Geni, you (and others) seem to place a lot of stock in "parent responsibility":
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-November/056095.html
Work with me for a moment here... if a parent takes her 9-year-old boy to the toy boutique, and the boy asks to stay outside on the sidewalk with the pantomime clown the store has hired to promote their business, and the mom says "okay", goes inside, then the boy wanders down the sidewalk a bit to look at the window display of toy trains, but is then abducted by a stranger, raped, mutilated, and dumped in the woods, that is the responsibility of the parent? The consequences are entirely her fault for leaving the kid alone with the clown? Nobody else holds any responsibility whatsoever in that event?
Are you saying that it's more important that the mime stay in character and not use either his own common sense or courtesy, or perhaps follow instructions or guidelines that have been conferred on him by either the store or his entertainment company employer to say, "Please don't leave your child unattended with me, ma'am. Liability, you know?"
What you seem to be saying is that the Wikimedia Foundation should expressly not apply any effort whatsoever to these sorts of liability and "worst case" assessments, because in the end, it's the parent's responsibility. I'm curious to know -- do you have any children of your own? If the above happened to your child, how would you feel if you later discovered that the mime's employer had actually had a conversation about whether mime's should offer verbal safety advice to parents who seem a bit lax in tending to their children, but the management expressly decided that "WP:MIMESWILLSTAYSILENT", and that it's the parent's responsibility if they leave their kid unattended with a clown? Do you think you or your lawyer might want to have a few words with the management of Clowns Incorporated, or is the higher principal of "free mime culture" more important than any considerations of safety, law, and common courtesy?
I wonder about the addled nature of thought here, if people think that the Foundation cannot and should not find within its means to even formulate some recommendations and guidelines to help steer the activities of children on Wikimedia projects, because that is something that parents alone should be doing on a case-by-case basis. Your response to Privatemusings could have been just as easily delivered with a big "F* you, get the f* off our mailing list".
Geni said that appropriate and adequate measures are in place on Foundation projects, but he/she provided no links. Does anyone have a link or two to provide us, the concerned parents whose kids are starting to use the Internet on their own?
Gregory Kohs