The reason people fly into a tizzy as you say is because this argument always starts of meaningful and degrades into a debate about what kids should and shouldn’t be exposed to.

The problem with that debate is it has nothing to do with the original argument. Indeed if you as a parent want to shield your child from various media and experiences until they reach a level of maturity to handle that exposure, then by all means use whatever methods and tools you feel appropriate. Because in this day and age, we as parents must fight for our children’s right to be children. Too many forces are at work in the world trying to make our children grow up WAY too fast. But again, that is a parenting debate and this has nothing to do with that.

The original argument is about how our all-seeing, all-knowing all-omnipotent jacka$$ government officials consistently take it upon themselves to use our children and our fears about their safety and well-being to force-feed a load of ridiculous, inefficient, ineffective, overpriced and downright sinister projects and laws and taxes and fees down our throats. Then years later these same programs show no effectiveness and NEVER get repealed. This is what the problem is. This argument is not about parenting or what little Johnny or Jane is watching on TV. This argument is about our runaway, spend happy government; happily chipping away at our freedoms, replacing them with socialist, gestapo policies that only serve to enrich their corporate lobbyist buddies, corral us into a certain socialized behavior, indoctrinate the masses into believing that violence on the internet will destroy our children only so they can further control it or use that fear to show us why the leftist/marxist belief that government can better raise your children and further institute arcane laws that seek to destroy the family, break down individualism, tax us to death so that we rely more and more on government programs. This is why the V-Chip and any program that they come up with is put in place. Politicians don’t give a d**n about your children or their access to violent TV. They care about 2 things – Power and controlling your life.

If you like the V-Chip, and it is working in your parenting model, then by all means use it. I certainly use the one in our kid’s DVR from DirectTV. It is actually quite good at blocking the porn, harsh movies that my 6 and 9 year old are not ready for. On my TV, I wouldn’t use it for any reason though. But the point is, we as parents and we as citizens and consumers should decide if we want such technology. If we want it, and we are willing to pay for it, you can best believe the manufacturers are going to make it available. But when the Government is allow to force-feed it to us, then all you do is ensure that the cost of the TV or computer or media device is going to go up, your taxes will go up, and more than likely (as is the case with the V-Chip) very few people are going to even use it and even less are going to even know its there. So why force us to use something that is not needed. I didn’t have a V-Chip when I was growing up. I had a mother and a father and they had biological V-Chips that functioned quite well. They are usually referred to as brains with the common sense module turned on so that they understood that their 6 yr old son who just got his own TV knew better than to have the TV on when homework was supposed to be done, or that at 8PM the TV goes off or their were only certain channels that I was allowed to watch and if I were caught watching something else, I would lose the TV.

And it’s funny… 30 years later, I have children of my own and even without a V-Chip that same thinking still works perfectly.

Less Government. More Parenting. That’s the answer.

And you say you’re “not talking about hardcore porn here”. So is softcore okay? How about extreme, realistic violence? How about for a 1-year-old? 2? 4?

If your 2 year old is mentally scarred by the sight of a boob, you have bigger problems, as the little tyke was once fed by one of them. That being said, the way I see it, if your child is curious enough to want to watch hardcore porn, (which probably happens much later than 4) instead of a full-scale crackdown, perhaps it would be a good time to teach your child about how porn is bad. (I assume you feel porn is bad– if you don’t, stop being a hypocrite.)

Why is it so bad for a parent to want to restrict their children from things they think are harmful?

Because isolation does not really educate– and you’re supposed to be preparing your child for life. (Which *doesn’t* start at 18, contrary to popular belief)

You’re right, I don’t trust my children to handle everything the world might throw at them. That’s why they’re called “children” — they’re not mature, they need oversight, and that’s part of the job a parent takes on. The fact is, kids do NOT always make good decisions.

The fact is, *humans of any age* do NOT always make good decisions.

If you taught your child the reason you’d like them to avoid whatever it is you feel they should avoid, then chances are good they’ll come to you for advice when they need it, and they’ll be better prepared when they do it anyway. (It happens) If you treat the naked body as an evil, dirty thing– when your child becomes curious about sex (it’s gonna happen) they will not turn to you for advice– as they’ve learned their whole life that your advice is to avoid it at all costs. So they go to someone who may or may not have their best interests in mind for advice.

There’s no reason it has to be a “here’s the world kid, deal with it all at once” kind of thing.

Yes, exactly. So instead of censoring them on your timetable, perhaps you should educate them on *their* timetable. I child isn’t going to ask about sex until their curious about sex. However– if you isolate the child as long as possible, the child *will* be in a “here’s the world kid, deal with it all at once” situation.