Tag: Children’s rights

Microsoft, X throw their weight behind KOSA, the controversial kids’ online safety bill

Ms. Cat
Think of the children!

Microsoft, X throw their weight behind KOSA, the controversial kids’ online safety bill

In spite of some revisions, the bill’s many critics have warned that KOSA would dangerously sanitize the internet, empower censorship and isolate young LGBTQ people in the process. Security, privacy and free press advocates have also called attention to the bill’s potential threat to encryption. The bill was revised last year in response to some criticisms, but many concerns persist.

Related:

Snap Breaks Under Pressure, Supports Dangerous KOSA Bill That Will Put Kids In Danger

Microsoft Joins In On The ‘Screw Over LGBTQ Kids’ Party By Supporting KOSA

However the claim that KOSA is “reasonable,” “impactful,” “tailored,” or “thoughtful” is just grade-A bullshit. The law is a total mess, and will do real harm to kids beyond just being obviously unconstitutional. As we’ve pointed out multiple times, GOP support for the bill is because they know it will be used to censor LGBTQ content. The GOP’s leading “think tank,” the Heritage Foundation has publicly supported the bill because they believe censoring LGBTQ content “is protecting kids.” Meanwhile, bill co-sponsor, Marsha Blackburn (whom Smith thanks above for her “leadership,”) has similarly admitted that Congress should pass KOSA to “protect minor children from the transgender in our culture.”

Nikki Haley Reinvigorates The GOP’s Breathless TikTok Hysteria… For The Children

Ms. Cat

We’ve noted many times how the GOP’s obsession with TikTok is stupid, performative, and utterly hollow. For example, the party desperately wants to ban TikTok for “privacy reasons,” yet consistently opposes passing privacy laws, or regulating data brokers that traffic in far more data — at a far greater international scale — than TikTok executives could ever dream of.

Nikki Haley Reinvigorates The GOP’s Breathless TikTok Hysteria… For The Children

Related:

Osama Bin Laden’s ‘Letter to America’ goes viral

You Can’t Wish Away The 1st Amendment To Mandate Age Verification

Ms. Cat

So, we’ve been talking a lot about age verification of late, as governments around the world have all (with the exception of Australia?!?) seemed to settle on that as a solution to “the problem” of the internet (exactly what that problem is they cannot quite identify, but they’re pretty sure there is one). Of course, as we’ve explained time and time again, age verification creates all sorts of problems, including undermining both privacy and speech rights.

You Can’t Wish Away The 1st Amendment To Mandate Age Verification

Related:

Ban Online Porn for Kids

The Moral Panic Over Internet Porn Can’t Overrule the First Amendment

The Protecting Kids On Social Media Act Is A Terrible Alternative To KOSA

Ms. Cat

We have covered the Protecting Kids On Social Media Act a few times, when it was first introduced back in April, where we highlighted how it was both unconstitutional and the rationale behind it was not supported by any actual evidence, and then again just recently when Senator Chris Murphy (one of the bill’s co-sponsors) wrote a ridiculously confused op-ed for the NY Times, claiming it was necessary because kids these days get too many music recommendations and no longer could discover new music on their own.

The Protecting Kids On Social Media Act Is A Terrible Alternative To KOSA

Related:

Stop the Protecting Kids on Social Media Act

Organ trafficking, paedophile networks – The hell of children abducted by Ukraine

Ms. Cat
Bilyi Yanhol (White Angel) unit of the Bakhmut Police Department.
Source: The Independent.

When I began investigating the kidnapping of children in Artyomovsk [Bakhmut] by Ukraine, I had no idea of the extent to which I would uncover trafficking on an international scale and the sordid methods used to supply children to paedophile networks and organ traffickers.

Organ trafficking, paedophile networks – The hell of children abducted by Ukraine

Related:

Bakhmut symphony, January 2023. How the city continues to survive the war

A special unit – called Bilyi Yanhol (White Angel) – has been created in the Bakhmut Police Department. Officers from the White Angel unit search for people who want to evacuate and try to convince those who do not; they are also in charge of organising evacuation transport to help people get to safe settlements several dozen kilometres away from Bakhmut or to other parts of Ukraine.

Perlinka

It is for this reason why the Charitable Fund Samaritan Ministry was founded. We came as God’s ministers in order to intervene and make a lasting impact on the lives of the lost children in Ukraine. The Fund established the Perlinka orphanage in 1999. Over 30 children were found and sheltered. Aside of that, the Fund initiated the ‘soup kitchen’ which serves meals for street children, in addition to the daily needs they give them. Likewise, precautionary campaigns are being conducted by the Fund team in schools, state orphanages and other educational institutions so as to teach moral and Christian principles and to show decent lifestyle for the welfare of the society. Moreover, the Fund conducts summer Kids and Youth camps annually.

Wisconsin Pushing Bill That Requires Websites To Treat All Users As If They’re Children

Ms. Cat

I’ve talked before about the utter stupidity (and danger) of trying to turn the internet into Disneyland: a safe space for little kids, where they’ll never encounter any content that makes them upset, but plenty of states (and many people in Congress) are trying to do it anyway.

Wisconsin Pushing Bill That Requires Websites To Treat All Users As If They’re Children

Ukraine’s baby factories rake in record profits amid chaos of war

Ms. Cat

While average Ukrainians suffer amid NATO’s proxy war against Russia, business is booming for the surrogate baby industry, which requires a steady supply of healthy and financially desperate women willing to lease their wombs to affluent foreigners.

Ukraine’s baby factories rake in record profits amid chaos of war

Related:

Archived: How Ukraine’s Surrogate Mothers Have Survived the War

Archived: In War, Who Is a Surrogate Responsible to First?

The Scandal-Plagued Company behind Stranded Surrogacy Babies is Also Promoting a Controversial IVF Technique

Human trafficking and forgery of documents: the police accused the largest surrogate motherhood clinic in Ukraine

Wisconsin Senator Baldwin is No Friend of LGBT or Free Speech!

Ms. Cat

Wrote to Tammy Baldwin about how Republicans want to censor LGBT content with the KOSA bill that she is sponsoring! I included the following Techdirt article in my email! Not one word, about it, in her reply to me (which is just a form letter)! In fact, I didn’t bring up anything that she mentioned! As she is a LGBT person, I thought that she’d be concerned but I guess not?!

Related (previously blogged about):

Heritage Foundation Says That Of Course GOP Will Use KOSA To Censor LGBTQ Content

Meanwhile, Republicans are now freely admitting that they’re going to use KOSA to force websites to censor LGBTQ content. They’re literally proud of it. The Heritage Foundation, which at least used to have some principled stances before being taken over by culture warriors without any principles, is bragging about how it will use KOSA in this manner: