Not the greatest idea ever

Especially since I have no idea what their idea was supposed to be either.

But because of their ill-conceived march of liberty another innocent American family is destroyed on account of some naked breasts! Get thee in a burqa devil woman!

In all seriousness, I don't see the point in laws that distinguish between male and female toplessness, or that punish either. Still, I do think there's some level of common sense that should be exercised about it. I think prostitution should be legal, but this is largely because I think the spread of sexually transmitted disease would be more easily monitored if it were an open environment and social workers or church services or whoever was interested in such things had an easier time accessing the marketplace to control its negative consequences (which prostitution has some, hence why it has legal penalties involved in the first place, my argument is, much with the drug war, that the penalties and methods used against it are worse than the crime itself). The point being that legal things are not always recommended things. I think it is and should be legal to jump out of an airplane with a parachute. This does not inspire me to go attempt it or to encourage others to do so. That said, I'm not quite sure what the negative consequences of topless human beings, even the womenfolk with their bare breasts in public, are other than moral approbation, and usually some sort of physical repulsion (on the popular theory that few people naked are people who you'd want to see naked). Neither of which is something I am inclined to give the gift of legal force. I have a hard time punishing stupidity or a lack of "common decency" with laws. You are better off using cultural or social repressions. Set up your own protests lady instead of demanding a law to "protect your son". I'm guessing he will see some naked boobs soon enough one way or another. This will not be the end of the world for him or for your family.

I suppose if you could construct an argument that this form of public nudity is distracting and causing traffic accidents then you could charge someone for something else. Except
1) Many jurisdictions do not punish for those of us who could ogle shirtless men and thus could constitute the same sort of distracting and dangerous public safety issue.
2) Billboards, with pictures of sexually provocative people or statements are just as distracting to drivers. Even billboards with safety related messages.
3) I'm guessing the main reason it would be distracting at all is that it is uncommon. And it's mostly uncommon because its often illegal (or assumed to be). Things which are outside of our social norms are distracting. A man on the sidewalk riding a unicycle with a stove top hat on as he commuted to work or took his ease for the day would be sort of odd and draw some stares just as well. Public spectacles are only such because they are oddities of the daily routine. If this was something that happened all the time (say, every Tuesday), then I'm not sure how concerned people would get.

In a related story, this is why I don't get all worked up over women being cloaked in cloth head to toe as something that we need to legally ban.

"Many years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court helped us to understand that “separate but equal” is inherently unequal. And the Saudis don’t even aspire to “separate but equal”. The “family” section of the Starbucks next door to our hotel received less attention from the wait staff than the main dining area (women patrons essentially came in through a back door, and were served through the kitchen). The “women only” lines at the food court at the nearby mall were longer than the “men only” ones. Our hotel in Riyadh had a nice workout room…for men only. My female traveling companions were reduced to calisthenics and stretching exercises in their respective (small) hotel rooms."

When you treat people like second class entities, not even worthy of a title as a citizen on their own accord, I'm guessing this does not bode well for their opportunities or achievements in life. For some women, even women in advanced Western states, it's not so terrible a choice to live mostly as a home maker, confined essentially to duties of the family. I have no objection to that as a choice freely made. I'm highly skeptical that even women as a home maker here, sometimes seen today as a regressive or secondary title for women to take on as appropriate, would put up with the confinements there such as are outlined above. Or that even those Saudi women dressed in black cloaks, when they are receiving somewhat better global exposure and education within Saudi Arabia, will continue to put up with it. But what confuses me is that we need to tell people, people in other countries and cultures no less, how to dress.

That's a meaningless problem by comparison to basic dignity and self-worth.