They probably saw the Russian culture war brain rot play out with American youth and decided to have a circuit breaker.
Behind the Bastards has an episode about how YouTube went right wing to create site engagement and an anger economy, and an episode about Facebook doing thr same for boomers.
Some governments are looking into limiting those influences.
EDIT: oh yeah, China might also be protecting children from hearing about the periodic stabbing attacks that happen at schools over there. Forgot about those.
It’s not only the US that got hit by that russian campaign to mess with youths and even younger children. Europe for its fair share as well. It also plays into their “oh look at the degenerate west” playbook perfectly.
They’re responsible for so much damage that I have no idea how it’ll end. Not even children with tech savvy parents are immune, as I can attest to myself.
It’s important as fuck to have discussions about bad content to children ass soon as they get any kind of screen available to them, and it should never ever be a babysitter unless it’s under controlled circumstances.
It’s also a good idea to start teaching your children how any tech they use works and what happens under the hood if they’re interested. They’re certainly less likely to get influenced by any bad actors if they know what’s what.
The rest of the world needs to learn from the US’s failure like this ASAP. I think Europe might already be doomed judging by the way the UK and Germany are going, but others might be able to swerve to avoid a fascist future with the right moves.
I completely agree Internet should be regulated especially for children. Should be done in Europe as well. But of course this regulation should not be misused for propaganda.
Parents need to do their fucking jobs and keep their shithead kids out of my business.
Internet is controlled by corporates like meta, Google, tiktok right now. In other words the undemocratic billionaires control the power. And also networks like the Russian bot farms spread fake news and destabilize our society. Parents can not do much about it.
Democracy is doomed if the Internet is not regulated in a way.