Think of the children

For The Children or "Please, Think of the children" or It's time to think of the children or Why does'nt somebody please think of the children is a Logical fallacy phrase commonly used by politicians and advocacy groups.

Logic

Children are good.

Therefore anything with and about children is good.

P is right, think of the children.

The fallacy is that the children can not decide and if they can, you would not speak about them in 3rd person but directly; "I think of you children."

Children alone, even though they are good to have, do not make anything good.

Please, why doesn't somebody think about the diapers.

as logical fallacy

"For the Children" is commonly used as a irrelevant conclusion. I is a irrelevant because children do not vote or have not much to decide or are irresponsible by their lack of experiences. But parents vote and decide and should be responsible. "For the parents" or "For the activists" would be politically correct and accurate. When it is about unborn children and abortion this fallacy goes ad absurdum because politics can not be decided by the opinion of a potential human being, only about it.

"For the children" is a fallacy if it is not directed to the chilren but an Appeal to emotion without any logical context. "I make Breakfast for the children" and "I give presents for the children" and "Think of the children before you harm them, declare war" is not a logical falacy because the context is clear and directed on children.

More generally anything you do "for the children" of your social group is for your own status, Acknowledgment or Pride/Arrogance because the health of a group depends on the health of its children.

The "Please" or "why doesn't" or "It is time to..." part shows it's target on responsibility, shame, hope and self esteem on those who doupt to have thought of children earlier for some unnatural reason.

Examples

• Won't somebody please think of the children? Is a running gag on The Simpsons.
• Rod Serling: "For the record, prejudices can kill and suspicion can destroy, and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all its own -- for the children, and the children yet unborn."
• Uneducational TV programs for the children are paid by commercials to sell them products or to make them ask their parents to buy them.
• As common headline
• clear channel and the FCC limit free speech "for the children" but it's more "for careless parents".