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2 months agoI don’t have to be able to pin down the precise moment you should be allowed to make all your own mistakes to tell you it isn’t at age 8. If you’re 30 and still want to put forks in electrical outlets, have at it. You understand the consequences. That isn’t stripping children of their person hood.
Children, to varying degrees, are not capable of making all of their own decisions or suffering the consequences of all their own actions, should they be allowed. Setting aside the moral panic of the month, there really are many things available on the internet that are actively harmful to kids; predators, scams, disinformation, viruses. As a child with unrestricted internet access you will encounter all of the above.
I agree with you that children deserve free access to information. I’m not pearl clutching about Timmy reading a book about a character with two mommies or something. Do you really think kids are better off learning every racial slur and reactionary opinion before the age of 10? That’s what dominates the internet as it exists today. That is what will be deliberately served to them by the algorithms.
You can do both, just like how you install outlet covers for the 5% of the time your back is momentarily turned, not as an alternative to watching your kids.