Meanwhile, parents lacking power are forced to subsidize the teaching of ideas and values they may abhor. Childless adults stagger along under heavy property taxes to support institutions providing a service they do not need. Telephone rates on second phone lines and other services are increased to provide money to wire every school in America to the Internet regardless of whether this is truly the best avenue for providing a sound foundation of knowledge for children. In a direct assault on freedom of speech, politicians seek to regulate that same Internet and World Wide Web . . . for the children. Ignoring the primary role of parents in governing their children's activities, the state declares that only it can keep innocent children safe from the disturbing images of pornography, the dangers of conversing electronically with sexual predators, and the politically incorrect ideas floating uncontrolled in cyberspace.
Computer monitors are next on their list.
Music recordings, comic books, and other media designed to attract a youthful clientele also fail to escape the scrutiny of our ever-vigilant government nannies. Other cigarette promotions are outlawed for similar reasons. Humorous beer commercials that might appeal too much to underage consumers are also threatened with banishment if they are not changed. Large breakfast-cereal companies are the subject of congressional ire when the prices of their products seem to pose a barrier to consumption by our youngest citizens. Of course, when the supply is readily purchased, the products are castigated for containing too much sugar and not enough nutritional value.