It is kind of crazy how often Batman stories raise the question of “is Robin ethical?” and ultimately come to the conclusion that Robin isn’t really a child. His trauma and experiences have transformed him into something else, something that looks like a child but isn’t, or only is sometimes. It’s no longer necessary or even possible to treat him as though he is a real child. Some fundamental essence of purity has been lost; further trauma and harm may heaped on the Un-Child indefinitely.
Obviously Robin is about punching clowns and telepathic gorillas, so whatever. But it betrays certain attitudes about children that are really pervasive in our culture—that children are definitionally innocent, and that innocence is a product they produce and perform for adult consumption. If that innocence is lost, damaged, or imperfect, their value is lessened and the need to protect them becomes a need to protect other children from the contamination they might spread. The Un-Child becomes a sort of contagion, a threat to the harvest, who is conditionally allowed access to childhood if they can convincingly pretend at innocence.
