The “protect the children” argument has little to do with actual children protection laws. It’s about using pathos of the crowd to manipulate opinion.
Regarding history, I don’t know about the US specifically, but Europeans countries have legal children protections since end of 19th, beginning of 20th centuries (depending on the country).
Regarding history, I don’t know about the US specifically, but Europeans countries have legal children protections since end of 19th, beginning of 20th centuries (depending on the country).
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_of_the_Rights_of_t... for a pre-WW2, international effort.