I agree. You shouldn’t have draconian restrictions and monitoring up until their 18th birthday, but it’s the parents job to gradually scale up the freedom as the child matures rather than letting them swim straight into the deep end right away.

I know the tired “back in my day” stories about how kids were less supervised decades ago and they turned out fine, but I think different times call for different measures. When my parents grew up in farm country, their parents knew every other family nearby and had a good idea of what to expect by letting their kids wander around the neighborhood. The internet is nothing like that. You really do need to gradually introduce internet freedom to kids and be able to provide some parental guidance and context as they grow up. You can’t protect against everything, but there’s a huge difference between letting kids play in a few kid-friendly places and just letting them discover whatever comes their way.

I think some people forget that restrictions are malleable. If a kid wants to use a certain website that isn’t on the allow list, they can ask and we can give it a quick review and approval. Setting boundaries isn’t an end to exploration.