Child Safe

I have an issue with making things "child safe". No, I don't mean stuff like putting covers on your electrical outlets and carrying your child in a properly fitted and fastened car seat or putting poisonous stuff where little kids can't get it and eat it. That's all perfectly sensible and failing to pay attention to stuff like that can be downright negligent and even criminal. I also don't mean those "childproof" tops for medicine bottles that I frequently find I'm unable to open, despite being an adult.

What I'm talking about is the way some people seem to think that the entire world should exist solely and completely for the benefit of their children's sensibilities.

I've felt like this for a long time, but what sparked this particular rant is I was idly looking around at web pages (i.e., a "boredom surf") and came across a webring which shall remain nameless. The webring claims to be for, by, and about women who are strong in their emotions, thoughts, and opinions. This made me perk up a little (if there's one thing I certainly am, it's emotional and opinionated). So I went and had a look, and found that one of the requirements for joining the ring is that pages submitted must be "child safe in all areas".

*blink*

Excuse me, but.... why?

First of all, why would children be allowed to cruise a webring of this nature without supervision, if what they read is a concern to their parents? If you're really worried about what your kids read on the web (and you probably should be), why haven't you installed filtering software yet? Or, even better, why aren't you hanging around nearby keeping an eye on what, precisely, your kids are reading? And if your children are at school looking at the web, why hasn't the school put in proper filtering software?

Who am I to decide what is "safe" for someone else's children, anyway? Perhaps you feel that reading about certain kinds of spiritual expression is inappropriate for your child, but is it inappropriate for all children? What about the telling of myths and fairy tales and legends? Some parents feel this is inappropriate. And how about things like apartheid, communism, fantasy role playing games, all of which certain parents would think are "unsafe" for their children to be reading?

As for the webring that annoyed me so much, the fact is that I am an opinionated woman with strong ideas and strong emotions, and furthermore, I am an adult. Why should I have to be concerned that if I speak my mind in a way that an opinionated woman might care to do I might be upsetting some eight-year-old by speaking my mind?

This isn't just limited to the web, though. It extends to all kinds of things. People get all bent out of shape over movies and television shows which are not "child safe", despite the fact that the movie or television show never claimed to be. Apparently the mere existence of shows like South Park is enough to infuriate people who find the show "inappropriate" for children. Well, guess what? South Park is inappropriate for children, and they never claimed to be otherwise. Why is that so hard to understand? Don't let your kids watch it if you don't approve of it for their viewing, but is it really necessary to complain that it's available at all, even for adults (and yes, I admit that I love South Park, and saw the South Park movie twice in the theatre, as well).

The world is not always a nice place. It's not all happy kitties and little fluffy bunny wabbits. The world has in it things like foul language and violence, and deep oceans full of sharks, along with illnesses that can kill you and earthquakes and tornadoes all kinds of terrible things. Sometimes, adults might be interested in reading about or viewing material which has to do with deep oceans full of sharks or foul language. It's one of the benefits of being an adult. You can watch what you want and read what you want.

The fact is, there are things which are within your control (electrical sockets, bottles of poison, sharp knives in the kitchen, filtering systems for your web browser, car seats, etc.) and things which are out of your control (hurricanes, books written by other people, opinions of other people, and rights of other people to have opinions and write books, etc.). By all means, do your utmost to control the things you can. Teach your children about the world, teach them right and wrong, and teach them to be responsible human beings. But maybe, just theoretically, there are limits as to how much of the world can be or even should be made "child safe". Perhaps your eight-year-old shouldn't be reading this right now, and if they are, perhaps you should look into why your child is reading material you may find inappropriate, rather than trying to force me to change what I think, feel, and say in order to keep your child from reading something you find "offensive".

Radical thought, I know.

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