this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2023
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Parents of trans kids urge Senate to oppose online safety bill that could harm LGBTQ+ youth.::More than 100 parents signed an open letter asking lawmakers to support alternatives to the Kids Online Safety Act.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I hate how the gov cannot see that a privacy bill would solve everything here. In general, the biggest problem on social media is that algorithms control everything, by collecting too much data on everyone. A privacy bill would generally limit the amount of data companies have and generally would mean the idea of the engineered rabbit hole. The algorithm detects your teenager is looking up dieting content, and that they comment on people with skinny bodies, it will keep showing this type of content cause it knows it will keep your kid on the app longer. A privacy bill would mean companies could not use this data and sell it to other platforms. This on the other hand does not stop this at all, all it does is create liability and creates a direct way for AG to take action when something is deemed "harmful to children" while in more liberals areas this might be actually concerning stuff, in southern areas it will be queer content, videos of trans people talking about their lives, women telling other women ways to empower themselves, and content educating people on systemic racism. Furthermore this will just make the internet more of a pain in the ass for adults, wanna buy something deemed unsafe for minors (ID CHECK), wanna watch something youtube age flagged for no reason (ID CHECK) also no one talks about this but this will destroy FOSS software cause overtime companies will invent on device age verification, and to verify your device they will use something like safetynet and Google's WEI to ensure your on a "verified" operating system. (NO PORN ON LINUX YALL SORRY)

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

You're right ... but tech has a lot of lobbying power and they are very very very strongly against a strong privacy bill, or even a bill that would regulate algorithms. So it's easier for legislators to pass something like KOSA -- or pass a weak privacy bill that will actually make the situation worse by getting rid of laws like California's -- and claim they're doing something.