„Angry at the tech CEOs who have benefited from the scientific research that has enabled their technology empires, but have mounted no opposition to the cuts. People like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos are conspicuously silent. We should call them out,”
“A human lifetime is very limited in time and space, compared to the universe.” In a way, it is humbling, but it’s also a relief to know that there’s a larger structure of which we’re a part that is so grand. Our imperfections, our struggles, our travails, when you put them in perspective, they somehow don’t seem so traumatic.”
We’re all emotional animals. And when there’s a crisis—when there’s no time to study the situation for weeks—we have to decide **now**. We react through our understanding and experiences. So yes, that means we’re all idiots, vulnerable to corruption.
That’s why we created **scientific methods**: to overcome the unchangeable parts of our inner selves.
A person who can clearly see and admit they’re corrupted, selfish, and greedy? They can still create techniques to control themselves. When a person clearly sees that they **can’t change anything**, that’s the first step.
I think the most horrible things—what’s happened and what will happen—come from this sickness in our minds. **And it is unchangeable.**
Environment Scientist(Student), I like positivity news, fitness, Olympic lifting, Linux, Fediverse, art, music, books, science, universe, activism.
Science is not media. I try to avoid, and I am not interested in Media politics, Media religion, media marketing, media economics and trades of those medians.
(he,him,his)
As meditating- listening to myself (Krishnamurti).
Memento mori — “Remember that you must die.”
Memento amoris — “Remember love.”
We are concerned with observing the actual facts, the ‘what is’. To observe ‘what is’ very clearly and to see the full significance of those facts, we must look at it without our conditioning. That is where the difficulty is going to lie, because you have opinions, you have values, you approach them as a Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, or what you will, with your nationality, with your peculiar idiosyncrasies, and these prevent you from observing, from looking. Observation is an art. It is not easily learnt. One has observed neither the sunset nor the stars, neither the trees nor the facts, outwardly or inwardly. So, if we are going to travel together – and I hope we will – we have to observe scientifically, ruthlessly and with great intelligence.
From Collected Works, Vol. 14 (krishnamurti)
“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” — Albert Einstein
Email: jacob.urlich@tutanota.com
Pepijn
in reply to European Commission • • •That is one hell of a dystopian cat.
@EUCommission
European Commission
in reply to Pepijn • • •We just updated our ALT-text to make it more clear. 😉
lopta
in reply to European Commission • • •Riccardo Cariboni
in reply to European Commission • • •Dieu
in reply to European Commission • • •European Commission
in reply to Dieu • • •We want to know what our community thinks. What kind of content would you like to see more of?
Dieu
in reply to European Commission • • •PeterSoukup
in reply to European Commission • • •What about PRIVACY? Child safety is just an excuse for an orwellian dystopian surveillance. No, thank you! No more #ChatControl !!!
#privacy #privacyisaright #StopChatControl
Irina
in reply to European Commission • • •fdr
in reply to European Commission • • •int21h
in reply to European Commission • • •Many children in Gaza won't be harassed in social networks. They've been killed in real life.
Lillian Violet
in reply to European Commission • • •Christof S. 🇪🇺
in reply to European Commission • • •This is like asking kids not to leave the house because the car traffic outside is too dangerous.
The solution is to reduce the traffic, and its speed, not to ban kids from leaving the house.
Also, the traffic is dangerous to everyone, not just the kids, even if they might be particularly at risk.
Don't penalize a vulnerable group; treat the problem instead!
On social media, we don't need age limits; we need better enforcement of content moderation rules!
Wilson
in reply to European Commission • • •PeterSoukup
in reply to European Commission • • •Sensitive content
Hew
in reply to European Commission • • •Elric
in reply to European Commission • • •European Commission
in reply to Elric • • •Elric
in reply to European Commission • • •Daniel Gibert
in reply to European Commission • • •I'm sorry, what you are going to obtain is children using internet illegally, because they will find a way, more uncontrolled than ever, and absolutely no benefit for the rest of users, specially for those in sensitive and dangerous situations. I, as a father, don't wan't this for my kids.
You start deciding what we can see on internet, will end on what we can read, say or think.
Internet is not a playground, we should start educating and teaching, not blocking and forbidding.
Dr. Ionescu Alexandru
in reply to European Commission • • •Ivo Limmen
in reply to European Commission • • •I would love to see law and restrictions as long as it does not include:
- Age verification
- Communication monitoring
We should just fine platforms that can not keep up their promises
Hauntshade
in reply to European Commission • • •If parents would do their fucking jobs and actually parent their children, this would not be necessary.
Hauntshade
in reply to Hauntshade • • •Yes, parents neglecting their kids by giving them unfettered access to the internet is shitty parenting. You decide to have kids, you take responsibility.
Webber-e-bop
in reply to European Commission • • •as a citizen in the EU I would like to ask, how would the age be handled?
Is it self-defined? Does it need to verify? How will it be verified? Who will handle verifying? What will protect us from those who are supposed to verify, will there be restrictions?
