What if a child....?

I have a pet peeve and it cropped up again today.

especially by a young child

Whenever anything bad happens, why is it always worse if it happens to a child? Why do people always bleat about some made up danger that, 'could have happened to a child'.
What if a child saw it / did it / picked it up / fell in it / tripped on it / shot themselves in the back of the head with it?

Why are children's lives perceived to be more important that adults lives? Why are bad things always worse if the age of the victim is less than 18?

Could it be that children are simply better able to pull the heartstrings and make a newspaper article or TV news story that bit more appealing, or do we actually believe that the life of a child is worth more than the life of an adult?

Is the life of a child worth more? Let's take a look through the round window.

If an adult dies, what is lost?

An adult is likely to leave behind loved ones that depend on them; a wife / husband and a couple of kids maybe. A family unit that has been nurtured for possibly many years and will cease to exist in it's current form without the missing adult

A job. Yes the company can employ someone else, but depending on the type of job, a lot more can be lost than just the employee. Years of experience and in depth knowledge could disappear and take the next employee more years to accumulate
Possibly years of investment in training
A social network with other employees that will take time to recreate with a new member

Education. Not just the knowledge and training gained in employment, as described above, but also years of school, college and further education. A young adult will not have even had the time to put this to use. An older adult may have been putting this to use, only for the effects to be stalled or stopped until another adult steps in and takes up the void

All those things that never had the chance to be completed. That book or song that never got written, that house / shed / car that never got built / repaired / improved, that time saving device that never got invented or drug that never got developed. A million possible things left unfinished because of an untimely death

Dreams that were never fulfilled. Working until you're 65, only to get mauled by a Lynx and not be able to spend your last years in relatively comfortable retirement, finally getting some sweet time to enjoy yourself
Schemes, plans, dreams, all worked hard for and not seen through

Friends and colleagues whose lives have been made a little batter by interaction

Family

There's a massive possible loss to a much wider society when an adult kicks the bucket. So what happens when a child falls down a well?

Are they not easily replaceable?

Just kidding of course. My point is, it's just as shitty when something happens to an adult. It gets right on my tits when people bleat on about stuff happening to kids. Adult lives matter too

Yeah, and a couple of adults