Opinion: The internet is not for kids

Internet content is often advertised or catered toward kids to generate revenue, but given the unpredictable and uncensored nature of the internet, children should not be the targeted audience at all.

Maxwell Lehmann

A cartoon depicts a young child playing video games on a computer with multiple windows opened, reading “Do you know where your children are?” Opinion Columnist Adrian Maurer believes the internet shouldn’t be catered or advertised toward children. (Maxwell Lehmann | Northern Star)

By Adrian Maurer, Columnist

Mar 16, 2026

Where is the line drawn between protecting children and censorship? Between age verification and banning the use of certain words, websites have gone too far, and it’s not because they actually care about children’s safety.

So, realistically, how can we stop children from seeing mature content when they are browsing the internet? While most NSFW sites require the user to check a box saying they are 18 or older, children can lie about their age. And they will.

Obviously, the next step has to be to require the user to submit a picture of their government-issued ID to a random untrusted website. Right?

That’s just a bad idea. How can we be assured our data is being stored in a secure place and is not being sold for profit? Unfortunately, we can’t.

Popular gaming platform Roblox uses both ID verification and photo age verification. ID verification requires you to upload sensitive documents to a third party, and photo age verification harvests your biometric data while simply not working.

After all, can you, a human, know whether or not someone is 17 years and 5 months old, or if it is their 18th birthday simply by looking at them? No, so why would a computer be able to?

Besides, photo verification is too easy to bypass, with individuals using photos of people other than themselves to verify an account.

While seeing what people can get away with can be funny, we have to stop being okay with giving out our data – especially when it’s being sold to the highest bidder.

This has never been about protecting children; it’s an excuse for mass surveillance. And it isn’t the only Trojan horse disguising itself as concern for children we have seen.

Age verification is also a reminder of the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). Co-founded by former Second Lady Tipper Gore in 1985, the PMRC’s goal was to increase censorship for music it deemed inappropriate to children. It’s the reason for the parental advisory sticker.

Protecting children is a noble cause, but the PMRC went about it the wrong way from the start. It unfairly targeted rock and heavy metal music, saying it was demonic.

Their goal seemed to shift from wanting to genuinely protect children from hearinga bout adult topics to advocating for an evangelist agenda. Because of this, it’s easy to think that their goal wasn’t just to protect kids, but instead to reinforce evangelist ideals in the media.

Yes, everyone has the right to be religious, but no one has the right to hold others to their personal religious ideals. Everyone has different values.

If you personally don’t want your child listening to lyrics about piña coladas or making love at midnight, the easy solution is to listen to or read the lyrics before you let them listen to a song. The same logic should be applied to the internet.

Block mature websites. Explore each site before you allow your child to use it. Ask yourself: Is it for children? Does it fit your morals and parenting style? Are there any weird links that could lead your kid down an internet rabbit hole?

Better yet, just watch your kids. And when you can’t be with them, don’t let them have access to the horrors of the internet. You are the only person who can protect your child from whatever it is you deem inappropriate.

And, most importantly, don’t let corporations masquerade behind a noble cause in order to steal your information.