#Online Safety for Children | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

magpie-69 · 2 years

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"Coroner Andrew Walker concluded Molly, from Harrow, died from an act of self-harm while suffering depression and the negative effects of online content."

"Mr Walker told North London Coroner's Court: "It would not be safe to leave suicide as a conclusion."

The above conclusion is unprecedented. Never before has a coroner said this.

"In a statement, NSPCC chief executive Sir Peter Wanless said: "This should send shockwaves through Silicon Valley - tech companies must expect to be held to account when they put the safety of children second to commercial decisions."

"The magnitude of this moment for children everywhere cannot be understated."

I'm praying this is the start of something positive, but I fear nothing will change.

🙏💜🙏

#Molly Russell #suicide #online safety for children #2/10/22

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sortanonymous · 3 months

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#kids online safety bill #kids online safety act #kosa #stop kosa #bad internet bills #censorship #didn't expect to post about this twice but i absolutely need at least someone to see these points #transphobes #edit: well this took off #somehow forgot a big point from my last more grimly jokey post on this #it's clear as day that the companies supporting are all for it to put the 1000th nail in the coffin for everyone's privacy #it's not about saving the children #and of course the senile freaks in congress aren't budging if it means further screwing over vulnerable minorities in and out of america #shameful. absolutely shameful.

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decibelcoatl · 10 months

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🚨🚨🚨 [JULY 27] DAWN OF THE FINAL DAY - 24 HOURS REMAIN 🚨🚨🚨

KOSA will grant the government unprecedented control over the Internet and censor it in the name of "protecting the children" unless every single one of us stops them. Not only would it increase online surveillance of all users through age verification and parental monitoring tools, but it would also allow attorney generals to wipe out content that they deem "harmful" to minors, including race, gender, and sexuality...either for any reason or no reason at all. Even worse, President Biden himself has urged Senate to pass this horrible bill, along with COPPA 2.0!

I've done everything I can up to this point...signed the petitions multiple times, signal boosted, even made a few calls despite not being from America...and I'm exhausted. Things are looking very gloomy, and the only thing I can do now is pray for a miracle. If they're that butthurt over data collection and banning sites, there's no doubt that they might also destroy mine and anyone else's Tumblr, Twitter, DeviantART, AO3, etc.

For any Americans who haven't done so, and do not want their livelihoods destroyed by KOSA, PLEASE sign the petitions and call your Senators while you still can! And if you're not American (like me, who's Canadian), PLEASE sign the petitions and spread the word while you still can!

#KOSA #Kids Online Safety Act #VERY IMPORTANT #IMPORTANT #US politics #Internet censorship #this was never about the children it was always about control

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themostsanebug · 3 months

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STOP SCROLLING!!

HEY!! AS A TRANS, QUEER MINOR WHO HAS HAD A PANIC ATTACK OVER KOSA PREVIOUSLY, PLEASE BE SURE TO SIGN THIS PETITION AND DO ANYTHING ELSE TO PREVENT THIS BILL!! THE INTERNET IS BASICALLY MY HOME AND SAFE SPACE AND I WOULD PREFER IF IT STAYED THAT WAY.

#kosa act #kosa is bad #fuck kosa #kosa bill #stop kosa #kosa #minor rights #childrens rights #lgbtq rights #queer rights #trans rights #bad internet bills #kids online safety bill #kids online safety act #not my usual posts but seriously #the threat of this bill horrifies me and several others PLEASE for my sake and the sake of many; help out

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sparksinthenight · 4 months

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My letter to Biden about KOSA

You can use the following letter as a template to send to your representatives. Or you can write your own letter.

Dear President Biden,

My name is ______ and I am a ______ in _____. I am writing to you to ask that you please oppose the Kids Online “Safety” Act. This act harms children, especially queer or abused children , and allows children to be indoctrinated into their parents’ worldviews.

Children, especially teenagers, deserve the freedom of the current internet. They deserve to listen to many different viewpoints, to hear the stories of many different people, to learn about many different experiences. They deserve to meet many different people and learn from them. They deserve to interact with many different forms of art expressing many different viewpoints. This allows them to form their own ideas and opinions about the world and become their own people. It broadens their horizons and makes them more open minded.

