Puritanism took over online fandom — and then came for the rest of the internet

Stellario@pawb.social to LGBTQ+@beehaw.org – 40 points –
Puritanism took over online fandom — and then came for the rest of the internet
vox.com

Here are some interesting takes on how Puritanism has harmed lgbtq+ spaces online and the internet in general.

24

You are viewing a single comment

I don't pay attention to Fandom anything or any of that stuff, but the broader strokes definitely have affected sites and payment processors. I hate the whole purity culture under the guise of "protecting the children" when the internet is not a playplace for kids. Never has been, never will be. Kids should be supervised or only have access to cold computers so that they don't talk to strangers or watch something fucked up about a graphic school mass shooting on fox news.

At the same time, adults should have their own places and sites, and this includes sex and sexuality. Places like r/Bisexual too, where adult discussions can happen.

Hang on, what I'm reading from this is that you believe in restricting internet usage until the age of consent, and I'm not sure that is a good idea? At the very least, it requires making some pretty big changes to be made. Education will have to make a big U-turn, and we will have to ban or restrict IoT devices (to be honest I don't like IoT, but the reality is people use them), and most importantly people below the age of consent won't have much access to movies and music, and in some places or situations, books or community without the internet.

If the ability for a trans 17 year old to access media is restricted by a transphobic parent, I don't see that as a good thing. It means a life of isolation and potential abuse.

You fully misunderstood what that person said. Education wouldn't be impacted because children in schools almost always have their internet usage monitored.

I distinctly remember the firewall at my high school was super easy to circumvent. And I doubt every URL was being checked. I never dared to watch porn at school but I doubt they could have stopped me. Idk if the firewalls have gotten more sophisticated lately though... In my day all we had to do was browse using HTTPS and the whole internet was available to us

How long ago was this? There were a couple websites we could use to go around school censors when I was in middle school (hidemyass, lmao) but I definitely don't remember https being a workaround. For reference my experience was between 2005 and 2008.

Graduated HS in 2015. It actually got less secure one year when they migrated to a shittier firewall, the original firewall didn't have the HTTPS vulnerability lmao

I think schools having actual counselors and GSA clubs is probably the best option, to be honest, including class lessons in LGBTQ history. Having counselors would have helped me come out a lot faster in that regard. Kids will always find their way onto the net as they become young teens, and I'm fine with sites for kids, like club Penuin, educational sites, digiral penpals, etc etc. But the internet will always be unsafe on that front, especially since Americans have a taste for extreme violence.

What I don't want is religious extremists carving up the internet under the pretense of making it "safe for kids" which is a dogwhistle for removing all LGBTQ content, LGBTQ + abortion resources, porn, adult sites, and instead promoting religious sites and crap like Prager U and its monstrous cousin, Prager U Kids. That's really what this is all about under the hood anyways.