History Main / ThinkOfTheChildren

* Japan's [[FanNickname Anti-Otaku]] bill was made for this. The effect is that any manga that features someone doing something that is against the law (IE Rape, violence, etc.) will be considered 18+. This results in {{Shonen}} and {{Shoujo}} manga ([[SliceOfLife even innocent ones]]) being moved to the porno section of manga shops. So now, in order to get, oh say, {{Naruto}}, you have to now wade through the {{Hentai}} in order to get Naruto. [[WallBanger Way to go, Japan]]. [[WhatAnIdiot You just made yourself more perverted]].

* Arguments against {{Shotacon}} and {{Lolicon}} often involve this. This has been the result of laws criminalizing child pornography. Intended to protect ''real'' children from ''real'' sexual abuse, the reach of these laws has been slowly and inexorably expanded by prosecutors who show signs of trying to define and punish [[NineteenEightyFour thoughtcrime]], usually with the specious argument that protecting a few lines of pencil or ink on paper from the evil person who drew them somehow makes actual children safer.
** The idea is not the protection of the rights of imaginary children. It's a lot more simple than that. The idea is that these serve as innocent outlets for pedophile urges, and pedophiles, being dangerous criminals, are to be put behind bars, instead of being provided with some way to enjoy themselves, without breaking the law.
**** That's like saying the supply creates the demand, because no one could be pedophiliac by predisposition, it must be because they were corrupted by viewing pedo porn. At least if their consumption is confined to illustration and don't act on abusive urges, then all they're guilty of is their own thought, and wanting to view expressions of it. Thought and speech, both protected by the Constitution.
** One music industry spokesperson noted that [[http://www.boingboing.net/2010/04/28/music-industry-spoke.html child pornography is a good way to get the foot in the door to blocking file sharing sites]].
** The pedo issue kind of merged with ageplay prohibitions in 3D chats where participants were 1) verified to be adult prior to entering and 2) able to take an underdeveloped avatar form. So these are two consenting adults, one of which configures the dimensions of a 3D model to a diminutive size, who could be prosecuted under the same laws that ban pedophiliac porn rendered in 3D or line art. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, nominally founded to protect digital expression, ''ran scared'' from defending their right.
** In the United States at least such laws tend to be branded unconstitutional pretty quickly. Doesn't stop someone from creating a new one every other week, but they will never be successfully prosecuted.

* Helen Lovejoy is a parody of this character on ''TheSimpsons''. Whenever ''anything at all'' happens in Springfield, she screams "Won't somebody ''please'' think of the children?" in a panic ([[TheCobblersChildrenHaveNoShoes ironically, her own child is a kleptomaniac hellion who has to be sent to a special school for her crimes]]).

* ( According to article 240a of the dutch penal code, you cannot give harmful content to minors. This is 16+ material in video content (including porn) and 18+ with video games. You will get fined if you give this to kids, they have "mystery guests" roaming the country to see if you actually check their age. Despite this, there's still the presistent belief among parents that everyone can get a 18+ game from the store.

**** According to art 240a of the dutch penal code, you cannot give harmful content to minors. This is 16+ material in video content (including porn) and 18+ with video games. You will get fined if you give this to kids, they have "mystery guests" roaming the country to see if you actually check their age.

** According to an PEGI report the average age of people who buy games in Europe is 35 and the amount of games that are for people aged 16 to 18 is around 10%, only 1% of the total games published is suitable for 18 and over. You wouldn't know any of this if you followed the news, as a recent report about an agreement about 18+ games showed in the Netherlands: "kids as young as 11 years old could buy these games" (at a $60 pricetag, which is a lot of money for a 11 year old last time I checked).

**** According to art 240b of the dutch penal code, you cannot give harmful content to minors. This is 16+ material in video content (including porn) and 18+ with video games. You will get fined.

**** according to art 240b of the dutch penal code, you cannot give harmful content to minors. this is 16+ material in video content (including porn) and 18+ with video games. you will get fined.

