The problems that exist online today will certainly not be solved by giving the Trump-led government the ability to censor and restrict people of ALL ages from the internet in any way they’d like, which is what current “protect the children” legislation and popular rhetoric around these issues is
I’m an adult and I would like to be protected from the photos and videos of nude men with erections popping up unexpectedly as I scroll along. Or even the photos all about the pants bulges. Sexualizing every single thing is over the top. Can’t imagine if I was a young kid seeing the full frontals.
They are coming after queer and trans kids and adults FOR SURE, but they are also coming after everyone and everything that isn’t white Christian pro-Trump patriarchy propaganda. They already are! And people are helping them with moral panics about kids, phones, and porn that encourage censorship
You and I mean you reading this are not going to like the internet that Trump and Project 2025 has in store for you. And they’re well on their way to forcing it on you through legislation about protecting kids from porn and big tech (that big tech supports, of course, because it helps them too)
That have already started this project in the UK
So from the former vulnerable queer tween girl online who many people are so worried about today, do not hand my future to Trump and the men like him on a silver platter
99% of my social life is online, my real life social life pretty much just consists of my dad, my cats, my brother who I don't like & my favourite brother who I only get to see maybe once a year plus his partner. Internet access is very very critical, it's the only way I can access people like me!☹️
I can relate to this completely because I *did* grow up before the Internet...and lived the very same nightmare you just described. What I wanted for myself & for relationships wasn't what I was supposed or allowed to want, simple as that. I had no names or terms for any of it.
Been reflecting on this a lot & yeah, if I hadn’t had access to the internet as a tween—even simple things like being able to privately email other neurodivergent friends so we could connect & communicate in accessible ways—my life would be much worse in so many ways.
I’m truly grateful that I had access to things like instant messaging & message boards & personal websites as a teen, bc those are the places I learned how to express myself in a world that was otherwise hostile to me, & to find poetry & art that reflected my inner world. It was & is a lifeline.
Even now I’m only out online in anonymized places, since social media is increasingly being used by my family community (extremely Catholic & conservative) to police each other.
All the while Democrats are cosponsoring these bills and happily handing a free internet over to Trump "for the children".
Can anyone name a problem solved by this Trump led government, that wasn’t caused by this Trump led government in the first place?