> I thought it used to be that parents were responsible for their kids - that's not even a thing now?
When was this? Before or after child labor laws? Before or after we started making it illegal to beat children? Before or after child marriage laws? Age of consent laws? Standards around education, health, abuse and neglect?
Whether or not this is a step too far, it's hard to say that society and or governments stepping into protect children is a recent thing.
Classic western narcissism. Parents were sending their kids down the mines just for the lulz, until "society (represented by more moral types like me) and government stepped in".
And because of course, in the minority of cases when parents are abusive, some politicians thousands of miles away make the abuse stop, or the amorphous blob called "society", not locals and relatives, magically we assume, when the kids own parents and extended family keep it all under wraps.
Pay no attention to those governments blowing other people's kids to bits or anything of course - the trick is to take observation bias and turn it up to eleven, take a big drawn on our own farts, and feel them we're just so good feels.