aridara

[aridara]

[aridara]

Let me give my two cents on UK's Online Safety Act:

1. Security concern. I wouldn't trust the government to keep a secure and private database of IDs, because it opens up those databases to attacks the moment that they are found. The government and internet sites compliant have proven time and time again that their security is shit and that vulnerabilities arise every few days. This information can be breached, leaving IDs of vulnerable people (even minors) open for everyone else on the internet to see. Doesn't seem very safe for children now, does it?

2. Privacy concern. This will end up killing online anonymity, which is in itself a very big risk to privacy. Why should the government want know what porn sites some adult who wants to look at that stuff privately within their four walls? That feels like a huge overreach and a total breach of privacy for UK citizens.

3. Banning of VPNs. This has also been brought up - banning of VPNs to prevent bypassing of the law. Passing of this law has seen surge in usage of VPNs, and the government doesn't like that they can't control that. They want you to not be anonymous.

4. The government is not a parent. Almost every big website has some sort of parental controls and/or NSFW filters. Parents should use these filters and controls and they should frequently monitor their young children's online activities. The government should not be the one to parent your children. You should parent your own children. You should be able to choose what sort of activities and/or content your children are allowed to see if age appropriate.

5. Censorship. The government can just fully remove any content that they don't want to be shown to the public - see censorship in China, North Korea, South Korea, Australia ect. This opens up a Pandora's box. It is very likely that the government will misuse their overreach in this sector to end up censoring speech they deem not good in the eyes of the state.

What I'm saying is: no, this act will not protect children. This act will do more harm than good.

[aridara]

quick OSA rant.

[bear in mind that i will TRY to continue accessing tumblr. the end part is jic.]

So. The online safety act is coming into play in the UK now. Fuck everything.

-This bill will block people from online spaces that the GOVERNMENT deems as ‘POTENTIALLY HARMFUL MATERIAL’. Do you see the problem here?

-The government can and will restrict anything THEY think is 'harmful'. This historically has meant queer/ trans spaces/ resources, sex ed resources, anything political they don't like, ect.

- It opens up opportunities for third-party companies to steal people’s data. It takes away our anonymity online- puts faces to usernames. It has an extremely harmful effect on sex workers. It can and will block people from queer spaces, self-help spaces. Reddit, discord, message boards, chat rooms, etc.

This is not protection. It’s censorship. Teenagers are allowed to vote, but not use the internet. What the FUCK. Labour was always going to be bad, but. Holy shit.

-This affects me. This affects thousands of other teenagers. [This affects adults who have the right to use the internet how they want, too!!]

-If tumblr introduces those third-party age verification things then I will not be accessing it. Even if I was over 18, I’m not giving my face/ ID/ etc. to a third party. 

-If AO3 introduces them too, then I will have lost two of my healthiest coping mechanisms.

-VPNs!! Those would be sooooooooooo badddd if people were to use them to bypass things… yeppppppp. Mhmmmmmm. totallyyyyyyy.

-Most good VPNs have to be paid for. I am not able to do that.

-The government have been talking about banning VPNs since 2022. Let’s hope the act gets repealed before they can go through with it.

Again, this isn’t safety. This isn’t protection. This is fascism. 

Censorship. Is. Never. A. Good. Thing.

If you haven’t seen it already, here’s the link to repeal the act.

If I wake up and suddenly tumblr has been blocked, then. Yall are cool. Stay safe.

It’s been real.

o7

[aridara]

Apparently it's illegal to use an escooter even if its turned off and you're using it as a regular scooter 😐

Subsequently, I'm getting fined £200. And lost a £180 scooter(which wasn't mine) 😐👍

And I still need £205 for my rent 😐

Oh and I also still need to fix my bike, which is gunna cost around £60.

I'm literally so pissed about this.

Please help if you can????

[aridara]

well this fucking sucks

[aridara]

A serious (and seemingly obvious) problem with the implementation of the Online Safety Act is that it requires malicious actors to not exist.

Since the UK govenment in any form hates paying for things, especially things required for their goals, the current situation is that websites have to work out to do age verification themselves. There is no government-approved or provided service for this - it's a free-for-all of third-party verification providers.

Now, some people are pointing out that depending on how these companies handle the data given to them to perform verification, it's possible this data could be stolen or leaked. This is a worrying possibility. This danger is primarily one of passive incompetence, although if your driver's licence gets leaked, you won't be happy either way.

But passive incompetence probably isn't going to hurt anyone before active malice does.

Normalising showing your face or identity documents to random websites is an incredibly stupid thing to do. You know who benefits from this? Actual criminals! Phishing attacks continue to be successful because people will put their banking details into websites that are very much not their banks. And while random websites asking for your banking details is suspicious, the OSA makes it so that random websites asking for your driver's license or passport or other such things will now be expected.

