No.Nonsense.

Last week, Australia passed a ban on children accessing social media. In so doing, the narrative is that they are trying to protect the children. This is a noble endeavor in theory; in practice it sets up a slippery slope of government intrusion into free speech.

I’m a mom so of course I want to protect my child. However, that is my job, not the government’s. My kid’s phone is logged into my iCloud. He doesn’t have his own email so everything has to funnel through mine. We’ve had the tough discussions regarding his privacy. When he opened a Discord account without my knowledge, I made him shut it down. How did I know? The confirmation came to my email. He asked not long ago when he could have a social media account. My response to him was when he was willing to give me his password then he could open the account. He accused me of being a helicopter parent. I told him it wasn’t about my searching his social media or reading his text messages, it was about him not having anything to hide. I explained to him that I had iMessage sharing turned off on the phone but that if he ever gave me concerns then I would turn it back on. I explained that my having his password on social media was not about me intruding on his business but about that his willingness to give it to me demonstrated that he would be responsible. His privacy is earned through gaining my trust.

Policing social media is not the government’s job, it’s mine as the parent. To open the door for the government to regulate it has a strong potential to infringe on free speech. As a purist of the First Amendment, I have a real issue with such actions.

If you want to see these infringements in action you simply need to look to Great Britain. In an effort to regulate “hate speech” the government is now jailing citizens who speak against government policies or the increasing bowing to certain racial, political, or social groups. The fact is that if you call yourself a free society, any limits on this speech is anathema to the principle of freedom.

To truly be free you must recognize that everyone has the right to say what they choose, no matter how wrong, bigoted, or hateful it is. The ultimate decider of their exposure is in we as the consumers and whether we choose to accept it or not. And just as they have the right to say it, I have the right to call them out.

But when the government becomes the arbiter of what is “appropriate” we fall into a false standard of whose ideals determine where the line is drawn. When we call for one group to be censored we open the door to ourselves be censored.

So, parents, police your kids. Kids, watch your words. Adults, be mindful of how you say it. Government, stay out of the free speech realm.