Don't treat children like mini-adults

If you do not believe the following story, I won't blame you. But I've checked it twice: If you take your child - say, a 6-year-old - to a typical library, you will be asked to sign a card stating that if the child loses a book, you will make the library whole. If your kid misplaces the book, you get a note from the library. When you call, asking, "Sorry, but what book did Johnny lose?" you will be told: "We do not release such information - unless you bring a note from your child."

If you are still gasping, here is how this came about: The American Library Association concluded that it ought to defend the privacy of its patrons from the press, former spouses, and (the best it can) police. Then in 1996, it added parents to the list. Moreover, several states enacted laws to the same effect. Note that the code speaks of all children, not merely those 12 years or older.

The American Library Association is hardly alone in treating children as if they are entitled to the same basic rights as adults. The American Civil Liberties Union takes the same stance. It has succeeded, by filing lawsuits, in forcing several libraries to remove filters that protect children from the violent and vile parts of the Web. Ann Beeson, an ACLU national staff attorney, wrote, "We applaud the Board of Supervisors' decision to honor the First Amendment rights of Kern County [Calif.] citizens by ... allow[ing] all adult and minor patrons to decide for themselves whether to access the Internet with or without a filter." Note: No age qualification is introduced.

The CATO Institute goes further. It even objects to controls corporations placed on themselves voluntarily. At issue is the habit of corporations to collect tons of information about their customers from them and other sources, in order to tailor ads to them - many also sell the data.

Some corporations culled consumer information about children who play on sites maintained by companies that sell cereal (among others). When they were criticized, they promised not to collect information about children 12 or younger without parental consent. CATO protested, stating, "It makes little sense to morally condemn those who sell to children when we ourselves give children the means to buy. So regulation of marketing ... that contain[s] information about children is no more justified than regulation [that] contain[s] information about adults."

Along the same lines, the ACLU vociferously objected to a ban on Joe Camel ads that have proved effective in enticing children to smoke. The ACLU argues that it is unreasonable to suppress ads that target children because doing so also limits information to adults. As the ACLU puts it, "Adults cannot be reduced to reading only what is fit for children."

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