"That, and they belong in the back seat because the government rammed passenger-side airbags down our throats...and THEN figured out that they kill small children. Ooops! Time to hide Junior in the back seat where you can't see him!"
My daughter was born in 1986. We didn't even have a driver's airbag at the time. The advice even then was to put infants in the back seat. What changed following airbags, at least from what I remember, was advice that kids ride in the back until about age 12 or a certain height.
my jeep has a weight sensor. most vehicles that have passenger airbags have some sort of disconnect for them. switch, key, weight, or fuse.
there was also the deal for a while that they claimed that shoulder harnesses wouldn't fit a child right and would cause injury. oops. vehicles now have shoulder harnesses front and rear.