* Arguments against {{Shotacon}} and {{Lolicon}} often involve this, often at the insistence that even ''fictional children'' have special rights other fictional characters shouldn't be afforded. There have been laws and decisions made on this premise, such as arresting a man in Australia for "abusing" [[TheSimpsons Bart Simpson]].
** This has been the result of laws criminalizing child pornography. Intended to protect ''real'' children from ''real'' sexual abuse, the reach of these laws has been slowly and inexorably expanded by over-zealous prosecutors who show signs of trying to define and punish [[NineteenEightyFour thoughtcrime]], usually with the specious argument that protecting a few lines of pencil or ink on paper from the evil person who drew them somehow makes actual children safer.
** '''Won't somebody please think of the imaginary children?!'''
** Recent laws in Australia have banned pornography where women simply look underage. "Looking underage" being legally defined as "having small breasts".
** One music industry spokesperson noted that [[http://www.boingboing.net/2010/04/28/music-industry-spoke.html child pornography is a good way to get the foot in the door to blocking file sharing sites]].

*** Those that are [[HanlonsRazor more stupid than evil]] go along with it because it's so easy to think that someone looking at these cartoon child porn pictures (which no real children were harmed in creating) will ''lead'' to that person going out and assaulting real children.

* And now, The Australian Labor party is shoving a web filter onto it's ridiculously overpriced national broadband plan (43 BILLION DOLLARS), which just about every company has gone against, for various reasons, ranging from denial of freedom of speech, justified by the leaked blacklist, to the practical, such as it slowing it down to dial-up speeds. Everyone from Telstra to Google, to Hillary Clinton and the US ambassador speaking out against it, which have been completely ignored. And the worst part is, if it's to protect the children, why the bloody hell is it being pushed onto everyone, regardless of whether they're even a parent?!
** '''FALSE ALARM!''' The Coalition has unanimously Agreed not to vote in favor of the Internet Censorship bill when it appears in parliment, thus denying the Bill the majority it needs to pass through government. It is now virtually Impossible for the filter to be implemented.

* In the Awakening expansion for DragonAge: Origins, one sidequest entitled "Keep Out of Reach of Children" has you running around Amaranthine collecting bottles of Antivan poison on behalf of the local Merchant's Guild. The quest description specifically mentions that the guild is concerned about the poison falling into the hands of children.

[[TheWarOnStraw Straw]] MoralGuardians using a [[StrawmanPolitical Strawman Argument]] to create a [[YouCanPanicNow moral panic]] -- doing something will somehow, indirectly, hurt children. Somehow. [[PaedoHunt Especially]] ''[[PaedoHunt rape them]]''. You don't have to make a rational argument as long as you appeal to {{mama bear}}s, [[KnightTemplarParent crusading parents]], and [[OverprotectiveDad paranoid fathers]] emotionally.

* Much like Gaston, Castaway from ((Gargoyles)) asks potential Quarrymen if they worry what gargoyles will do to their children.

* Arguments against ShotaCon and LoliCon often involve this, often at the insistence that even ''fictional children'' have special rights other fictional characters shouldn't be afforded. There have been laws and decisions made on this premise, such as arresting a man in Australia for "abusing" [[TheSimpsons Bart Simpson]].

** Actually, the idea is not the protection of the rights of imaginary children. It's a lot more simple than that. The idea is that these serve as innocent outlets for pedophile urges, and pedophiles, being dangerous criminals are to be put behind bars (some even suggest neutering them), instead of being provided with some way to enjoy themselves, without breaking the law. So according to some people it's better if they assault real children, because that WILL get them locked up and permanently eliminated as a threat to children, instead of faping to drawings of children and get off clean.
*** They probably do that because it's so easy to think that someone looking at these cartoon child porn pictures (which no real children were harmed in creating) will ''lead'' to that person going out and assaulting real children. Even though there is actually evidence to the contrary.

* All of the parents of ''SouthPark''. Most notably the first time (in which they abandoned their children to go protest a cartoon show in another state) and the most extreme (when they find out that most child molesters molest their own children, they all wall themselves off from their own kids to keep them from being molested). Kyle's mother is by far the worst of them, starting WorldWarIII to protect her kids from cartoon profanity in TheMovie.

* And now, The Australian Labor party is shoving a web filter onto it's ridiculously overpriced national broadband plan (43 BILLION DOLLARS), which just about every company has gone against, for various reasons, ranging from denial of freedom of speech, justified by the leaked blacklist, to the practical, such as it slowing it down to dial-up speeds. Everyone from Telstra to Google, to Hillary Clinton and the US ambassador speaking out against it, which have been completely ignored. And the worst part is, if it's to protect the children, why the bloody hell is it being pushed onto everyone, regardless of whether they're even a parent!?
* Britain's ban on civilian-owned firearms came after a man open fired in a preschool, killing over 20 kids.

