I burn easily, Scotch, German, Dutch redhead. I burn in the middle of winter on a sunny day. My nickname growing up was “Red”. I was putting sunscream on myself from an early age.
So kids today are not capable of what was routine and necessary for me? Come on. I had kids in my class giving themselves insuline shots when necessary. It’s all about the expectations put on Kids. If you treat them like helpless idiots the will act like helpless idiots.
How old are you? If you were getting insulin shots from kids in your class, it's unlikely they even had decent sunscreen when you were a kid. They had that savage tan crap that didn't do diddly for palefaces like us. Back in those days, all of us pasty faced folks covered up. That said, I agree with you that today any kid like you or me should and would absolutely know how to put on sunscreen by the age of 10. But a majority of kids who don't have our burning problems probably don't. Not that it matters one way or the other. I'm not arguing for the rule. I'm just saying the mother's an idiot. In the picture the kid has a burnt shoulder! That could have been prevented simply by wearing a shirt with short sleeves. These days we put our pale grandkids in those SPF shirts, but really, a t-shirt would do.
What we have here is a stupid mother who thought putting her pale kid in a skimpy top was a good idea. Now she wants to blame the nanny state for her own foolishness.