McDonalds has marketed to children for the better part of a century (and it has followed many people into adulthood).
The medium has changed, but the practices are the same as Edward Bernays and Anna Freud cooked up so many decades ago (Sigmund was never happy with the way his family members used his psychoanalysis research to sell products, even though they used it to help sell the English version of his book).
There is more of it today, yes. Kids don't want toys, and hence we see Toys-R-Us disappear .. they do want games, and it's pretty important for people in tech to teach kids about how absolutely atrocious in-game purchases are and how you should NEVER participate in that rubbish and discourage everyone else from doing so in the hopes it eventually goes away.
But it won't, because there are always people who don't know, or even with full knowledge, can't help those addictions.
It's a complicated problem, but current phones/tech are just the medium.
But the medium can also be the message.
