I mean, growing up, I was clever enough to see whatever I wanted. It's not like I had parents actively censoring my life, but if they did, it was child's play to get around it.

If my mom took me to the library, and I came back with a short stack of books, she didn't prescreen them for me, because, well, she wasn't trying to lock me up from the world. But if she did, it would have been easy to sneakily check it out next time I was there, or download it, or get a friend to check it out.

Porn? Internet. R-rated movies? Internet, or go with a friend, or sneak in. I didn't start drinking until I turned 17, and even then it was pretty rare until college, but in practicality there wouldn't be anything they could do to stop me.


This isn't to say I was some kind of unholy child terror. I was a pretty good kid, rarely got in trouble, got good grades, etc. I'm just saying that once a child becomes even moderately self-aware enough to begin thinking about and questioning things, simply going "No. You can't look at that" is not going to work.


And honestly, if it DID work? Then you'd just be teaching your child to be a mindless, blindly trusting drone.


Much better to let them read what they want, and teach by example instead.