Think of the Children: Difference between revisions
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'''Helen:''' Will someone '''please''' think of the children?|''[[The Simpsons]]''}}
[[The War On Straw|Straw]] [[Moral Guardians]] using a [[Strawman Political|Strawman Argument]] to create a [[You Can Panic Now|moral panic]]
Sadly, this is a case of [[Truth in Television]]: a fair amount of argument for much dubious legislation in the last two decades, at least in the [[Eagle Land|United States]], has been the alleged protective benefit for children, which is assumed to trump any and all other considerations, including legality, Constitutionality and simple common sense.
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* JewWario cries "won't somebody think of the children?!" to get [[The Nostalgia Critic]] and [[The Cinema Snob]] to stop throwing [[Cluster F-Bomb|Cluster F Bombs]] at each other in ''[[Kickassia]]''. Everyone gives him a strange look.
* [[bash.org]], unsurprisingly, plays on this with [http://bash.org/?920525 this gem].
{{quote|<jaffa>
<bobf> oh gimme a break, I've spent *hours* today thinking of the children, [[A Date with Rosie Palms|my wrist is too sore to do it any longer]] }}
* Also, [http://notalwaysright.com/curiosity-kilt-the-peeping-tomcat/12847 this] [[(The Customer is) Not Always Right]] example, together with much hypocrisy
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== Western Animation ==
* Helen Lovejoy is a parody of this character on ''[[The Simpsons]]''. Frequently, when something stirs up public outcry, in Springfield, she screams "Won't somebody ''please'' think of the children?" in a panic. Ironically, [[Preacher's Kid|her own child is a kleptomaniac hellion who has to be sent to a boarding school for her crimes]]). The show also did this a lot on the seventh season episode "Much Apu About Nothing" (where Springfield holds a referendum to get illegal immigrants deported) and the season eight episode "Homer vs. The 18th Amendment" (where alcohol gets banned in Springfield after Bart gets drunk at the St. Patrick's Day parade), but not much in the later episodes, probably because the voice actress for Helen Lovejoy (who was also the voice actress for Ned Flanders' wife, Maude) left the show and the writers pretty much [[Put on a Bus|put her on a bus]]
** In one episode, Bart got his hands on a [[Tank Goodness|tank]] and was initially making it seem as though he was going to use it on the school. Mrs. Krabappel's reaction is a [[Deadpan Snarker|deadpan]] "No, stop, think of the children." while smoking a cigarette. {{spoiler|He was actually intending to fire at a MLB satellite that was spying on the town, something that only Bart seemed to be aware of.}}
* All of the parents of ''[[South Park]]''. Most notably the first time (in which they abandoned their children to go protest a cartoon show in another state) and the most extreme (after first building a wall around the town to protect their children, when they find out that most children are abducted by their parents, they send their own kids away to keep them from being abducted.) Kyle's mother is by far the worst of them, starting [[World War III]] to protect her kids from cartoon profanity in [[The Movie]].
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{{quote|''How can we explain this to our children, still kitted out in red? How can I explain to my daughter that it was only a friendly? How can I explain to her that Casillas wasn't playing? Why did you do this to our children?''}}
* Comedian Nick Adams mentions in his book how when he, a black man, married a Native American woman, opponents of interracial marriage invoked this trope as a sort of thinly-veiled racism.
* This trope combines with [[But Not Too Gay]] when conservative-minded parents went batshit about an episode of ''[[Glee]]'' where {{spoiler|Kurt and Blaine}} had a ''very'' passionate kissing scene. The loudest complaints were that it was "inappropriate for children." Never mind that the scene was both well-written and completely in character, or that there are ''far'' worse things to worry about in ''[[Glee]]'' than a make-out
** It's also worth noting that a teen pregnancy plot has been the center of many episodes and the show has directly discussed sexual issues before. Even more notable, though, is that the show isn't intended for children in the first place and nearly all the episodes have a TV-14 rating.
* The ''[[wikipedia:Communications Decency Act|Communications Decency Act]]'' was a federal law passed in the United States notable as the first attempt by the U.S. government to censor the Internet. Its primary effect was to essentially limit all speech on the Net to a level of discourse suitable for children, and pretty much ''only'' children, on the justification that children could read material on the Net. It and a somewhat less draconian successor law passed in 1998 were overturned as unconstitutional; a third, much more limited, attempt (the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) of 2000) managed to stick.
** [[The Daily Show|"Now kids, I know you didn't ask me, but let me explain hetero-normative behavior to two people who still believe in cooties."]]
** Another US Internet law that claims to be for the children (disguised as a child porn bill), ''[[wikipedia:Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act of 2011|PCIPA]]'', forces ISPs to track the personal info of all their customers and all their Internet usage over the last 18 months. This information can be obtained on suspicion of any crime, not just child porn. However, like any law, it will still require a warrant and reasonable suspicion, and as one [[Reddit|Redditor by the name Indyguy]] took it upon himself to [http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/pwgo6/hr_1981_rep_lamar_smiths_second_gift_to_the_world/c3sxk4b dispel] the rumors of the worst parts. Make no mistake, it's a bad bill, but it's not quite [[Big Brother Is Watching|Big Brother]]. Plus, it's essentially a rehash of a law that already failed to make it to the house floor for a vote; PCIPA is only scheduled for a debate on September
* The logic behind many state laws specifically restricting under-18 (and in some cases under-21) drivers but not those who are over the targeted age range, such as passenger limits, [[Fascists' Bed Time|curfews]], and, in New Jersey, having to drive around with red decals on your license plates. All this in spite of the fact that the so-called "children" these politicians are [[For Your Own Good|striving to protect]] are ''older teenagers'' and, in some cases, over 18.
* US politics has fun with this:
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