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If nothing else, the term "protecting" here has a subjective meaning. I think what the question meant to read was; "should parents not let their children see or read anything that contradicts their own point of view or beliefs?". If i raised my children as Marxists i would probably be shunned and rebuked by alot of concerned parents. If i brought them up to be a member of my religion it would not be seen as taking advantage of a child that is too young to understand what religion is, it would be seen as normal.

We would do well as a society to accept that there are many beliefs besides our own, and constraining our children to our beliefs is to stunt their growth. But do not get me wrong, plenty of parents (and many of my friends parents) are religious or have an ideology and simply teach their children to think for themselves. Which is a smart move in my book and a much more responsible way to raise a child.

Imagine your child as a country. Imagine yourself as another country thats job is to provide your little neighbor with support until they can take over themselves. Everyone here would agree democracy is the best of political systems, so you should let your little country become a democracy, and not rule over it with a dictatorship style. If the books contained things that my children were way too young to comprehend like war, death, racism and the like i would definitely not subject them to it. But as i guess this question is in light of Phillip Pullmans movie, i am quite disturbed. It is not a matter that this movie has the idea of killing god (as most should know it does not mean literally, it is used as a metaphor probably lifted from Nietzsche), because if you have already told your children that they are christian or muslim, you are acting out of fear of seeing a conflicting view, and if your children were like children should be; innocent, then they would not have much of a clue what philosophy is being presented, they would probably just see another action-packed adventure. To wrap up in a few words: Treat your children with respect, dont insult them by telling them this book or that movie is wrong BECAUSE YOU THINK SO.

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