Children and adolescents are somewhat adequately protected, but could benefit from additional protection

• Children and adolescents benefit from parental restrictions on online activity, increased regulation surrounding the welfare of children and teenagers and assistance from the state in the form of schools and social services.
• However, it is always possible to bypass these regulations, neglect young people and be in contact or proximity with dangerous adults/other young people.
• Whilst there are protective measures in place and work effectively, there could be increased measures in place, especially in the form of protection whilst online/social media. If it poses harm to adults, then imagine the harm posed by children?

I believe that in some ways we are too protective of children and adolescents. Denying them privacy and losing their trust from a young age is becoming increasingly normal in today's world by parents and being overbearing leaves them with emotional scars and an inability to function. As they become more curious they should be able to explore with appropriate limits and boundaries for their wellbeing and development.

However, on a wider scale, there are different dangers in today's world particularly online that should be highlighted. Grooming and child pornography being two prevalent examples. Being exposed to explicit material that is so easily accessed and the suicide rates of the youth who are bullied and targetted demonstrate areas in which not enough is being done to keep young people safe as they grow and try new things.

Overall, curiosity should be nurtured and young people should be allowed to take risks and make mistakes. Thus sometimes not allowing them to grow up can be harmful and overprotectiveness structurally and in families is a huge issue. However, we should refrain from swinging in the opposite direction and forcing them to grow up so fast. We should foster environments where they can ask questions and receive guidance so that they don't suffer silently due to being unaware of consequences and dangers.

Growing up, I have observed that (most) parents try to do their best to have a balance of letting children explore while also protecting them, but the majority goes too far in one direction or the other. An obscene amount of youth are exposed to p*rn before adolescence, for example. While I grew up with my peers not being allowed to watch age appropriate movies and tv shows. There is almost no balance, either parents are overprotective or let their children do whatever they want.

Focusing just on the idea of fostering curiosity in children and adolescents, I'd say some potentially growth-stunting overprotection occurs.

• I personally believe that children could be exposed to much more intellectually earlier on.
• Holding back in teaching makes sense when some things seem too hard for children to grasp, but consciously pushing a bit farther intellectually could have untold benefits for intellectual development and creativity.
• Not everyone is the same, of course, so sometimes it would make sense not to. But overall, I do personally believe children and adolescents are capable of much more than we might imagine---or could imagine, without letting them go there.
• Certainly, it would be hard to figure out how to strike a balance between doing too much and having enough restraint. Some researchers of education are looking into more open-ended methods for learning.

Children and adolescents are overly protected, especially in the domain of criminal law.

• The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights prohibits the execution of juvenile offenders (https://www.aclu.org/other/juveniles-and-death-penalty). Not only is the capital punishment strongly opposed on adolescents and children on an international level, but also it is considered unconstitutional by our Supreme Court. In Roper v. Simmons, the execution of any person under the age of 18 is deemed unconstitutional.
• Capital punishment aside, certain countries completely exempt children from any criminal responsibilities. For example, in China, any person under the age of 12 do not have to serve any sentence, no matter how heinous their crime is. In the United States, confinement for juvenile crime results in jail time if and only if they are the most serious felonies (like murder and rape) (https://www.wklaw.com/juvenile-crime/13-punishments-for-juvenile-offenders)

depends on where you grew up
i grew up by crack dens and my relatives who i grew up with were abused heavily by people when they were a kid. i think if my mom was more protective over my internet use then i'd be much better today. lot's of trauma from being a kid online. theres aslo a lot of examples of kids being kidnapped in the city i am in today.

this question heavily relies on where you're located. i dont think there's a wrong answer to this, it just relies on where you live.