It was an exhortation in the 1964 Disney film Mary Poppins, when the character of Mrs. A 2011 article in the Journal for Cultural Research observed that the phrase grew out of a moral panic. Community, Space and Online Censorship (2009) argued that classifying children in an infantile manner, as innocents in need of protection, is a form of obsession over the concept of purity. 'Think of the children' has been invoked by censorship proponents to shield children from perceived danger. Ethicist Jack Marshall wrote in 2005 that the phrase's popularity stems from its capacity to stunt rationality, particularly discourse on morals. Īrt, Argument, and Advocacy (2002) argued that the appeal substitutes emotion for reason in debate. In debate, however, it is a plea for pity that is used as an appeal to emotion, and therefore it may become a logical fallacy. In the literal sense, it refers to children's rights (as in discussions of child labor). ' Think of the children' (also ' What about the children?') is a cliché that evolved into a rhetorical tactic.