All governments restrict certain behaviors: alcohol (dui, public intoication, etc.), drugs(prohibition, prescription only), gambling.
Now, it’s fair to say that doing those, and doing them as much or as long as you like, is an inalienable right-like “expression”-is absolutely a position you can take. But all countries seem to agree that we shouldn’t do certain things, at least not to excess.
If they didn’t protect this in the United States, your iPhone would have an FBI backdoor in it as of the last iOS update. It does not, because there are some people in the US who still believe that the government does not have the right to serve as your product manager or editorial board.
They do it faster and at larger scales than ever before. There is hardly time for even experts to react to what they are seeing unfold, forget governments.
In the past the only thing that did damage this fast was disease. Anything moving "too fast" through a population without anytime to understand the negative effects should be treated the same way we counter viruses or nuclear chain reactions - with control rods and quarantine periods.
It makes me curious whether having the rare festival allowing the activity might make it easier to get everyone not to do it the rest of the year.
But Christmas now is pretty different.
I was born at the wrong time.
It is absolutely a bad thing, even if you think the end result is a benefit - that was my point.
Separately, the laws against gambling are similarly infringing upon basic human rights to free association and free communication/expression.
This is control by an authoritarian state, not by parents. But you already knew that, didn't you?
If you've been through a public education system you've already received social and cultural values from a government.
Secondly, restricting minors from certain acts is very common in most countries because they aren’t old enough to know better.
It is very common in western countries to forbid stores to sell alcohol and tobacco to minors. Would you argue that the store owner’s rights were violated?
Selling alcohol and tobacco aren’t expression, authoring and publishing creative works is. Please do not conflate the two.