Of course, we should prioritise the safety and security of our children - but not via legislation which uses the vulnerable young as a Trojan horse to further this government's systematic defenestration of adult rights and freedoms,
This egregious Bill should be scrapped and replaced by one specifically designed to protect children, while enabling their mums and dads to be treated as adults - much as this may go against the grain of the arrogant paternalists now running our benighted country.
Lest anyone accuse me of political bias, I should point out that from the antics of His Majesty's Opposition, it is fairly obvious that free speech would be under even greater threat with a twerp who can't even identity what a woman is ensconced in No. 10.
Whilst I can see the point being made here, and empathise with the situation, ultimately, children’s habits are formed by modelling those of adults around them.
If we don’t want our kids to access social media, then we have to model this behaviour ourself and present examples of better uses of time.
Last I checked, crack cocaine is illegal for all ages. Thus, that is not really a good analogy. Alcohol or tobacco would be better analogies for the headline.
I find the Molly Russell case tragic as it was is being used as an excuse to bring in more draconian legislation to limit freedom. Looking for someone to blame is a natural response to a tragic death particularly suicide but th figures for suicide in the UK are thankfully falling in the same period of the use of social media rising.
Blaming Tech undermines parental rights & responsibilities to control their children’s online activities and to allow freedom and experimentation for young people. Being young is a wonderful thing we should avoid trying to make our children fearful & weak but encouraging strength and resilience.
“though when peers are all on social media this places parents in an invidious position“. So it’s not easy being a parent but being one is the parents choice. As a parent you should protect your children not expect the state to take over responsibility.
To be brutally honest, the whole smartphone and social media thing is indeed a distraction from the group's mission. Having said that:
What are your thoughts about this recent hypothetical idea of mine? Declare a state of emergency, on the grounds that Big Tech and their antisocial media is an existential threat to civilization itself. Impose a "quarantine" on them for "just two weeks" (right!) wherein all antisocial media are frozen and archived during that time, so they cannot be used, and everyone is logged out simultaneously and cannot log back in during that time. During that time, We the People can then re-evaluate our often unexamined and unquestioned relationship to Big Tech, and in conjunction with our elected representatives in government, decide what the next steps (if any) will be.
I guarantee you, that would have saved FAR more lives than the Covid lockdowns, as the latter saved statistically zilch in the long run in terms of all-cause deaths.
And a (voluntary) smartphone buyback for all ages would save FAR more lives than a gun buyback as well. Something to think about.
Of course, we should prioritise the safety and security of our children - but not via legislation which uses the vulnerable young as a Trojan horse to further this government's systematic defenestration of adult rights and freedoms,
This egregious Bill should be scrapped and replaced by one specifically designed to protect children, while enabling their mums and dads to be treated as adults - much as this may go against the grain of the arrogant paternalists now running our benighted country.
Lest anyone accuse me of political bias, I should point out that from the antics of His Majesty's Opposition, it is fairly obvious that free speech would be under even greater threat with a twerp who can't even identity what a woman is ensconced in No. 10.
Whilst I can see the point being made here, and empathise with the situation, ultimately, children’s habits are formed by modelling those of adults around them.
If we don’t want our kids to access social media, then we have to model this behaviour ourself and present examples of better uses of time.
Last I checked, crack cocaine is illegal for all ages. Thus, that is not really a good analogy. Alcohol or tobacco would be better analogies for the headline.
I find the Molly Russell case tragic as it was is being used as an excuse to bring in more draconian legislation to limit freedom. Looking for someone to blame is a natural response to a tragic death particularly suicide but th figures for suicide in the UK are thankfully falling in the same period of the use of social media rising.
Blaming Tech undermines parental rights & responsibilities to control their children’s online activities and to allow freedom and experimentation for young people. Being young is a wonderful thing we should avoid trying to make our children fearful & weak but encouraging strength and resilience.
We need less government interference not more.
“though when peers are all on social media this places parents in an invidious position“. So it’s not easy being a parent but being one is the parents choice. As a parent you should protect your children not expect the state to take over responsibility.
Thankyou for this thoughtful, balanced piece.
To be brutally honest, the whole smartphone and social media thing is indeed a distraction from the group's mission. Having said that:
What are your thoughts about this recent hypothetical idea of mine? Declare a state of emergency, on the grounds that Big Tech and their antisocial media is an existential threat to civilization itself. Impose a "quarantine" on them for "just two weeks" (right!) wherein all antisocial media are frozen and archived during that time, so they cannot be used, and everyone is logged out simultaneously and cannot log back in during that time. During that time, We the People can then re-evaluate our often unexamined and unquestioned relationship to Big Tech, and in conjunction with our elected representatives in government, decide what the next steps (if any) will be.
I guarantee you, that would have saved FAR more lives than the Covid lockdowns, as the latter saved statistically zilch in the long run in terms of all-cause deaths.
And a (voluntary) smartphone buyback for all ages would save FAR more lives than a gun buyback as well. Something to think about.