Parental Guidance Notice

I came across this unsettling video via Ben Goldacre's fine blog badscience;



Since I've become a parent, I'm taken aback by how rabidly I react to watching stuff like this. I can't even watch fictional TV where kids are hurt, my reaction is primordial. Before children I abhorred abuse, but I was able to intellectualise it - arguing for a balanced approach to the problem. Not now. Not now that I've experienced parenthood firsthand.

This video shows kids, ages with mine, being indoctrinated by bad people. People like Ken Ham (the guy with the odd beard). Incidentally, he's also the 'evil' genius behind the museum of creation.

I dare not think how the minds of these poor children will develop within this dark, padded cell. Public indoctrination like this is child abuse. Plain and simple. It should be made illegal.

Now, I appreciate how difficult this will be. After all, free speech is the fundament of modern society. I bet that conservatives like Ken Ham however, are the first to argue that kids should be protected from inappropriate content in movies and TV.

In this respect I'm with them. Kids should not experience dramatised violence until they've developed the emotional and cognitive abilities to understand that it's fiction. It should be no different with fundamental religious belief.

I propose a legislative solution. The public broadcast of belief based theory (that cannot be substantiated through rational discourse) should be restricted from minors.

Of course, this will not prevent parents from exposing their children to creationism in the privacy of their own homes. However, it will restrict the power that skilled orators like Ken Ham abuse in starving free young minds.