KOSA is a bill that aims to protect children online but it would do so in harmful ways. First, it would pressure platforms to install content filters that would censor large amounts of content, including important suicide prevention and LGBTQ+ support resources. Content filters have a history of overblocking important information. Second, KOSA would ramp up online surveillance of all users by expanding age verification and parental monitoring tools. These tools are unnecessarily invasive and pose risks to young people trying to escape abuse. Over 90 rights groups agree that KOSA is dangerous and cannot be fixed through amendments. If you value a free and open internet, contact your lawmakers to reject KOSA.
“Protect the children” is the new “fight terror”. Big empty phrases that only end up taking away rights and targeting minorities.
It’s coined as the “Helen Lovejoy Syndrome” after a Simpson’s episode from the nineties.
Always has been.
Mighty convenient how so many of these “protect the children” groups end up with kiddie diddlers on staff.
https://news.yahoo.com/alabama-anti-abortion-advocate-charged-190424945.html
Possibly even worse since it’s very often used as a cover for CSA. Not just minorities in this case that are being harmed, we’re talking about literal children. It’s fucking horrific.
protect children online
I’ve yet to see any single new law proposal, that actually tackles this problem rather than misusing it’s emotional trigger to get acceptance for surveillance and control
Meanwhile… child labor protections? Who needs em? Protections against child marriage (or let’s call it what it is, rape)? They’ll be fine. God wills it, after all, and it’s in the Bible (or so they’re told, very few of them actually read it).
Meanwhile, actual abuse is happening constantly in the Catholic (and others) church, and what do they do? Just shuffle 'em around a little bit. They “repented”, so that means we can leave him alone with kids in Montana now instead of New Mexico. Problem solved! Thank the lord!
These fuckers have zero interest in actually protecting children, and for a good chunk of them, they’re actively working toward the exact opposite.
Why is there always an authoritarian law being proposed every month?
Because we’ve hit the point of capitalism where the system is imploding on itself, and so those in power turn to fascism in order to protect their capital.
we’ve hit the point of capitalism where…
Oh, you mean its literal inception? This shit never worked.
That’s kinda historically illiterate. The reason people tolerated Capitalism in the first place was that it smashed old forms of oppression and replaced them with less bad forms of oppression.
When people are starting to starve and there are no more monkeys that can entertain the masses, the spirit of rebellion starts to rise from the ashes.
So the established powers that be have two options: violently suppress the masses. Or acquiesce some level of control, power, or ultimately capital.
The powers that be would rather die than give up their money. So fascism it is!
Because someone has to care about the children.Don’t you care about the children? The chidlren. CHILDREN!
Because some folks really seem to like power? And emotion is a solid button to press because a lot of folks are irrational monkeys.
Edit: most - > a lot of
I like the phrase “Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely”.
KOSA is not the only thing one should be worried about, illiterates from UK are bringing in an Online Safety Bill which needs all services with encryption to provide a backdoor for the UK government under the reasoning of “monitoring for CSAM content”.
This doesn’t just impact UK citizens, but will do for the world.
If I recall correctly, Australia did something similar.
Interesting to see how the 5-eyes try to push similar dumb ideas together.
Australia did something recently, yes. It’s called the AA Bill. And it allows for the government to demand a worker put a backdoor in to an encryption product. The absolutely stupid thing is that if the government does this, the worker can’t tell a soul about it for fear of prison. If (when) it comes up in code review, they’re still not allowed to tell anyone. If they do, it’s straight off to prison. Where does it stop. I was hopeful that tech companies would abandon australia when this happened, but they didn’t. They just rolled over and took it up the arse pipe. Fucking hell. This is a good write up
That’s not even mentioning what google is trying to do currently.
WHY ARE “THE CHILDREN” ONLINE!!! Where are their fucking parents?
Overworked, underpaid, and relying on technology to distract the kids. Not a lot different from 80’s and 90’s parents, except you know, poorer and more time-strapped.
Same here, overworked and underpaid, two kids. Neither has a smartphone nor has access to any social media site beside kids YouTube and Netflix. I meant kids shouldn’t be on social media, in my original comment. I always utilize the iPad for my daughter when I’m working or need her to sit so I can get shit done. My son, who’s the oldest, doesn’t have a phone yet. He has two gaming consoles, neither of them has online access for multiplayer. That’s what I mean by why are kids on the internet.
Not trying to dog on other parents, but just like when I was growing up a lot of parents either didn’t know/didn’t care what their kids were watching on TV, and didn’t make a lot of effort to control it. Many parents now are sadly similar in not paying attention to their kids’ internet habits.
You’re being a good parent. I don’t know why other people struggle with this idea. In my opinion, you should just be proud of yourself and disappointed in other parents who don’t take the same measures.
I will say those other parents make it difficult, though. My sister had to drop a lot of her parental controls eventually because her kids would go to friends’ houses with unrestricted internet access, and you just can’t control that. Even if you are involved with what your kids watch at home, once they are out of your eyesight and with other people, they can get access. Anyway, denying them access was causing more fights between her and her kids than it was worth. They saw that other kids had unrestricted access, and they wanted that, too. On the plus side, they were already 14 by this time, but still, it became a huge headache because other parents didn’t care.
Anyway once again, good on you, mate. Keep being a thoughtful and involved parent, we need more of y’all.
Please tell me your kids have some other form of social interaction.
I was bullied real bad in school, so if not for online access, I would have had basically no one to talk to besides my parents.
I was online as a child. It’s normal. Get used to it. Quit trying to break the Internet over it. Kids aren’t delicate little flowers. No one’s head exploded over seeing Lenna’s nipple. (Not their big head, anyway…)
I was, too, but agree with me or disagree, the intern back then wasn’t as bad as it is right now.
Maybe so, but that’s not because of the availability of porn, gore, or shady characters to chat with, all of which were already plentiful in the '90s. It’s because of things like money-sucking video games targeted at kids, and unless I’m mistaken, KOSA does exactly diddly squat about it.