Meaning an enterprising criminal can set up a website, stick a fake age verification pop-up on it, and harvest a whole bunch of things that come in useful for committing identity theft. Or blackmail perhaps.

The overall point here is that in this respect, the Online Safety Act is going to make the internet more dangerous, in a way that should be obvious if you actually think about the potential negative consequences.

[aridara]

[aridara]

[aridara]

A lot of people around me are having kids and every day it becomes more apparent that hitting your children to punish them is insane because literally everything can be a horrible punishment in their eyes if you frame it as such.

Like, one family makes their toddler sit on the stairs for three minutes when he hits his brother or whatever. The stairs are well lit and he can see his family the whole time, he’s just not allowed to get up and leave the stairs or the timer starts over. He fucking hates it just because it’s framed as a punishment.

Another family use a baseball cap. It’s just a plain blue cap with nothing on it. When their toddler needs discipline he gets a timeout on a chair and has to put the cap on. When they’re out and about he just has to wear the cap but it gets the same reaction. Nobody around them can tell he’s being punished because it’s in no way an embarrassing cap, but HE knows and just the threat of having to wear it is enough.

And there isn’t the same contempt afterwards I’ve seen with kids whose parents hit them. One time the kid swung a stick at my dog, his mother immediately made him sit on the stairs, he screamed but stayed put, then he came over to my dog and gently said “Sorry Ellie” and went back to playing like nothing happened, but this time without swinging sticks at the nearby animals.

[aridara]

Haven’t seen many people talking about this. One of the groups behind pressuring steam to remove adult content is a TERF group backed by conservative Christian groups. Once again the root behind a lot of anti-porn talking points is transphobia/transmisogyny and the idea that being trans is a social contagion caused by porn/‘pervertedness’

Now, the group is claiming responsibility for Steam’s new payment processor policies, with its co-founder calling impacted gamers “porn sick” and “brain rotted.” In one case, the organization even retweeted a notoriously anti-trans feminist who declared that “pervert nerds are responsible for most of society’s ills.” The retweeted feminist, a self-described “trans-exclusionary radical feminist,” proceeded to write under her post, “Evidence #1: trans.”

[aridara]

[aridara]

“The oldest olive tree in the world located on the island of Crete. It is estimated to be as over 3,000 years old and still produces olives.”

—

[aridara]

[aridara]

ur future nurse is using chapgpt to glide thru school u better take care of urself

[aridara]

When we see a Palestinian close to his goal, let's help him together to get there as soon as possible. We see their dignity being lost on Tumblr, and we see the opposite. We must help them and send them our best wishes.

Enough of the betrayal. Enough of the neglect. Let's return to being like before When the Rafah crossing is opened, these people will be evacuated, including my friend Ibrahim.

[aridara]

Hi I'm helping with this person's campaign on Gaza!! If you can share or donate is appreciated!!!

The image expresses the contrast between the security and peace that people long for, and the reality of war and suffering. At the top, simple yet great desires appear: "I am tired and all I want is sleep," "a good meal," and "a soft bed." These are the desires of someone living a normal life. At the bottom, the bitter reality of people living in darkness amidst destruction, fire, and hunger is shown. The text says: "I am tired and all I want is for this war to end and for peace to return to give them peace of mind again." Donate here to give them peace of mind. Sami's family is in dire need of your donation, even if it is small. Donate anything again, anything. (Gaza in Danger)

‼️DONATE‼️

[aridara]

okay, you know what? Running away shouldn’t be a crime. It shouldn’t be dangerous, either. Any kid should be able to leave their parents if they want, for any reason. No I’m not kidding.

“But Rue, where will these kids stay? Do you want them on the streets?”

of course not. In an ideal world, a kids would have multiple adults other than their parents they could look to for care, but I recognize that that will never be a reality for every single child. So: youth shelters, if they have nowhere else to go. There should be clean, warm shelters where anyone under 18 can stay for as long as they need, no questions asked. (And of course shelters that aren’t just for kids, but we’re talking about youth rights right now)

“But Rue,” I hear you say, “what if some moody teenager runs away after an argument?”

First of all, I’d rather a thousand moody teenagers run away than one abused child be trapped. Second, so what if one does? A kid needs time away from their parents, so they leave. The vast majority of them will get some time to cool down and then go back home, and if they don’t want to go back, period? Then nine times out of ten, they have a good reason. (Because yes, as hard as it is for you to believe, kids are humans who have common sense.)

“Okay, but what about the one time out of ten the kid doesn’t have a good reason?”

Then the kid doesn’t have a good reason. It doesn’t change anything. If someone wants to break up with their partner because of something stupid, you wouldn’t say they legally shouldn’t be able to. (And if you would, then you’re just a bad person.) No one should have to be in a relationship, romantic or otherwise, that they don’t want to be in.