[[caption-width:580:[[TheSimpsons Helen Lovejoy]] - TropeNamer]]

[[TheWarOnStraw Straw]] MoralGuardians using a [[StrawmanPolitical Strawman Argument]] to create a [[YouCanPanicNow Moral Panic]] -- doing something will somehow, indirectly, hurt children. Somehow. [[PaedoHunt Especially]] ''[[PaedoHunt rape them]]''. You don't have to make a rational argument as long as you appeal to [[MamaBear mama bears]], [[KnightTemplarParent crusading parents]], and [[OverprotectiveDad paranoid fathers]] emotionally.

--> "Yeah, I told her to get a map and check out which [[CanadaEh country]] she's in! This was her argument: 'A child could get hurt!' ''Which'' kid?! The only kid getting hurt is the one who can't work this maneuver: 'CAR!'"

* Several episodes of ''LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''. Both for and against, intermittently.
* "Gingerbread" in ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' had a demon that fed on and propagated this by getting people to burn anyone unusual in sacrifice to it, [[OffingTheOffspring often their own children for extra irony.]]
* In [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7gP1xgRDJ4 this]] ''ABitOfFryAndLaurie'' sketch, Laurie's character complains about a "disgusting" programme, wondering "what if my children had been watching ?" (It turns out her children haven't watched it, but only because by the "purest good fortune [...] they don't happen to have been born yet.")
* Used depressingly straight in QueerAsFolk, where the parents of Nathan and [[spoiler: Stuart]] attempted to silence their comming out through this:
--> He's eight years old. Ben is ''eight years old''!

* In StanFreberg's "Elderly Man River," [[MoralGuardians Mr. Tweedly]] insists on correcting the grammar of "[[strike:Old]] Elderly Man River," saying, "The home is a classroom, Mr. Freberg... Keep in mind the tiny tots."

* Helen Lovejoy is a parody of this character on ''TheSimpsons''. Whenever ''anything at all'' happens in Springfield, she screams "Won't somebody ''please'' think of the children?" in a panic. ([[TheCobblersChildrenHaveNoShoes Ironically, her own child is a kleptomaniac hellion who has to be sent to a special school for her crimes.]])

* All of the parents of ''SouthPark''. Most notably the first time (in which they abandoned their children to go protest a cartoon show in another state) and the most extreme (when they find out that most child molesters molest their own children, they all wall themselves off from their own kids to keep them from being molested). Kyle's mother is by far the worst of them, starting World War III to protect her kids from cartoon profanity in TheMovie.

* RealLife again: Most arguments against "[[MurderSimulators violent video games]]". To the point that Germany and Australia arbitrarily define VideoGames as children's toys. The games in question are always, invariably [[DidNotDoTheResearch never marketed to children]], because [[RatedMForMoney adults have more money.]]
** According to an PEGI report the average age of people who buy games in Europe is 35 and the amount of games that are for people aged 16 to 18 is around 10%, only 1% of the total games published is suitable for 18 and over. You wouldn't know any of this if you followed the news, as a recent report about an agreement about 18+ games showed in the Netherlands: "kids as young as 11 years old could buy these games" (at a €60 pricetag, which is a lot of money for a 11 year old last time I checked).

** With regards to Australian attitudes. We dont even have the luxury of an R18+, or AO rating on our video games. So if a game does anything that the ratings board feels is too adult, it's either cut, or banned. Sometimes, these decisions make absolutely no sense. Fallout 3 was banned in Australia, due to a drug being named Morphine. Never mind the fact that you can blow peoples heads apart with any firearm (or fists) or that you can sell people into slavery (Including black people!) nor that you can blow up an entire city with a nuclear bomb. No, they concentrate on the drugs! Even though you use the drug as Morphine is intended to be used, nor do you actually see your character injecting themselves with it.
* Arguments against ShotaCon and LoliCon often involve this, often at the insistence that even ''fictional children'' have special rights other fictional characters shouldn't be afforded. There have been laws and decisions made on this premise, such as arresting a man in Australia for "abusing" [[TheSimpsons Bart Simpson.]]

** Recent laws in Australia have banned pornography where women simply look underage. "Looking underage" being legally defined as "having small breasts."

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* Used depressingly straight in QueerAsFolk, where the parents of Nathan and [[spoiler: Stuart]] attempted to silence their comming out throughthis: