Exactly why they should have been allowed to fail

Just out of curiosity, do you have kids? What you are saying is exactly what I hear from people who do not have kids of their own. When I became a parent, my philosophies on just about everything changed and I became very protective of them - this includes when they got online. They are 16 and 18 now and are very well adjusted even if I did monitor their usage and filtered their online experience.