If you want people to pay attention to a point you're making, try to bring the subject of children into the debate. Right now, the media is discussing a decision made by the board of education of Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, to limit student access to the manga "Hadashi no Gen (Barefoot Gen)," first published in 1973 and translated into 20 languages. It chronicles the life of a boy in Hiroshima around the time of the 1945 atomic bombings and contains scenes of violence that the board deems too strong for children. However, the Asahi Shimbun reports that the decision actually "stems from the complaint of one citizen" who specifically objects to depictions of atrocities carried out by Japanese soldiers, which the citizen claims never happened.

Asahi quotes the widow of the work's late author, Kenji Nakazawa, as saying that her husband wanted young people to read it so that they could fully appreciate what happens during war.

Regardless of whether or not the Matsue board has its own agenda, by focusing on young people's still-developing sensibilities, its decision manages to avoid the question of free expression, whose relevance to children has always been problematic. Parents do all they can to prevent their kids from coming into contact with "adult content" until the kids are mature enough to understand that content, a task that access to the Internet has made all but impossible.