# Talk:Think of the children

The Background section of this page doesn't provide a meaningful background to the phrase "think of the children." It provides a rough outline of the background behind children's rights. However, these two things are not at all connected. The phrase "think of the children" is rooted in the belief that adults have certain duties towards children. This argument emerged as the rationale as to why children are not entitled to rights, and is seen in the work of John Locke and John Stuart Mill. Children's rights discourse seeks to push back against this rhetoric and assert that children ought to have rights, rather than assume their guardians will act on behalf of them according to their best interests. Moreover, as Lee Edelman and Lauren Berlant noted, when people use the phrase "think of the children," they are using children as a scapegoat for conservative political causes that have little to do with the lives of children themselves -- which children's rights similarly is a response to. For these reasons, I am removing the background section. JapanOfGreenGables (talk) 10:54, 11 July 2021 (UTC)

Clearly the first chapter lacks any foundation in truth, is not truth bearing and simply an "appeal to emotion".  The first paragraph claims: "In debate, however, it is a plea for pity that is used as an appeal to emotion, and therefore it becomes a logical fallacy" but disregards that most rational debaters that mention the legitimate concerns re the rights of children, are not "appealing to emotion" at all but expressing facts that just happen to induce emotions as we see the negative state of children.
Wikipedia tends to have a very right-wing, ultra conservative, racist, sexist spin in articles regarding such. Maybe it's the owner's right-wing ideology that drives the site.
--2604:2000:DDC0:DF00:8D84:B105:5E76:F813 (talk) 05:04, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

What are you talking about? The "think of the children" fallacy is usually employed by right-wingers. How does containing a critique of something the right does more of align with the "right-wing ideology"? W1k1p3dddd14 (talk) 20:22, 25 May 2025 (UTC)
The more emotion-driven buzzwords someone adds, the less credible the argument becomes. 152.156.183.130 (talk) 20:59, 4 October 2025 (UTC)

This article had a 2nd GA Review and was successfully promoted to GA quality status. Review may be seen at: Talk:Think of the children/GA2. — Cirt (talk) 22:04, 29 February 2016 (UTC)

At the very end of chapter 37 in The Awakening by Kate Choplin, Adéle tells Edna "Think of the children, Edna. Oh think of the children! Remember them!"
Lukewtollefson (talk) 04:09, 17 October 2016 (UTC)

An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Corrupt children. Please participate in the redirect discussion if you wish to do so.  signed, Rosguill talk 18:49, 19 August 2019 (UTC)

More than half of the references in this article have no outside links going to lengths to have the reference just be 'Reagan 2005' or other names and a year. These are not references. Parelance (talk) 14:31, 10 February 2023 (UTC)