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The UK’s problematic Online Safety Act is now law | Ars Technica
(arstechnica.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
It seems like "we're protecting the CHILDREN!" is supposed to make any kind of bullshit legislation acceptable. It's the parents' job to protect the children. It's the government's job to maintain order, provide public services, and ensure the security of the country.
If you want to protect children from "legal but harmful" content online, maybe don't allow your 12-year-old to have a smartphone. How about blocking sites like TikTok and Facebook on the devices that children do have access to. Monitor your children's online activities. I have said for years that until a child is able to purchase their own tech devices and pay for the service, let them use the family computer.
Governments should hold the parents accountable for raising the children they chose to have, and step in when they choose not to; don't enact sweeping legislation that harms everyone because the parents refuse to take accountability for their children.
I completely agree that children should simply be using family computers. Kids are much to young to understand proper internet safety.
This issue has been affecting YouTube for a long time. No one seems to know that there's been a "YouTube Kids" app for years. It has built in age restrictions on content, restricted advertising, comments, parental controls, etc. However, it gets zero attention, and regular YouTube has been neutered to be more child-friendly regardless of the platform that's actually tailored for children. It would be like Adult Swim forcing their show runners to make their content safe for kids, all the while Teletoon runs kids content all day.
Children shouldn’t be allowed to use smartphones. They didn’t exist when I was a kid so, kids nowadays can do without one too. Smartphones and the government are harmful for health.