If parents are given control over what children learn about on the internet, then many parents will ensure that their children are not exposed to any views that contradict their own.

This will make it so that future generations can no longer learn more than and become better than older generations. The only thing making our society progress is younger generations learning more and becoming more accepting than older generations.

LGBT+ children under KOSA will often be stopped from accessing resources that help them learn that being LGBT+ is okay. Many children won’t be able to go against their parents’ homophobia and learn to love themselves. This will lead to many mental illnesses and suicides.

Also, abused children often go to the internet to access resources that teach them that what is happening to them is bad and they deserve better, and to access resources that help them escape. Their parents of course will not allow them to access these resources under KOSA.

Thank you for reading my letter and please take my concerns to heart.

Sincerely,

#stop kosa #kosa #kids online safety act #child rights #lgbt rights #lgbt+ characters #lgbtq rights #lgbtq+ rights #lgbtqia rights #lgbtqia+ rights #child abuse #the internet #internet #children’s rights #kids’ rights #youth rights #youth liberation

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communistkenobi · 5 months

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do not want to start a fight but isn’t this totally normal. in middle school you’re like what 11 years old? I didn’t know any of this shit at that age and that has not made my life difficult as an adult even remotely. in particular I was shit at touch typing and remember being miserable in class because I was horrible at it and now I’m perfectly comfortable touch typing because I’m no longer 11 years old. I’ve taught several semesters of upper year undergraduates (meaning all of them were over the age of 21-22) in a similar coding/technical class setting who didn’t know anything about windows file structures and it was fine, they didn't blow up their computers or bring about the downfall of civilisation, they eventually picked it up over the 12 weeks of the semester because that’s how learning works

#I think the much larger concern is children not being taught about online safety and how to keep their information private #computer literacy takes many years to build up in my experience like I genuinely don’t think this is a cause for alarm #like I think you guys are doing ‘back in my day’ shit lol #I’m also obviously an outlier in many respects because I’ve been in university for a long time #so my experience is particular #however. and I cannot stress this enough. they are 11 lol

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littleesistler · 2 months

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dear minors on tumblr

hello everyone and welcome to another rant about internet safety and boundaries.

Since I’ve gotten many messages from minors because I’m one of the few blogs in this community that allow them. It’s my responsibility as a 20 year old interacting with teens and kids to give tips for when they interact with adults.

age: Never ever lie about your age, it puts both parties in danger. It’s important they know your age so they can adapt to your age group.

If an adult ever lies about their age don’t contact them again, and that’s period.

lying or misleading about age is not only dangerous but also illegal. So you can avoid many dangers if you’re honest.

Jokes:

as a minor you can joke about whatever you want but remember if an adult engages in sexual jokes with you even if your the one what started them. It’s a red flag, an adult has no business talking sex or sexuality with a minor.

Even if it’s a joke it still shows a lot about the person if they make resist, ableist, discriminating and disrespectful jokes or comments. If they always and can only use dark humor to be funny and nothing else. It’s a red flag as well.

questions:

Don’t ever give them your phone number, full name, address. Don’t ever send pictures of yourself, your house, school or things that can identify you. Even if it’s a picture of your tummy or you in your school uniform. It’s a red flag if someone ever asks you about anything this personal.

General:

don’t answer to personal questions

set boundaries about what you can talk about

tell your parents and friends who you interact with online

take a few breaks and reflect on how they make you feel

if they ever lie about something, personality, interests, hobbies to connect more with you it’s a red flag

and finally my dear kids before I let you go,

a no is a complete sentence

a block is an answer

speaking up is very brave

setting boundaries are mature

and finally you don’t need to grow up faster, enjoy your 18 years of childhood and teenage fun

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scarycranegame · 3 months

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you know kosa is a horrible fucking idea when even the kids it's claiming to protect are rallying against it

#not fandom #let's get serious #kosa #kosa bill #kids online safety act #stop kosa #i hope whoever came up with the IDEA of kosa dies and goes to hell #i fucking hate the us government so much. how did we get to this point #''uuu think of the children'' BITCH THE KIDS ARE AGAINST IT TOO!!!!#i guarantee you that kosa has NOTHING to do with protecting kids online. all it has to do with is suppressing resources for minority groups #ESPECIALLY queer resources (specifically resources for queer youth)#if nothing else. please sign as many petitions as you can to stop this shit from happening #for the sake of literally everyone who uses the internet #scary crane rambles

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a-really-cool-blog-name · 3 months

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KOSA won't help kids, it's just a violation of the first amendment.

