Also we need to acknowledge that age appropriate freedom for some ages of children means they get hurt sometimes. A 16 year old should have access to their town unsupervised for certain lengths of time. Most will be fine. Some will get hurt. Those without this freedom will have to learn how to function in that environment as an adult and are at similar risk of being hurt then because they’re stunted in that way.
What we’ve been doing with the internet is the equivalent of never telling children about the dangers of their local area, what danger looks like, or how to get help if you’re in danger then letting 8 year olds wander around town without even checking in.
Some of these freedoms are important. Things we may want to censor for good reason can give children the words to know what isn’t ok in their lives. That can range from “my parents shouldn’t be fighting all the time actually” to “this aspect of my body/mind is a symptom of something to check out” to “that adult shouldn’t behave that way to me” to “this aspect of me is actually a perfectly fine but uncommon trait”.
The current internet is a funhouse mirror of reality for dopamine. When I was a kid we all knew movies were that. So we were taught what the idealized underweight for the time looked like and how unhealthy it was.
I wholeheartedly endorse things like mandatory internet safety training in schools. Much like I think health classes should teach what a healthy and normal body looks like and can do. I tentatively endorse a way to set age recommendations and reasons so blockers can keep the 7 year olds away from porn, though I fear it will result in queer kids being blocked from factual information and teenagers being prevented from accessing good sex ed resources before making decisions regarding their sexual health.
Censorship has a cost to everyone, and maybe mid moral panic isn’t the time to decide to censor things