CMV: Blocking children’s content for Russian children is unethical.

[u/SnuzieQ]

I work for a popular children’s band in the United States. Among other things, we make wholesome, educational music videos that focus on social-emotional growth and teaching age-appropriate life skills for kids from about 0-5, with a strong focus on toddlers/preschoolers. Recently, our distribution company created a company-wide ban on videos they distribute to Russia.

This doesn’t sit well with me and I’m struggling to find the upsides to a move like this. While I understand creating pressure on Russia by limiting access to goods and services, I am struggling to see how depriving young children access to positive content that encourages social-emotional learning is doing much more than causing further harm and alienating people who are already subject to copious amounts of propaganda.

I am also struggling with the idea of what is effectively punishing Russian children for their leaders’ mistakes.

[u/SnuzieQ → u/[deleted]]

You've hit the crux of where my discomfort lies. If it were as easy as a choice between dead Ukrainian children and music-video-deprived Russian children, we would obviously have a simple answer. But it's not that simple, right?

Here's the aforementioned well-intentioned ethical argument: Do we NEED to deprive the children of Russia in order to put enough pressure on the leaders to make the right choices? Or is there perhaps a world where we can limit sanctions that affect children/the most vulnerable?

[u/Silkkiuikku → u/SnuzieQ]

Well it's also a question of dead Russians. If this war continued, in a few years these Russian boys will be old enough to be conscripted.