When Will We Actually Protect Children?
The titles of bills like KOSA (Kids Online Safety Act) and Stop CSAM annoy me. It's infuriating to me how popular and bipartisan they are (probably partially due to their names) because of how much they contradict how we prioritize 'child safety' in good ol United States of America.
If we care so much about CSAM and child abuse, why do Republicans fight tooth and nail to protect child marriage? Why do 33 state still allow child marriage? Is it to allow for parental rights, something they don't seem to care about when parents want to provide gender affirming care to their children?
If we care so much about kid's safety, why haven't we enacted stricter gun control to stop school shootings?
If we care so much about kid's wellbeing, why are we taking away gender affirming care for trans/gender diverse children, even though it's proven time and time again that it harms children and leads to increased suicide rates?
If we care so much about child safety, why do we not have better policies for sick and parental leave for parents to care for their children (including newborn babies)?
If we care so much about children being safe online, why is it easier for parents to just give their children an iPad and free rein to explore the worst parts of the internet at their leisure?
Why do we allow any kind of homeschooling to pass -- anything -- even when it excludes anything that will actually help them and gives parents an easy way to further traumatize their children?
Why do we throw 5 year olds in concentration camps (sorry -- detention centers) to face violent abuse that will leave them severely traumatized? Why do we put migrant children through trauma that will persist through generations, impacting their children and their children and their children?
Why are we so permissive of cops killing Black children? Why are we so permissive of the way children of color are exposed to racialized violence?
Why are we funding a genocide in Gaza, turning an eye to children dying, being orphaned, needing surgeries without anesthesia, living day to say in unspeakable trauma?
Why are we trying to force these laws that ultimately isolate children, that take them from their communities when they're in abusive households, that remove their support network?
Oh, right - it's because all of those things actually take effort and the dismantling of societal discrimination and racism. That's too much work. It's much easier and more convenient to just pass social media bans. Who cares about things like anonymity, privacy, and freedom of speech (unless you're a right-wing podcaster)?
At least we're keeping children safe, right?