These things are harmful to people of all ages. It’s all fine and dandy to say, well I’m a good parent and parental controls won’t cause problems for my child—every parent thinks that. Children experiencing abuse need to be able to access resources to help them identify what they’re experiencing and how to get away from it. LGBT children need to access resources to help them come to terms with who they are. And parental control tools give parents of these children the ability to prevent them from accessing these resources. They are tools of control and oppression.

Setting aside the moral panic of the month

How can you “set aside the moral panic of the month” when your argument is the foundation of the reactionary moral panic of the month? Let me tell you, when I was a kid questioning my gender, I wanted to try wearing a packer (a prosthetic, flaccid penis) to see how I felt about possibly having a penis/bulge. Do you know where you get packers from? Sex toy shops. Is this a problem? Absolutely, prosthetics for trans people should be sold in places that are not sex toy shops. But if you live outside big western countries, the reality is, if you want a prosthetic penis, it will be sold as a sex toy, even though it’s a flaccid penis that can’t be used for sex. These sex toy shops are obviously blocked by parental controls. I had to use a VPN to get around it. Do you really want questioning children to be forced to go to their parents and say “hey, I’m questioning my gender, can you unblock this sex toy store so that I can buy myself a prosthetic penis?” Do you really think that’s a good idea? Do you think maybe there’s a reason why I, as a 13 year old, opted to install a VPN instead of asking my parents that question?

And what’s more, kids will try to get around parental controls, sometimes successfully, sometimes unsuccessfully. If they are not very sharp as you seem to be suggesting is the case, then they will download all sorts of malware trying to unblock things.

Parental controls harm kids. Not just by restricting their freedom and autonomy, but also by encouraging them to put themselves in real danger trying to circumvent blocks, and by preventing the most vulnerable children from accessing the resources they need to keep themselves safe.