"Think of the children" can be used as an emotional play, but that's not a dumb cliche. There are not many things modern civilization has agreed upon, but one

"Think of the children" can be used as an emotional play, but that's not a dumb cliche. There are not many things modern civilization has agreed upon, but one of them is that a child is an independent human being with their own rights and not the property of parents. In fact, it's a logical consequence of recognizing a human being as an independent individual with natural rights and not the subject of a monarch or whatever authority you have. (Which is itself a pretty modern concept, not commonly recognized in most traditional societies.)