by Alec Muffett
Teenagers can now drink cider with a meal, two years before they can read a Reddit thread about it … Discussion channels about ongoing atrocities in Ukraine and Gaza, the subreddit dedicated to the news channel Al Jazeera are all now inaccessible to anyone who cannot or will not give Reddit their ID or a face scan to prove their age.
https://thecritic.co.uk/the-perverse-outcomes-of-the-online-safety-act/
“If good intentions created good laws, there’d be no reason for congressional debate.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lry2EEdEBVk
Senator from Kentucky pummels US version of OSA which is called KOSA and thankfully hasn’t passed. However, bits and pieces of it are being implemented in various states.
Rand Paul, in a very calm and intelligent way, provides numerous examples of how the (K)OSA law(s) are both unwise and contain contradictions.
From the link you provided: “I’m all for stopping children getting into the geeky ins and outs of homebrewing ale but the activity’s distinct uncoolness will do a much better job of that than a Reddit age gate.”
I said as much about 16 years ago, but on another controversial topic. I wrote I wasn’t worried about kids seeing/reading my site since: the site had no videos or songs or flashy graphics, was mostly text to read, was written by and for adults with a vocabulary beyond 6th grade, the topic was unlikely to show up in some random web search, one would have to specifically search for it.
And those who did search specifically for it deserved to read it since it was geared to be educational. Parents of precocious children/teens need to pay attention to what their kid’s interests are and take them seriously, not pat them on the head and tell them to not worry their pretty little heads or fly into a rage they read an article about ______.
What we are subject to now is a raft of parents who smother their own children and also are pushing that nonsense on others. The parents who don’t let their toddler pick him/herself back up, but rush over and lift him/her up. The parents who see their child struggling to find the right words and instead of letting the kid talk, the parent interrupts and speaks. The parent who doesn’t let their own child answer when asked a question, but speaks up for him.
To paint with a very broad brush…it’s kind of like the stereotype of those who live on the farm or in the hinterlands who are sure to teach their children the proper way to handle knives, guns, fire, gasoline, and other dangerous stuff; compared to those in the suburbs who bubble-wrap their kids.
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