This tirade is a stream-of-consciousness consequence of something that I wrote about in my Why am I Here? page plus thoughts that I posted on the Cynic's Sanctuary Message Board. The theme is parental responsibility and my chosen targets are toys and the net, though I guess really, I am directing this at parenting in general.
Let me state at the outset that I am NOT a parent, but don't think that this makes my views any less justified or that they should be, by default, dismissed on the grounds that I have no "practical experience". Complete codswallop!!!
I think that increasingly, parents have abrogated responsibility for their children onto the government and multinationals. First of all the example of toys. Someone on the aforementioned noticeboard noted that he had recently tried to buy a toy gun in a toy shop only to find that there are probably more Elvis sightings than such toys for sale. He put it down to political correctness amongst sections of the society who believe that such toys promote violence in youngsters. I have to differ with his targetting "political correctness" as the reason for their scarcity but I share with him a concern about the censoring of toys.
I firmly believe that it is the role of the parent to teach their child about the difference between a toy gun and a real one; that the latter can cause harm. Whilst I don't deny that some degree of responsibility should be borne by toy makers with respect to their products, I think that this responsibility does not extend to teaching children about morals and how to function as a member of society. In the hands of one person a kitchen knife can result in gastronimic bliss, in the hands of another it can terminate a life. Should we ban knives just because there have been attacks using such an implement? I think not. Teach your child that toy guns are fine as a source of fun and games but that real ones are to be treated a tad more seriously. Be a parent and don't expect toy manufacturers to be one for you just because you cannot be bothered to take the time to teach your child.
The situation is similar with material on the net. Sure, there's pornography and violence and bigotry, but isn't there IRL as well? Yes this makes more of it available and more easily accessible but again, I think that the responsibility for making sure that the child does not access material that is offensive or potentially harmful lies not with filtering software but with the parents. There has been increasing controversy about the nature of the selection processes that the software companies utilise in determining which sites are accessible, with, as I noted in my previous piece, the farcical situation of the banning of words like "breast" leading to the inaccessibility of women's health sites. Teach your child that the right wing groups on the net are bigotted, tell them precisely why they should not go to "Bullets and Bombs" and try the odd backyard experiment. Don't simply hush these sites up as if they do not exist because by doing so you are treating your children as if they are completely unaware of what goes on around them and forgetting the undeniable fact that the more forbidden a child believes something to be, the more energy that will be exerted in trying to find out why something has been deemed to be unsuitable for their eyes.
By having a child a person takes on a lifetime's worth of responsibilities; don't be so self-indulgent and have a child just to satisfy your own ego or because you're "expected to" or because you want to call your child William Prathurst III. This is a life that you have brought into the world and ultimately, you are responsible for how this child turns out. Don't get me wrong, I don't deny the importance of the effect of the social environment in which the child grows up and that the forces of the media for example, are powerful, but it is the role of the parent to be a filter to the experiences that this growing child will encounter. You are the first conduit to the world that the child will encounter and their most powerful primary influence.
