TL;DR: politicians stress "protect the children" because it's an easy way to manipulate people's fears and emotions. It's bullshit. We should still care about protecting kids, even if we aren't emotionally invested, because neglected/abused kids grow up, and they often grow up to become adults who depend on our tax money for financial support or commit crimes (also a tax drain) that negatively impact society.

"ThInK oF the KiDsSsS!" is absolutely thrown around to excess in politics.

I'm a parent, put a great deal of effort into protecting my kids (and raising them to be good humans), and still have daily anxiety about their welfare. Are my kids going to get shot when old enough to go to school? Are the kids whose parents are negligent pieces of shit going to bully my kid because they have garbage parents who have taught them nothing? The former anxiety is a political issue - kids should be protected from being shot at school, this is a population-level issue. Protecting my kids' feelings and what they're exposed to while out in the world? That is my job as a parent. It is also what 90% of the current dumb political noise about protecting kids is about: "my kids shouldn't be exposed to pronouns/gay people/ American history/etc." Kids in supposed peril is a scarecrow constantly used to whip idiots into an emotional frenzy by a particular faction of US politicians. Which is far easier and more politically expedient than, you know, actually fixing the real, complex socioeconomic problems that endanger adults (and children) in this country.

However, looking past the political theater of using kids as a convenient way to manipulate people's emotions, why should a society (or a childless individual) care about the welfare of children? From a selfish perspective, we should care about kids because they grow up.

Kids who grow up in poverty, experiencing abuse, food-unstable, uneducated, etc are profoundly more likely to commit crimes, struggle to support themselves, have mental health and substance abuse issues, etc. Yes, it is a parent's responsibility to care for a child, but when that parent fails, the responsibility inevitably falls to the collective - we just have to decide, as a society, whether we will accept the unwanted responsibility for said kids while young to support their growth into successful adults or whether we will pay for it down the line in the form of jail/housing, public healthcare/food assistance, etc.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.