No one participating in a moral panic thinks it is a moral panic. They all think they are addressing a real pressing issue. That is why moral panics work.
The easiest key is the focus. Am I worried about my kid? Not a moral panic, that is literally my job as a parent.
Am I worried about society in general because of all the shoddy parenting about screen time? (Or risky play, or being home alone, or riding public transportation, etc) Then it might be a moral panic.
Along those same lines: am I worried about what all those worriers will say about me?
This is what the above comment is referring to. A lot of the stress of parenting is amped up by other adults (parents or not) who have lots of opinions about whether you’re doing everything right. Much of this is some combination of moral panic and/or self-righteous busybodies. If you can learn to tune a lot of that out, parenting is less stressful and less complex.
So you're telling me that by going against social media, I'm actually participating in some big witch hunt to delete it? That's even better, sign me up.
I’m telling you that a lot of people believe they are on one of various missions to Save The Children, by which they justify harassing parents about random moments they observe.
> No one participating in a moral panic thinks it is a moral panic
This argument feels like a Kafka trap