Source: newrepublic.com 8/2/23
The first thing you need to know about the latest bill in Congress meant to protect children on the internet is that one of its co-sponsors has been waging this fight against tech platforms since the days of MySpace. This bill, the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA, concerns children who were not yet born at the dawn of social media, whose parents could once have jockeyed to remain in each other’s Top 8, while their own parents in turn may have sounded the alarm about such newfound dangers as “emo” and camera phones.
For nearly as long as there have been websites, Congress has proposed laws to control what kids can see and do online. KOSA, in turn, has been billed as a new way to protect kids from a more pervasive and more dangerous internet. But in reality, KOSA hands powerful tools to the far right to further wage its war on kids, whether it’s censoring education on racism or demonizing queer and trans youth. Meanwhile, Democrats who support KOSA appear to either not have noticed or not minded.
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To date, dozens of civil society groups have opposed KOSA due to the risks it poses to those who would be harmed by concentrating decision-making in this way.
Why don’t they start holding these parents accountable for not paying attention to what there children are doing online, Start change them with felony child neglect, and you’ll see internet crimes against children decline rapidly, KOSA should put that in their bill.
How about acknowledging the fact that everyone has sexual urges even from an early age and addressing that in a realistic manner instead of trying to find as many crimes as possible when a sexual event happens? Noone has the psychological capacity to approach this matter, to discuss arousal, or how it should be dealt with in a real world manner. So instead, now we have a bunch of people grown up who were never allowed to express their sexuality and now they’re prancing around as transgenders and we have that entire movement. Wonder how those individuals would be today if they’d been able to have some sexual outlet when they were younger? I’m not advocating a lowering of the age of consent, but I do think the pendulum has swung about as far to the right towards punishment as opposed to none at all. There should be a reasonable approach to these issues.
“As proposed, KOSA would require online platforms to “take reasonable measures” to “prevent and mitigate” harms to minors such as “anxiety, depression, eating disorders, substance use disorders, and suicidal behaviors,” along with “patterns of use that indicate or encourage addiction-like behaviors” and “physical violence, online bullying, and harassment of the minor.” State attorneys general would be the arbiters of alleged failures to “prevent and mitigate” such harms, with the power to impose penalties on platforms. Such actions could be initiated by the attorneys general themselves, if they feel that any resident of their state is “threatened or adversely affected by the engagement of any person in a practice that violates this Act.””
Might as well do what they did with cigarettes and music, put a warning label on the screen when the website comes up warning of the concerns and then let them do what they want anyway since they have free will. Then, they should extend this warning to everything the minors do and eat since they obviously don’t know diddly under 18 (despite the case where the 7th CCOA said even 14 and 15 years probably do know about sexual actions as I posted earlier this week).
Punishing the parents is a good way to start so they are held accountable and actually having them be parents, but it will only go so far. This is pretty much the start of a governmental state of control in what they propose and need it for election votes.
When government officials want to take more of a parental role of our country’s children my heart rate skyrockets. I wouldn’t trust the government taking care of any living due to the fact they will just want more involvement in one’s life and how exactly is that freedom. The government needs to go stop acting like babysitters and think they know what’s best. If their policies were the greatest our country wouldn’t be considered the laughing stock of the world.