Extremely tangential, but I would contend the headline should be "Is Fewer Children the Future?" (as painful as that sounds) because "Fewer Children" here is effectively a singular noun describing a demographic with fewer children, rather than a group of actual children.
(Edit: Or better yet, just rewrite the headline entirely! But I'd maintain that "Are" is the wrong choice as-is.)
They are if the world doesn't stop trying to control how you have children and in what way you want to educate them, and how to look after their health.
It just didn’t know at the time that the cause was going to be educated and empowered women choosing to have less or no children, globally. Better late than never to understand I suppose.