Anything that gives you positive feedback can be addictive.
People get addicted to exercising to the point it can harm them. Yet Nike shouldn't be liable if someone runs themselves into the ground.
People get addicted to exercising to the point it can harm them. Yet Nike shouldn't be liable if someone runs themselves into the ground.
But all that aside, let's talk big picture: does it really matter whether something ends up actually being clinically proven to be addictive if a company is taking action with the intent of making a product more addictive?
Let's say, for example, that I put a substance that I believe to be addictive into some new sports drink that I manufacture for the purpose of getting my users "hooked" on the product. What does it say about me, my intent, and the purpose of my product - even if it's discovered at some later date that the substance wasn't actually addictive all along?
All of that being said, this issue is a complicated one: the very question of what it means for something to be "entertaining" versus "addictive" is one hell of a deep question, and I think one that we're going to continue to evolve in our understanding of as a species as time goes on... and perhaps it's even something where the line is different for different people, or even the same person when in different moods/circumstances. But I do think that it's both worth it to examine intent when thinking about whether a company is doing something "wrong" or "right," and I don't think it makes sense to dismiss scientific evidence without probable cause for doubt.
Oh wait. That's every high school athletics program.
Oh wait. Basically every first world country has an obesity epidemic.
I'm not sure what the overall implications are of school athletic programs but I definitely don't think it is as black and white as you make it out to be.
Athleticism and sports should not be forced on kids. Let them run freely.
Eg. Just look at all the "free" street sports such skateboarding, rollerblading, bmx, parkour and so on. It doesn't have to be dull, boring and super formalized.
There is 1 football game I especially look back to which happened after a massive rain storm. The entire field had like 2 inches of water perfectly spread across it which made it not too hard to run across but completely painless to dive and tackle on. You would be holding onto someone trying to bring them down while they would drag you across the surface just as if you were water skiing. So much fun!
There are classes and trainers for parkour and bmx. Free parkour is quite often done by people who did gymnastics or similar sport as kids.
Looking around me, there are many kids who enjoy formalized sport clubs they go to. It is not for everyone, but the idea that most find them dull is wrong.
In my experience, clubs outside schools are much better because the kids actually want to be there.
However they often push some competitive agenda to the kids, especially when they become teenagers.
Many quit at that point because they don't have the time or motivation for it, and there very few clubs that only do "fun amateur league" at that age.