i recommend people on both sides of the argument read at least the introduction to this book. it feels like this discussion comes down to parental vs societal control of children, rather than whether children deserve the same free speech and information rights as adults (1/6)
while it is indeed unreasonable to expect adults to censor themselves in a space marked and designated for adults only, and children should respect those boundaries, it’s also the case, in my opinion, that kids deserve freedom of expression and access to information, too. 2/
as a queer child in the US south, my first exposures to queer media were Queer As Folk, L Word, and various free erotica websites. if I had been barred access to these too-adult media outright, I would have, at very least, struggled to understand myself for much longer. 3/
a larger area of concern, to me, is that children aren’t given tools to engage with media; to recognize their own discomfort and know they can stop. (perhaps this is the result of online spaces becoming more into more “community” circles rather than less-personal forums?) 4/
some of that cannot be taught and must be learned. some has been taken out of schools by the same conservative forces that have pushed for “child protection” censorship from the beginning. 5/
what we do know is that abstinence-only education does not work, that ban on a sexuality (or sexuality outright) does not stop it from existing, and that limiting the amount of information children are able to access almost certainly puts more at risk than the alternative. (/6)