i am convinced that enough people in power know it, too, but see this as their chance to get the full-dystopia version rolled out.

Correct. The goal here isn't "to save kids". That's just one of the Horsemen of the Infocalypse [0] used to market taking away our freedom.

0 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Horsemen_of_the_Infocalyp...