"Won't somebody PLEASE think of the CHILDREN??"

Either it's that Helen Lovejoyism is getting out of control lately or I'm noticing it more often, but...

1. There was a post (it's friends-locked, so you need to be a community member to read it) at the LJ Feminist community about adolescents posing nude in photography (which were not published until they were legal adults, at which time they were asked for consent again), which opened a whole slew of comments, some of which were particularly stupid. Like the person suggesting that sharing any photos of children are exploitative and wrong and evil. And that everyone who does not get explicit written consent from their friends is exploiting them if they appear in the background of a photo they post to Myspace. 9__6 Quick! Someone please send a memo to my parents that they should be sent to jail for those few adorable photos of baby-me in the bath. OH NOES.

2. A forum thread at Ravelry, debating whether naked human bits should be allowed in "ravatars" (user icons) on the site, which sparked a ton of "omg but the childrens could see nudity!!!1!" as if whatever nudity could fit into a 100 x 100 pixel icon would somehow scar a child for life. Puh-leeeeze. Would these same people refuse to allow their child(ren) to go on a school field trip to an art museum?

3. This recent post at geologic blog Magma Cum Laude, which describes a situation where a publication was denied because photos of children engaged in geosciences outdoors were deemed too "unsafe" for lack of HAZMAT suits. No, really. It's that fucking ridiculous. The post sums up my feelings pretty well:
You can't plan for every idiotic thing that someone could potentially do. Naturally, you shouldn't take unnecessary risks, or let children do obviously stupid or dangerous things. But when you start saying that kids shouldn't be depicted running around in sunlight, or digging in the dirt, or wading in water at the beach, you're just being silly and alarmist. We can't raise a generation of people who have no idea how to handle themselves in the real, dirty, messy, natural world, because they'll just spend their lives inside. And you can't do geoscience from a bubble.