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This law is designed to make children easier to rape. I am so done tryna discuss this with people who push this shit like they're acting in good faith. They ignore every time someone points out the obvious, because they want to rape a kid

See also the people who are afraid to get medical help for their friend who's having an OD because then they'll get in trouble for their own drug activity as well We are making progress on that front specifically, but have a long way to go on others

The adults were always there, of course, even if the majority of them were drinking, too.

this is a huge reason kids don’t report abuse. it happens by people they love and they’re kids with beautiful kid hearts so they don’t want the person they love to be punished. it is why death penalty for CA makes kid death rise. seems like they’re actively trying to hurt our kids

It probably also helped that they had grandparents whose friends included sex work activists, so they knew a lot about autonomy, safety & solidarity before it ever came up.

But the cops will definitely call your 12 yo son a “willing victim”

I've tried to make sure mine understand that we should all be interested in solving problems and cleaning up before we even think of assigning blame to anyone. Also that growing up is about making small mistakes when you're small so you don't make big mistakes when you're big.

Yep! I've trained my dad to show me ANYTHING that wants his password, wants money, or is threatening him with financial or legal consequences or claiming a security problem, and he's always so apologetic when something he brings me ends up being legitimate--

I got around it by forbidding my kids to have twitter, facebook, or instagram accounts at all because all of those were potentially toxic. They trusted my judgement enough to stick to other sites. They chatted in-game sometimes.

There's no way, because losing access to one of the only spaces where they're able to hang out with their friends is going to feel like a punishment whether you intend it to or not. The exact approach to take depends on the situation (different if it's someone they know IRL harassing them)--

This is a great opportunity for the parents to work through *why* blocking/cutting off/snubbing people who are bad for you is an important life skill, actually.

I will happily answer questions if you have them! The rapport is the most important part: your kid needs to believe you're on their side and won't punish them for mistakes. @masnick.com had a great framing for it: bsky.app/profile/masn...

This. Honestly I don't want to trauma dump (typed several replies, realised they're therapy stories, not internet ones) but very very much this. I knew, not just on the internet, that mum wasn't safe to go to so ended up with severe mental health harm going unnoticed due to always having to hide.

Yup! My parents tried, but I knew they were not safe adults to talk to because my mother didn't respect my autonomy and vacillated wildly between leaving me to raise myself and freaking out about how I was raising myself, and my father deferred to her on everything. So I had to DIY all of it.

My parents always claimed that, and I think they believed that, but based on the rest of their behavior I wouldn’t have trusted them to actually follow through. I think they wanted to, though.

my dad terrified the fuck out of me and my brother....so I left. He is better now, but he modeled a pretty bad dad for me.

So grateful that when someone tried to blackmail my kid his first term at uni (18+ but still…), he immediately called the uni computer and security teams, who contacted the police & sorted things out. He then messaged us. I’ve never asked him what the blackmail was about; none of my business.

We just recently discovered that our kids hid persistent bullying from us. They had the impression (probably accurate) from school staff, that they would not be listened to and didn't want to "make a fuss" 🤷 If the whole system is not geared to a "see it, say it" approach, it probably will not work

Isn't the point of the ban that there just is no way for kids (or, frankly, adults) to use most social media platforms safely? By design.

I was trying to come up with a way to make this analogy, but since you nailed it I'll just repost.

That is the real goal of the law-change, isn't it? Silencing the victims pre-emptively...

When legislators set out to police addiction they *invariably* hand more power to the suppliers. Look at the state of Gambling right now. ‘Remember to take a wee break after you’ve given us your rent money’ - LOL. They have such a naive faith in their ability to control what is not controllable.

We have never moved beyond the Series of Tubes speech in terms of legislators understanding technology

We’ve already seen this play out with teens being afraid to report their own nudes being stolen/leaked/used as blackmail.

"No snitching on pedophiles." What a fucking bleak world this is.