It's really tough, because you need both.
On one hand, you do need to protect kids from the most brutal stuff out there and at first most things since you don't want to have them being wired up to insane degenerate stuff right from the womb. Brains wire themselves according to stimuli and if you allow really horrid stuff through all the time it'll wire their brains in horrid ways that arent conducive to a good and stable future.
On the other hand, someday your kids will be on their own and they'll be exposed to everything the world has to offer and if you just pretend it doesn't exist then they'll get immediate shock exposure to all of it the moment you're not there to put the blinders on, and that can have huge backlash implications as well. Look at the 21 year olds who never drank a drop of alcohol who go nuts once exposed without guard rails.
I think the key is to have a plan to slowly introduce the world in a measured and consistent way so kids have the opportunity to learn about the world but have appropriate guardrails at each stage of development ultimately culminating in the least restrictive guard rails so they're being trusted more and more leading up to the big day that they wont have any guard rails from you anymore.
I 1,000% agree with what you say here. Going all the way to either extreme is almost never the answer for anything.
Measured exposure is important. But it's also impossible to 100% monitor and ensure what kids do and do not see. They will be exposed to things you dont want them to see or hear when theyre in school or when at a friend's house or whatever else, no matter how hard you try. I think having a good dialog and helping to guide them in understanding is extremely important.
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