Stop lying

Another day, another attempt by Congress to pass an age verification mandate, another useful idiot in the HackerNews comments section saying “okay but we have to protect the children”. Stop lying. This isn’t about protecting the children, and if you actually believed it was, you are the most gullible person alive. I don’t even need to start conspiracy theorizing about how Meta was the one who lobbied for this bill. I can prove it more easily than that. What are the harms people claim they’re trying to protect children from by getting them off the internet? Cyberbullying Eating disorders Gambling Explicit content Social media addiction Being groomed Which of these are caused by social media? Sure, some of them are enabled by social media, but that’s not the same thing. If the government actually cared about preventing bullying, they would make and enforce anti-bullying laws. If someone bullies someone until they commit or attempt to commit suicide, they should be tried for murder/…