(sorry if I got any of the facts wrong in this meme I'd love to know the correct information)

#Kosa #Stop kosa #bad internet bills #Kosa sucks #I'm all for protecting children on the internet just... Not whatever this giant heap of burning garbage is #a rare original post #Meme #News #kids online safety act #Gosh that name is so misleading #stop kids online safety act #internet censorship #Informative meme #I'm not really sure how I should tag this #I can't sign anything because I am a minor but I'm just trying to spread awareness for those who can

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everyponie · 2 months

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parents seriously need to be aware of these niche online communities that their children are apart of. So many of these communities take advantage of, often queer, children. Innocent children who are looking for a place to be accepted, and that innocence is taken advantage of by predators. I wish there was a way I could make the general public aware of these communities, and what buzzwords they use. Maybe I'll make a guide. Who knows.

#another rant about child safety #im so tired #please teach online safety to your children #online safety

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bk-179 · 3 months

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What is KOSA? (And how could it kill kids?) [an educational comic by Bkay-179]

text will be posted below. Image ID is EXTREMELY appreciated- it will help more people learn about KOSA.

Hello! This is Bkay speaking. Today, I would like to explain the KOSA bill, a re-proposed, updated American bill from 2022 that will be voted on in the senate on February 26, 2024.

In this comic, I will explain the ramifications of this bill on the internet, both in the United States and internationally, if it were to eventually become law.

This bill is dangerous. Essentially, it is a bill proposing that websites and social media platforms censor content “unsafe for kids”, including sex education, LGBTQIA+ resources, information pertaining to gender affirming care, domestic violence and abuse aid, and much more.

In addition, it will pressure websites and social media platforms to collect extremely private information to both confirm the age of its users and to enforce parental consent guidelines for account creation.

Let’s start simple: What is KOSA?

KOSA is an American bill that aims to protect minors on the internet against content deemed harmful. It advocates for the identification of minors on a platform, especially social medias like TikTok and Tumblr, and the subsequent removal of “design features” deemed to “…encourage or increase the frequency, time spent, or activity of minors on the covered platform, or activity of minors on the covered platform” (Don’t Fall for the Latest Changes, 1)

So, it sounds like a bill that protects minors online, something we’ve needed for a while now. Sounds great, right?

Wrong.

KOSA is a censorship bill. The true purpose of the bill is to censor websites, platforms, and even games that the State Attorney Generals of each state do not like, especially ones that are used to spread information about gender, sexuality, sex education, and much, much more.

The bill will pressure companies and websites alike to verify the ages AND identites of their users, effectively killing anonymity and privacy for everyone, NOT just those in America.

The bill is intentionally vague, and uses this vagueness to place liability on platforms in the the event that minors are exposed to anything the State Attorney General of any given state is opposed too (which, as stated before, is marginalized communities, health information, sex education, and more).

This pressure and liability will push companies and websites to collect sensitive information; information that will be used to identify not only age, but identity.

It will be impossible to connect, discuss government and police misconduct, and organize rallies and protests, among other items protected by the first amendment, safely. The internet will no longer be anonymous. Everyone in any country that wishes to use these services is in danger if they use these platforms; especially minors.

Most importantly, the children won’t be safe. Far from protecting minors, the effects listed previously will contribute to the death of queer, trans, neurodivergent, POC, and abused children everywhere, especially in America where the censorship will be most prominent.

Protecting minors on the internet is important. But KOSA is not only ineffective in doing so, but is not actually meant to protect kids. It is meant to keep children under strict control for political purposes, and either directly or indirectly, this bill will kill them.

However, there is still hope.

There are ways to voice your disapproval of this bill in a way that matters. If you are an American citizen living in the USA, no matter your age, you can contact your state representatives about this bill and make it clear that you do not support it. If you aren’t, there are still ways to support the cancellation of this bill. Spreading the word and educating people about the bill is especially helpful.

