I hate how children get to have absolutely no privacy or autonomy (bodily or otherwise) in the name of "parental rights" and protecting them. Discord recently introduced a feature that would allow parents to have a dashboard that lets them see who their kids are talking to and when and like — that would have actually made my life horribly worse when I was a teenager and my only friends were kids from a writing server online and I had to keep it secret from my mom because she didn't think online friends were real and that it was unhealthy to have them. It would have actually probably led to the death or homelessness of one of my friends, who found me, and supportive people, and that she was trans, through that writer's discord. Fuck parental controls.

Like, to elaborate — children are still humans, and they still deserve, uh, human rights??

Also, like, the answer to keeping your kid safe on the internet is not insane invasive surveillance that will make them paranoid and secretive and resentful, it's being open and nonjudgmental and accepting with them so they'll want to tell you everything major that happens in their lives themselves, and sitting down and having serious, detailed conversations about how to e.g. spot sexual abuse and grooming. This empowers them.

But see, parental controls aren't actually used to keep kids safe. They're used to censor and control kids worlds, so that parents can use them like little dolls, trying to mold and shape them through the flow of information to create the person they want instead of letting the kid decide who they are based on full information themselves. Parental controls like these are used not to protect kids, but by parents who don't want them finding out gay people exist, or atheists.

@anarchopunk_girl There is a level of #surveillance appropriate for a 7-year-old. A very different level is appropriate for a tween or teen preparing for adult life.

Jeremy Bentham may have had the single most evil idea of any social engineer in history.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panoptic

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@dragonsidedd @anarchopunk_girl I don't find this particular design inherently evil. Hub-and-spokes design is helpful in a hospital triage rooms, leveraging staff and allowing safety for more patients.

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