Proposals to add a back — or even front — door to end-to-end encryption, are a process of trading the safety of children of this instant against the privacy of the people of tomorrow.

What world shall we build for the children of today to grow into? One with a surveillance-ready Internet and a society without expectation of private communication? One without space to play with identity and self-expression, to explore, to grow and learn?

How is that a proper legacy for our children — they who will be the people of tomorrow, and especially for those who live under repression?

Or will we, in turn, also today abrade their freedoms in order to “protect” the generation beyond – citing the interests of our children’s children who will not even be born for 15, perhaps 20 years or more?

How dare we build a less free world for them under the guise of protecting them? And how and where does this stop?

Absent any justifiable answer, this is why we must protect the freedoms of the adults of tomorrow from the fears of those of today.

@alecmuffett