The tragic case of Vincent, a young man whose parents ‘never say he’s good enough’, has prompted the usual hand-wringing about British online safety laws. But let us not be so quick to blame the algorithms. This is a story about the erosion of parental backbone, a phenomenon that would have shocked our Victorian forebears.
We have raised a generation of children who are fragile, entitled, and utterly dependent on external validation. Vincent’s parents, it seems, were not merely neglectful; they were part of a broader cultural rot that prizes self-esteem over character. The online safety laws, while well-intentioned, are a red herring.
They allow the state to meddle further in family life, absolving parents of their duty. Did we not learn from the Fall of Rome that when the family unit decays, the empire follows? The couple in question exploited a system that encourages victimhood.
Vincent needed discipline, not a sensitivity workshop. Perhaps it is time to revive the stiff upper lip, the very quality that built this nation and that is now so casually derided.
