It is time to nuke Whitehall from orbit and start again

It is the position of His Majesty’s Government that sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds are old enough to vote, old enough to join the military, old enough to drink, old enough to have sex, and old enough to pay income tax, but not old enough to go on the computer after the watershed. They want to protect the children by boxing at shadows, but all they’re doing is trapping the sons and daughters of abusive parents tighter between the walls of their cruel homes. They are condemning the transgender child of a fundamentalist drunk to suicide instead of allowing them any outlet to discover themself, all on the back of flimsy evidence and moral panic. And yes, the internet is shit sometimes. There are bullies and hate-mobs and vicious cycles and predators. But the approach that this country has taken has overwhelmingly been one that targets users, not companies, and only places them at further risk. Children, teenagers, and adults are made to submit sensitive biometric data to sketchy…