On 16 Jan 2001, Kristin M. Fitzsimmons wrote:
> While I'm not entirely comfortable with the thought of a
> kindergartener having access to pornography, etc, I'm more
> uncomfortable with the arbitrary ages that the government
> has come up with to partition off mental development -- why
> is 18 the proper age to go off to war and to vote? why is 21
> the proper age to be allowed to drink? When are we going to
> say that it's ok for individuals to look at porn? 15? 18?
> Will the age be different for boys and girls? At a certain
> point, this sort of reasoning becomes silly...
I agree with you. I've often argued that the government seems to have no
problem trusting a 15 or 16 year old with a potentially deadly weapon (a
car), but won't let them drink alcohol until they're 21? It seems a little
odd to me...
Unfortunately, while I think that most of those decisions should be left
to parents to decide (what if my kids aren't mature enough to drive until
they're 18, but I have no problem with them having a glass of wine with
dinner when they're 14? I know my own kids better than anyone else does),
too many parents are chickening out and _expecting_ the government to do
the deciding for them... It makes it harder for the rest of us who
actually want to equip our kids to be independent, to do our jobs. (Not to
mention, it makes it way harder for teachers, who are expected to parent
their students as well as teach...)
Isn't that kind of what filtering is supposed to do? Supplant the role of
the parent as guide/supervisor/mentor?
I don't know what the solution is though... it's a tough call. Because
some parents fail to do their jobs (in my opinion), all of us have to deal
with the government deciding what we can and can't let our children do,
and at what ages.
Sorry, you got me off on a whole other soapbox there. :) I'll go sit down
now...
-sharon
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