Child Protection- I'd like to hear about ways that policy might be changed here to better protect children, especially given some of the content on Commons. I'd also like to hear about specific examples of content on Commons that a parent might not find appropriate for their children. Note that this is not a repeat of the discussion to understand what policies are in place, as I have already opened a specific thread for that.
You seem to have conflated two items here... one is the idea of child protection, and the other is of objectionable items on commons. I don't think that in any way works.
Our child protection policies are about protecting children when they interact online. This is a perennial problem for any internet site, as I am sure you know. We do have some policies that help a lot (for example, admins always err on the side of caution and delete personal details that underage editors post). We have avenues to report potential issues such as grooming.
Could more be done? Yes, I've thought so; for example publicising the problem more.
But is WP worse that other communities (note; not site) of similar size? Probably not. At least not in my experience (which, of course, is pretty extensive given my former job).
Child protection from porn, etc.? I think it's well established that kids can come across porn anywhere (apparently, Facebook, if my cousins' activity on there are anything to go by :S). And frankly, it's never struck me as an issue under the umbrella of "xhild protection".
How far does policing it become our job and not that of a parent? It's a difficult decision... especially when browser-based content filters are prevelant and easy to set up.
I've always said; we should educate our users about how to install and use content filters, as this will benefit them outside WP too!
So then, on the flip side of your comment here you have the global issue of objectionable images.
This is a much broader issue that the narrow one you're focusing on here. For example, one of the main (and by main I mean constant and persistent, beyond any complaints of porn!) complaints we see relate to images of the prophet mohammed.
How do you, then, feel about Commons hosting images like that?
One of the tenets of the projects are that they are not censored, which I think is a good thing. However, we've not yet struck a balance between displaying everything and filtering things an individual doesn't want to see.
I like the Mohammed example because it emphasises the problem where those of us who are not Muslim find a subset of images perfectly okay, but a Muslim might not.
Since I don't have enough experience with the community and WP yet to discuss controversial topics myself, I will not chime in unless the thread has very obviously gone off topic. Just to pick an arbitrary about of time that is more than the few months that others have mentioned here, let's say that you can only participate in this discussion if you have at least one year of experience as an active contributor.
I'm not sure what purpose it serves to bring up controversial topics, in this forum, with an express note that you have nothing new to bring? ;)
Not to be too critical; but do you imagine that these issues aren't being discussed on the various projects - hopefully with incremental improvement each time. Or that individuals here are not aware of them?
More than anything though, I'm sure you're an experienced internet chap - what did you expect to recieve in stirring up two relatively ingrained "sides"? It wasn't very deft, I have to observe :)
One thing it might be important to communicate is that whilst this list is useful for global discussion, it's not a venue that any agreement or consensus is reached. So these discussions are really best conducted on-wiki. I'm not sure if you've actually attempted to open such topics on any of the projects, but the discussion you appear to be looking for can really only happen there (rather than here, or IRC, for example).
Regards, Tom