But... But I'm 2 Kewl 4 Skewl...

I don't often make serious original posts, but I am legitimately worried about the KOSA situation and everyone should be too. I think most people are not understanding what's going on with this. I don't see much people talking about it, and they SHOULD. You all should care. Here are some of my biggest worries.

KOSA wants to give parents access to their kids' text messages. From what I saw, it would have an extra cost and they'd need the kids' "consent". But come on, if the parents are controlling or even abusing they could definitely force the kid to "agree" against their will. Also, if they don't properly explain the situation to the kids, they might give blind consent. Think about all the very private texts you send to your close friends, and the texts your friends send to you. Think how humiliating or even dangerous it could be if your parents read them.

This is supposed to prevent bullying and stuff like that, but what if the kid is in the closet and has homophobic/transphobic parents. What if the parents are racist and don't want the kid talking to their poc friends. What if the parents are very religious and the kid is an atheist/agnostic. What if the parents are pro Israel and the kid is pro Palestine. This would be an excessive and unacceptable invasion of privacy.

Kids and teens who are/are questioning if they are queer would not have access to any resources and queer-positive spaces. Lots of queer people can only be openly queer online. Even if they come from accepting families, they may just not be ready to be out yet. Every queer person should have the right to explore their identity in their own terms.

This includes intersex kids with bigoted parents who wouldn't have access to help, sources, information, intersex-positive spaces, support groups, etc.

KOSA would also restrict access to sources about mental health.

This would take away the right and opportunity for kids and teens to protest, manifest and boycott.

Teenagers wouldn't have access to information about anything sex related. I'm not only talking about porn and smutty fanfiction (tho I do believe teens deserve access to this as well.) I mean teens from extremely conservative families wouldn't have access to information about safe sex, consent, planned parenthood, what to do in case of STDs, etc.

Many 15 and 16 year olds have sex, or want to have sex, and they should have access to these sources. Restricting the access to sexual education will not stop teens from having sex, but it will probably lead them to do it unsafely and take uneducated decisions about it.

Pregnant teenagers wouldn't have access to information about safe abortion. KOSA would probably take the decision away from them.

If a kid is going through a complicated or even dangerous situation at home they wouldn't be able to rant about it/seek help online.

Kids and teens couldn't have any online friends.

Kids and teens' social media presence and activity would be totally monitored and controlled.

Same as their google history.

KOSA would either take down or restrict access to websites like tumblr, ao3, wattpad, discord, etc.

This affects all of us btw. Ao3 is based in the us, if they take the whole site down we are all screwed. Hopefully they would either become age-restricted or relocate in a different country.

But even if they do that, lots of ao3 writers are usamerican minors. Lots of ao3 readers are usamerican minors.

Lots of fanartist are usamerican minors.

Some of my dear mutuals and online friends are usamerican minors.

This is bad. Please sign the petitions.

Fight for the Future

Stop KOSA

KOSA is a censorship bill that won’t make kids safe. Instead, it'll put all internet users at risk, especially youth. If you believe in a fr

Change.org

Sign the Petition

STOP THE KOSA

02.03.2024 💗👾💗

!!!

Me at every family event:

Stop KOSA

KOSA is a censorship bill that won’t make kids safe. Instead, it'll put all internet users at risk, especially youth. If you believe in a free and open internet, tell your lawmakers to reject #KOSA! https://stopkosa.com/

Fight for the Future

Stop KOSA

KOSA is a censorship bill that won’t make kids safe. Instead, it'll put all internet users at risk, especially youth. If you believe in a fr

This is really serious. I'm not sure many people will see this, but please sign this if you can. KOSA needs to be stopped :(

Do not punish the behaviour you want to see

I mean, it seems pretty obvious when you put it like that, right?

But how many families, when an introvert sibling or child makes an effort to socialize,  snarkily say, “So, you’ve decided to join us”?

Or when someone does something they’ve had trouble doing, say, “Why can’t you do that all the time?” (Happened to me, too often.)

Or any sentence containing the word “finally”. 

If someone makes a step, a small step, in a direction you want to encourage, encourage it. Don’t complain about how it’s not enough. Don’t bring up previous stuff. Encourage it.

Because I swear to fucking god there is nothing more soul-killing, more motivation-crushing, than struggling to succeed and finding out that success and failure are both punished.