Beyond the increase in suicides, many young children are going to be psychologically affected. Imagine a 1 or 2 year-old growing up in a world where when they interact with people in the outside world, their faces are covered and the child can’t read the person’s expression. That has to have a negative effect developmentally.
I noticed when I was volunteering at Cub Scout camp last week that kids aged 6 to 10 have almost zero ability to understand speech. They just stare at you blankly while you say, for example, “Drop those arrows to the ground!” over and over.
I was surprised at how bad it was, even compared to two years ago, when, “Point your toes toward the post in front of you,” resulted in actions making it seem they had no idea what “toes” or “post” or “toward” meant. I have to walk up the firing line, standing by each one in the correct stance, and say, “Make your feet like mine!”