoms such as rage, anger, and physical outbursts,” according to the complaint.

D.G. spends six to eight hours a day playing video games across multiple platforms including the Xbox, PS4, iPhone, and Android devices. The complaint points to a number of patents owned by the gaming companies that allegedly push users into in-game spending.

[...] The suit also named Apple Inc., Google LLC, Microsoft Corp., and Nintendo of America Inc. as defendants.

You know what this sounds like to me? A bad, irresponsible parent refusing to actually parent their child, and instead trying to blame literally the entire video games industry for their negligence. A person looking to try to make a quick buck, not a person that actually wants to change the industry for the better. In my opinion, this is a person that should not be a parent, because they obviously cannot handle that responsibility.

From an article about this lawsuit filed in Arkansas:

The filing claims G.D. plays games over a dozen hours a day and has spent thousands on microtransactions. The suit seeks damages for injuries related to G.D.'s addiction (pain in his hands, shoulders, and elbow), related health care costs, statuary and punitive damages, and legal fees.

This sounds like the same problem, the parent neglecting to set limits for the amount of time their child spends playing video games, and neglecting to limit the types of games their child plays. I mean, in this suit filed in Arkansas, the suit claims that "rubber-banding" is specifically designed to cause gaming addiction. "Rubber-banding," which is a term from racing games to describe the behavior of other racers speeding up to the player, as if they were on a rubber-band, in order to present the player with challenging gameplay. It is not comparable to something like a lootbox microtransaction, but this suit claims they are the same.