It's very awkward when you come into a thread to express your opinions and more or less everyone says the same.
Dear Craig, while I understand what you're saying, the inflammatory remark at the end was perhaps somewhat un-necessary. It may muddy good faith responses, you know? But that's not a big deal for me, just passing it along.
More than likely my sister and I would've both been dead before we got started in life without the internet. The internet gave my sister access to people that actually helped us get out of the situation we were in, which was kind of a grave one, thanks to less than stellar parents. Our parents didn't really go south until later, so at least up until that point they knew basically everyone my sis knew on the internet - they were actually involved in our lives, so, you know, doing what parents should and not leaving it to the government.
Even on the flipside, the horror stories I've heard of people falling in with bad crowds, or being talked into doing something disgusting, all the while my brain is "your parents were WHERE, during all of this, exactly?"
But this has, as everyone else says, never been about the children. The "children", that unknown, formless entity, is just another cheap excuse to deny people access to a variety of services without slapping a little chip on them.
I'd still like to see some people who might be supportive of this weighing in.
