Science & Tech Quote by Mike Fitzpatrick

A politician invoking his six children is doing two things at once: borrowing authority from intimacy and softening a policy argument into a parental confession. Fitzpatrick is not offering data or a theory of tech regulation; he is offering credibility. The line is engineered to pre-empt the eye-roll that greets most “think of the children” rhetoric by adding a specific domestic credential: six. It signals not just experience, but immersion.

The phrasing matters. “I know very well” projects certainty without naming a single challenge, which keeps the statement widely portable across issues: screen time, social media harms, cyberbullying, online predators, privacy, sexting, even the anxiety of constant connectivity. That vagueness is the point. It lets different constituencies hear their own fears echoed back, while leaving room to pivot toward whatever legislative agenda is on deck.

“Technology poses” frames tech as an external force acting on families, not something families actively adopt, enjoy, and shape. The subtext is a classic moral asymmetry: innovation is powerful, families are vulnerable, and government (or at least public leadership) must step in to restore balance. Coming from an American politician of Fitzpatrick’s era, it also nods to the late-2000s/2010s cultural moment when smartphones and platforms rapidly colonized childhood, outpacing schools and parents.

It works rhetorically because it converts a complicated policy landscape into a familiar scene: a parent trying to keep order at the kitchen table. The audience isn’t asked to agree with a bill yet; they’re asked to trust a dad.