What if high quality social interactions are not the norm for some kids, and these systems are giving an inspirational blueprint for what they crave and don't have access to ? In disfunctioning families, this can be a lifeline.
Even during the video game/satanic panic of the 80's, it was acknowledged that video games - even at that early stage - allowed children who are introverted or less physically adept to experience "winning" and the satisfaction of overcoming obstacles. It seems the ability to acknowledge that there are also benefits to these new emerging systems of interaction has been lost.
I don't really recall that the people pushing the Satanic panic narrative were the same ones making nuanced arguments for the social benefits of video games and D&D.
If anything, the existence of an Internet supporting direct discussion like this between strangers like we should make vastly more nuance available at the median now than then.
What a shame we all seem to spend so much time making such poor use of it! I grew up on the dream that global communication would lead to global understanding. Imagine my disillusionment on discovering at last the besetting, lethal flaw in this beautiful revel: that we've nothing better than humans to give the job of doing it.
An underappreciated point. Especially considering - as I discovered in my early teens - how easily a kid in a situation like that might be exploited, by an adult who isn't. Say what you like about language models, they at least seem unlikely to harbor the sort of motivations such adults admit for their behavior.