Below, sources will be linked to show you ways to ACT, for both Americans and non-Americans.

We will not go down without a fight.

(Sources linked within the description of the original post in Comic Studio are as follows:

- Stop KOSA is a movement that will help people in America take action against the bill.

- from a reputable organization, detailing the dangers of KOSA.

- a petition anyone can sign. )

(Additional helpful links to international petitions that I posted in the comments are as follows:

I recommend searching for more ways to stop KOSA; everyone can help via petitions, but the most important way to kill support for this bill is educative anyone and everyone about its harmful effects.)

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mercifullymad · 1 year

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It’s frustrating and disappointing to see nominally social justice-focused eating disorder organizations (like Project Heal and the Alliance for Eating Disorders) support the passing of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). KOSA is opposed by more than 90 civil rights and digital rights groups, including GLAAD, GLSEN, the ACLU, the Center for Democracy and Technology, the American Library Association, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. KOSA also contradicts the U.N.’s Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states that children should not be subjected to “unlawful interference with [their] privacy.” One of KOSA's main premises — the belief that increased parental surveillance of children’s Internet use will protect children’s mental health — is inherently flawed, and it is of paramount importance for abused and marginalized children that mental health organizations don’t buy into this belief.

This open letter signed by several organizations details the many dangerous implications of KOSA’s overreach. While KOSA aims to protect minors under 16 from the negative effects of social media use (such as “addictive” design features and content that “promotes” eating disorders, self-harm, or substance use), its vague language enables increased surveillance of children’s Internet use, increased data collection on both children and adults alike, and the power for parents and state government officials to decide what content is “appropriate” for children. With some states increasingly legalizing the idea that any kind of content that acknowledges the existence of queer people or the U.S.’s legacy of racism is inherently “inappropriate” for children (by banning books and preventing school curriculums from mentioning these realities), KOSA has the potential to prevent children from accessing these topics online, too.

KOSA is particularly dangerous to marginalized and abused children because of the level of inescapable parental surveillance it enables. Passing KOSA might prevent a 15-year-old from looking up how to report his abusive parents or where to seek help. It might prevent a 14-year-old whose parents will disown her if she’s pregnant from looking up sex education or abortion care. It might prevent a 13-year-old living in a homophobic household from connecting with accepting peers. It might prevent 12-year-olds who are already self-harming or eating unintuitively from looking up harm reduction techniques that could keep them alive. KOSA would not keep children safe or improve their mental health — it would make the most at-risk children even more unsafe, and it would worsen the mental health of anyone living in an unsafe household or state.

I presume that eating disorder organizations are campaigning for KOSA because they believe the unrealistic, fatphobic, and eurocentric beauty standards proliferating on social media are causing and/or exacerbating eating disorders, and they are desperate for any recourse to curtail these harms. But KOSA is premised on flawed understandings of media effects, and it is a dangerous piece of legislation that wouldn’t adequately address the very real harms of social media. Multiple studies have shown that similar content bans and increased parental control have not been effective, and have even made harmful content easier to find. Whatever good intentions eating disorder organizations might have by endorsing KOSA, it is important to note that all evidence points to KOSA harming children, not helping them.

KOSA aims to make social media companies accountable for preventing children from seeing content that “promotes” eating disorders, self-harm, suicide, and substance use. The problem is, social media algorithms are incapable of distinguishing between content that promotes these behaviors and content that discusses these behaviors in a neutral manner or provides harm reduction techniques for making these behaviors less dangerous. As the EFF notes, “there is no way a platform can make case-by-case decisions about which content exacerbates, for example, an eating disorder, compared to content which provides necessary health information and advice about the topic.” We’ve already seen Instagram repeatedly fail at distinguishing between fresh self-harm and years-old scars, censoring and removing pictures of people simply living in bodies that are scarred. If KOSA passes, any mention of the aforementioned behaviors is liable to be censored and removed from social media platforms, which may have the paradoxical effect of pushing children who want community support, neutral information, or harm reduction techniques into more harmful corners of the Internet, such as specifically pro-ED sites.

