UK's New "Think of the Children" PR Campaign

OK, that was pretty funny.

I’m disappointed though that my signal wasn’t clear enough. I was really hoping for you to call me out for frivolously calling for sources! The truth is that while I’ve worked as an engineer most of my long life and strongly value the scientific method, I have very little interest in “sources” in discussions online as they are almost invariably blatant appeals to authority and almost never reference actual controlled experimental data. I am much more interested in what the discussion participants think – original thinking and reasoning. Sure, that often comes with a low signal to noise ratio, but I am tolerant and can easily filter what I read. It involves some effort, but the payoff is usually worth it.

Bottom line: I value what you (and the others here) think, not who you cite.

The signal was clear. However since I was just quoting Schneier, more or less, I answered as asked.

Indeed. People can make all sorts of wild claims, without ever having to provide sources.

It depends on whether one is actively debating or not. And the nature if the claim, to some extent. I’m sure if I were to start a thread saying E2EE is broken, you’d want to know why.

Also, please cite this.

I think we’re getting really close to a line where further discussion doesn’t bring the topic forward.

I think establishing a mutual understanding is worth a brief sidetrack.

I was hoping EFF would comment:

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[quote=“Gavaudan, post:27, topic:16044, full:true”]

And of course, I just did. It was a first-person claim. Since I view the forum more like a bunch of friends/acquaintances having a bull session than like a team debate between rival schools, I feel no pressure to issue further citation, nor would I expect it of others. My default position is that we are all individual humans, fully-capable of assessing whether other individuals in a conversation are brilliant, full of shit, or somewhere in between. I’m not likely to get bent out of shape, even some consider me to be FoS.

Me, too. They gave been amazingly consistent advocates for online privacy from the beginning.

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a glass box in a public space where an adult actor will sit next to a child actor, each using smartphones. Gradually the box will become opaque.

One tricky aspect in the execution of this ad is that the adult could be a dad and the child could be his son or daughter - and then you have to ask the question as to whether the government, or Facebook (Big Tech, more generally), should be reading all communication between a parent and his or her child. That’s just creepy.

I guess the opaque box taps into the government fictional trope of “going dark”.

It’s been met with scorn and derision on social media

Situation Normal?

“Somebody think of the children” is such a cliche used by governments and lobby groups in order to manipulate public opinion. Have we reached the point where noone will be fooled any more?

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