Automated Parenting

In the world of automation, tedious jobs are eliminated. I'm a software engineer and I know all about this. The days of sorting mail by hand are gone. Computers do that now. The days of manually connecting people together at a switchboard are gone. Computers do that now.

So, now that we have the Internet and TV, we have the NetNanny. It "protects" your kids from bad Internet stuff. We have ratings and labels for our TV shows, but the parent has to be there to know if it's not suitable. Well, we should automate that as well. Most TV's now come with software allowing parents to take yet another step back. Now, the Television is not only a cheap babysitter, but (if the software functions correctly) can make sure your kids don't watch the "bad" stuff. It can also turn the TV off after a certain time.

Is all of this a good thing? Or does it just prove that we are such bad parents that we can't even trust our kids. Maybe parenting is such a tedious job that it needs to be eliminated...