Moreover, KOSA and the eating disorder organizations supporting it buy into the same harmful narratives of social contagion that anti-queer and anti-trans groups promote so fiercely. The narrative that children uncritically adopt any behavior or identity they see online is egregious and clearly false (especially when it comes to teens, as opposed to 8-year-olds), but of course it is easier to blame social media alone rather than thoroughly examine the systems of injustice, oppression, and abuse that contribute to children’s poor mental health. While online content that promotes self-destructive behaviors is a real harm to children that should be addressed, the way to address this harm is not by mandating governmental and parental surveillance of children’s internet use. It is to equip children with better media literacy, trustworthy adult figures they can turn to for help, and tools for critically evaluating digital content.

Platforms certainly do need greater regulation, and children do need greater protection from social media companies, which don’t care about their mental health as long as they can profit off them. But children need real protection, not KOSA, which is just increased surveillance for everyone under the thin veneer of child protection. I encourage you to read some of the many, many articles detailing the harmful effects KOSA would have. We must demand better for children than surveillance under the guise of “care,” and we must prioritize the children who are already hurting when considering who this legislation would harm the most.

#kids online safety act #childrens rights #mine #long post

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sortanonymous · 25 days

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Welp, here I go again...

UPDATE: KOSA was not added to the bill, losing by a resounding 85-12. We've won the battle, but the war is not over! Don't! Let! Up!

#kosa bill #stop kosa #kosa #anti kosa #fuck kosa #kids online safety act #kids online safety bill #bad internet bills #censorship #it's not about saving the children #internet freedom #again it's about censorship (just like tiktok) and further killing privacy not “protecting the children”#free gaza #free palestine #palestine

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moodr1ng · 2 months

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were all for prison abolition and transformative justice until i say "the man who abused me as a young teen is not in a place where he has access to children or women so i dont want to pursue any judicial action against him, and also i understand that while the abuse he put me through was extreme and awful, he was young, traumatized, endured abused himself, and abusing multiple substances and i dont believe he is the same person he was at the time", at which point everyone looks at me with pity and concern and tells me i dont have to make excuses for him and im allowed to hate him and etc etc. like yeah i do hate him. im capable of thinking past hatred, being reasonable about the situation, and maintaining my political ideals even when it comes to things personal to me, so that when i say "everyone deserves a chance at rehabilitation" i dont conveniently make an exception for the guy who hurt me personally.. anyway.

#97 #csa tw #when i say 'he has no access to children or women'#i mean hes part of a closed-off religious community which has no access to the outside world or the internet where he groomed me originally #like hes essentially a monk. he has NO access to people he would be interested in victimizing whatsoever.#all this to say i would never fault an abuse survivor for going to the admittedly fucked up justice system for retribution or safety #but also i think there comes a point where if one professes a belief that the justice system is fundamentally broken and abusive #then yknow that belief does eventually inform whether you think that broken system should serve as your personal tool for revenge #when it comes to my situation (where the person in question is already no longer a danger to others) revenge is the only thing i would get #and i dont want revenge bc i dont believe in a justice system based on it!#my involvement is limited to periodically (every year or so) checking on the net and making sure hes not back online #it is a triggering endeavor every time to go thru his old profiles and to check on his sister and see the handful of pictures of him etc #but yknow. absent any actually ethical system of justice to address the crimes..#just monitoring that hes still locked up in some monastery is the best i can get.

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thespookiestprincessofthemall · 2 months

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pls tell me if KOSA is passed so that I know whether or not I should leave the internet. also does the Senate even know that almost everyone is against kosa??? or do they not care

I wish I could tell you wether Kosa passed or not, preferably the latter, but unfortunately your guess is good as mine, I'm sorry.

#stop kosa #children deserve better #kosa bill #kosa #kids online safety act #ask #cyclonestudios-alt #Kayleen Posts

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sparksinthenight · 4 months

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#stop kosa #kosa #kids online safety act #children’s rights #child rights #youth rights #kids’ rights #internet #the internet #lgbt rights #lgbt+ rights #lgbtq rights #lgbtq+ rights #lgbtqia rights #lgbtqia+ rights

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