Yeah, no. Nintendo, as the other poster said. Random stranger interaction == bad. Can’t verify age == bad.
Can only add your friends for chat? Is fine.
I feel like this same strategy is sane for adults also. Before the internet, we did fine making friends and playing games with people we actually know. So much of the awfulness of the modern online space comes from anonymous interactions with strangers. I don’t think human social connections are able to scale in the way the internet enables.
It's not even that stranger interaction is inherently bad, Nintendos Splatoon series is very multiplayer with strangers centric but it manages to stay safe for kids because of the lack of chat and user generated content for the most part
As the parent, I have complete control over who my children can connect with on Nintendo (not so with Roblox and others). That makes it safe, because I can double check with parent of said friend. It’s completely fine.
Can only add your friends for chat? Is fine.
I feel like this same strategy is sane for adults also. Before the internet, we did fine making friends and playing games with people we actually know. So much of the awfulness of the modern online space comes from anonymous interactions with strangers. I don’t think human social connections are able to scale in the way the internet enables.