If parental consent is all that's necessary then you might as well blanket allow it. I'm a parent and interacting with a lot of parents of young children, the vast majority of them can't be bothered to deal with whining or inconvenience. Which is why I see 8 year olds with cash app even though that's not allowed any many abandon or extremely weaken parental controls on basically every advice.
My personal favorite story is when I talk my youngest aunt about a videogame my cousin wanted. She said no absolutely not. Then proceeded to buy the game for ehr 10 year old. A game she was carded for. A game that has that it's M rated and has adult themes and whatnot on the box. She called me later in horror about how inappropriate this game I told her about 2 weeks earlier was. How could they make games like that for children she says about the game she was carded for because it's only for adults.
I use her as an example but that situation is a lot of parents. I personally think that it's not the government's place to say how much exposure I want to give my child to the internet, but I have rules and boundaries around that with my kid. Many of her friends have free access and and have always had it since toddlers. People say it's parents not being savvy, but honestly it's parents not caring. Parent controls have been around over 30 years and they have always been dead simple. But they do increase the whining in your life from your kids and that means if parents can allow it a high quantity will. I have no faith that a law will stop significantly more kids than no law. I know too many parents who allow their kids to do things they know are harmful to their kid because "I don't want them to feel left out" or they don't want to deal with whining.
> Most parents would consent, therefore we should not require consent
I don't see how that follows at all. Considering children can't consent and their parents consent is the only one that matters. The argument would simplify to
> Most people would consent to X, therefore we shouldn't require consent for X.
Which sounds ridiculous, imagine if we were all forced to do what the majority likes. Even without a tyranny of the majority (where the majority would be a homogenous group) that would be a dystopia.
> I personally think that it's not the government's place to say how much exposure I want to give my child to the internet, but I have rules and boundaries around that with my kid.
First, I am not necessarily talking about "The government" (what exactly is that anyways, judicial, law? state, federal?), for example it could be a site's policy, and in turn it could be determined at courts based on liabilities. If courts enforced more damages to kids that suffer from chatbots as compared to adults, then that would push the companies to limit minor's access without laws or executive orders (whether that is "the government" to you depends, but I find it more helpful to think in terms of more specific groups instead of talking/thinking of THE GOVERNMENT as a homogenous mindhive.)
My personal favorite story is when I talk my youngest aunt about a videogame my cousin wanted. She said no absolutely not. Then proceeded to buy the game for ehr 10 year old. A game she was carded for. A game that has that it's M rated and has adult themes and whatnot on the box. She called me later in horror about how inappropriate this game I told her about 2 weeks earlier was. How could they make games like that for children she says about the game she was carded for because it's only for adults.
I use her as an example but that situation is a lot of parents. I personally think that it's not the government's place to say how much exposure I want to give my child to the internet, but I have rules and boundaries around that with my kid. Many of her friends have free access and and have always had it since toddlers. People say it's parents not being savvy, but honestly it's parents not caring. Parent controls have been around over 30 years and they have always been dead simple. But they do increase the whining in your life from your kids and that means if parents can allow it a high quantity will. I have no faith that a law will stop significantly more kids than no law. I know too many parents who allow their kids to do things they know are harmful to their kid because "I don't want them to feel left out" or they don't want to deal with whining.