The whole deal about "boo video games cause violent children" is something that people on the news have sticked too much with since the 90s, and its up there along with "game journalists" that don't even play games deriding perfectly fine games only because of their personal tastes or difficulty on what's supposed to be an objective review on a professional website (and well...the deal with news blaming video games for everything wrong is actually worse than the latter, but it is too easy to hear nowadays a bad/misinformed take over an old or new game from someone that outright admits to not wanting to give it any further time on social media).
That said, while children shouldn't be exposed to violent stuff because of, you know, common sense, there's a difference between knowing how to raise your children properly and moderate whatever content they see until they grow up...and that someonethat had serious issues protagonizing an unfortunate incident having coincidentally played violent games and having that last fact being adjudicated solely to the game itself. But adding to what you said (and what I just mentioned), practically everybody in most Latin American countries have grown up with stuff like Counter-Strike and GTA (I've seen my small cousins playing then on Canaimas)...and they are perfectly fine.
The deal about addiction though is also a truth however, and I think that what you expressed through your story does speak enough about that. The closest thing I can say about something serious with gaming addiction at least on my experience or eyes, is that one of my brothers had to uninstall an MMO because of falling grades in the University (EDIT: I also just remembered him playing League of Legends a lot years ago...seeing him glued to 30 minute games on his seat while my parents called him to do stuff was another reason for me to never want to touch that game). As someone that also can get easily distracted, it is important to be aware about using your time properly and being able to control any impulses to just y e e t your important work to do over playing something.
(and yes, I said y e e t because that just came up on my head and thought that couldn't waste it. In that light-hearted mood from a joke, I have to say that this is a great post!!)
I agree 100% and growing up being allowed to play rated M games, I might have a different perspective then most people. Personally, back when I was growing up there wasn't really a lot of 'bad' rated M games. Maybe some light swearing, a bit of blood, stuff like that. It's nothing like it is nowadays. I mean look at GTA V and how much the N word is used in it. My parents also had a strict set of rules when it came to rated M games, such as if I was caught cursing then they were gone.
I'm glad you enjoyed the read! I think I'll be posting something else exploring VRET as, tbh, I know very little of it and I think that might be a fun subject to dive into next week!