Since Moses was a lawgiver, then that isn't supported by the Judeo-Christian tradition. Even when the law is not followed, it has us realize that we are lawbreakers. Paul says that the law is a schoolmaster to lead us to Christ.
However, he says that the law for government leads to fear of punishment for evil doers.
So, the biblical witness is fair solid. Law does matter and it does make a difference.
As to children automatically seeking out that which is denied them, that also has many examples that show it is not so. For example, the simple law of societal pressure kept unwed pregnancy to what in our day seem unimaginably low levels among our young.
Another example is the seat belt law. It is widely kept when it would be easily ignored. Why? It makes sense and it receives support as a rational practice. The social more of teen abstinence also made sense, but that is widely challenged by destructive liberal forces to the detriment of teens.
The same with drug/alcohol use by the young. When widely challenged by destructive liberal forces in the culture of this media rich environment, kids/teens are taught a message that injures them. Sadly
People avoided unwed pregnancy because it was nearly impossible to hide and everyone would know. People that could hide and get away with it did.
People wear seatbelts because they are immediately visible and you will get a fine the moment a cop glances at you. New cars also come with annoying alarms. I only wear mine because they are proven to be safer and would cheat the law with a fake belt if they were not.
Nearly invisible crimes like possessing a coin-sized baggy of drugs will never be stopped by laws because the chance of being caught is almost nil. People will never respect laws that are nearly unenforceable and go against their own knowledge.
This is the true, correct purpose of law — however, we currently are in a society where 'law' (and the appearance thereof) have little to no correlation to punishing evil doers. The War on Drugs is a good example here: there are things (policies, procedures, etc) which are not lawful, but which are excused in order to punish things under what is purported to be law (e.g. warrantless searches, 'expedient circumstances', [civil] forfeiture, etc.)
The heart of these laws can be seen by their fruits: in the case of the War on Drugs it is the erosion of virtually all of the Bill of Rights. In many other laws it is the government asserting its superiority over the citizenry, usually to the effect of turning them into subjects and imposing tyranny.