from the think-of-the-children dept
Twenty years ago, John Jonik released one of the best political cartoons ever regarding attempts to censor and control the internet. In it, a character dressed up as Uncle Sam is placing a gift box labeled “Control of Internet Speech” on a counter. Behind it, a man dressed in a suit, labeled “Corporate Media” is asking Uncle Sam “How would you like this wrapped?”
Behind him are two rolls of wrapping paper. One is labeled “Anti-terrorism” and the other is “Protect kids.”
It’s difficult to think of a cartoon that has been more accurate for so many years, though, I would imagine if drawn today it might add a third one for “human trafficking.”
Either way, it looks like the government is wrapping its plans to control and censor internet speech with the “protect kids” wrapping again. On Tuesday, December 2nd, the House Energy and Commerce’s subcommittee on “protecting children and teens online” will be holding a hearing on a long list of proposed laws, all of which use the “but think of the children” moral panic to suggest problematic ideas.
It’s not worth going through all of them, many of which have no chance of going anywhere. The headliner is, not surprisingly, a new version of KOSA. While this version is improved from the House version by removing the “duty of care” provision (which is a blatant censorship tool), it still has supporters of the original KOSA screaming about how the bill has been neutered.
But the bill is still terrible and dangerous. It, like many of these bills, is trying to offload responsibility for raising, educating, and protecting children from those actually responsible: parents and teachers. These are all really just cynical attempts by lawmakers to shake down tech companies for campaign contributions to fill their campaign coffers. None of this is actually about protecting the children, because the actual solutions discussed by actual experts never seem to show up in these hearings.
Either way, gird yourself, because these hearings always go the same way: elected officials will parade out a long list of horrible things which they will blame on the internet.
They will make zero effort to note that similar or exactly equivalent things happened pre-internet. They will make zero effort to consider whether parents or teachers might have some culpability in not helping kids deal with various challenges. And certainly they will actively avoid mentioning that things like improved education and access to mental health care (things that this group of politicians have been actively working against for the most part) might help prevent these tragedies.
Instead, they will trot out a parade of horribles, insist it’s all the internet’s fault, and promise that they will get tough with legislation, even if that legislation will actually make things worse and/or violate the Constitution.
We have our moral panic, and Congress will continue to feed it at any cost.
Filed Under: censorship, house energy & commerce committee, internet, kosa, protect the children, think of the children
