> We'll try everything, it seems, other than holding parents accountable for what their children consume.

The mistake in this reasoning is assuming that they are actually interested in protecting the children.

direwolf20 2 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

GP isn't interested in protecting children either. Punishing parents harder does nothing to improve the lives of children — in fact it makes them much worse, because now they are addicted to Facebook and their parents are in jail. It just makes certain people feel morally righteous that someone got punished.

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Wobbles42 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

This.

The world is becoming increasingly more uncertain geopolitically. We have incipient (and actual) wars coming, and near term potential for societal disruption from technological unemployment. Meanwhile social media has all but completely undermined broadcast media as a means of social control.

This isn't about protecting children. It's about preventing a repeated of the Arab Spring in western countries later this decade.

"Think of the children" is the oldest trick in the book, and should always be met with skepticism.

	▲	hunterpayne 19 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		The Arab Spring was caused by a tripling of food prices. I somehow doubt something similar will happen in the west. As for the rest, ignoring the population's concerns (by suppressing social media) is the best way to cause political violence. So I see blocking the governments desires to shape political discourse as saving the politicians from themselves.