European Commission
in reply to Webber-e-bop • • •Privacy is a core consideration in this work. The EU age verification solution that we are testing is specifically designed to confirm age without collecting any other identity data. Imagine it works like this: the adult-only website you want to access will only know if you are 18 or over, nothing else.
You can learn more about our approach to age verification here: digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/…
The EU approach to age verification
Shaping Europe’s digital futureLillian Violet
in reply to European Commission • • •Michael Westergaard
in reply to European Commission • • •European Commission
in reply to Michael Westergaard • • •Marvin
in reply to European Commission • • •katzenberger
in reply to European Commission • • •#AgeVerification is not a "solution", but both a convenient cop-out for you, so that you cowards needn't address platform regulation;
and a much welcome vehicle to amass more and more data of every single person, ready to use for you and even more fascist governments to come.
Nobody believes you.
kim likes this.
eickot
in reply to European Commission • • •m_berberich
in reply to European Commission • • •You are not trying to protect children.
You are trying to control the internet, force everyone to provide identification.
Provide certified authenticated users to U.S. bigtech-companies for better targeted ads, crowd out marginalised and vulnerable groups and prime the internet as a mean of control for fascist.
Jay
in reply to European Commission • • •The children you aim to protect will grow up in a normalised surveillance state.
Rethink.
Andrey Bondarenko
in reply to European Commission • • •Oenanthe conioides ⁂
in reply to European Commission • • •you'd be well advised to read and heed the replies from concerned citizens, or become irrelevant.
internet is not a "playground" and there's a difference between "safe" and an unfree society, which will be the outcome of this.
go after big tech instead. they're not partners. they're the ones endangering the children.
Tóth Gábor Baltazár
in reply to European Commission • • •Shannon Prickett reshared this.
⚝ gamiel
in reply to European Commission • • •Oh! The fact that ALL laws you've tried to pass so far violate the EU charter of fundamental rights , especially the right to privacy.
So is it really protecting children? Or just trying to control people?
James
in reply to European Commission • • •Teckids-Gemeinschaft
in reply to European Commission • • •Please consult with experts who actually work with children and youth online, and ideally with children and youth themselves. As such, we clearly say: You are on the wrong track.
We are here to help if you are looking for expert interventions regarding the topic!
Leave X - Protect Democracy
in reply to European Commission • • •Regulating the business model of big tech social media, particularly targeted advertising and algorithmic manipulation, is much more difficult.
Why not remove the incentives for platforms to maximize engagement through outrage or addictive algorithms?
The answer is that it takes courage.
Three plus or minus five
in reply to European Commission • • •Fokeu🌸
in reply to European Commission • • •All chat surveillance and age verification should be dead and buried six feet under. Otherwise we will soon live in a surveillance state.
Pixelcats⁷
in reply to European Commission • • •mx. dove
in reply to European Commission • • •Drea
in reply to European Commission • • •Seachaint
in reply to European Commission • • •Age limits require age verification, and age verification means bureaucratically identifying everyone online. Everyone.
That's transparently incompatible with the goal and implementation of the GDPR, and will impose massive regulatory burden and risk on internet services, who'll have to handle PII they might never have otherwise had to handle.
And for what? So we'll all be fake USians when signing up for things, to avoid giving Peter Thiel our passports? Lose the GDPR entirely?
Aria <3
in reply to European Commission • • •Troed Sångberg
in reply to European Commission • • •Parent here. I decide appropriate age limits for my kids.
Not you.
H.Lunke & Socke
in reply to European Commission • • •The quote of @HennaVirkkunen below the linked article is starting with the right words:
"Children must be able to explore, learn and play online - safely. The Digital Services Act makes platforms responsible for ensuring children are safe online"
The solution for this would be to make the online world safe and to prohibit algorithms in anti-social media.
The solution for this is certainly not to block the children from the online world with age limits.
v4rd4453n
in reply to European Commission • • •‘Alt’ text for Mastodon images
www.kwbell.euEuropean Commission
in reply to v4rd4453n • • •We do like to engage with the community here, sometimes it just takes us a while to get to your comments. 🐘 💜
Do you have any further feedback on our content? Let us know!
wolnyjez
in reply to European Commission • • •jandi
in reply to European Commission • • •Unlike you, I've read all the responses here, so I have little to add.
But, making "see" the operative verb in your misleading propaganda, using (lazy) uncaptioned images, is specially galling.
Do YOU see us, hear us, perceive us, acknowledge us?
This account gets more insulting each day.
European Commission
in reply to jandi • • •We also read your comments, sometimes it just takes us a while to get to them all. 😉
We now edited the post to include ALT-text. Please never hesitate to let us know when it's missing. We welcome all feedback on our content. What do you think we should be doing better?
jandi
in reply to European Commission • • •I appreciate the answer, and the addition of image captions. I didn't (don't) mean to be personally offensive, I hope I wasn't.
As to your question: who would be "we", the EC or the person(s) behind this account?
To be frank, I don't know what a good microblogging account for a big institution should be like; must be difficult. But I see that you've started responding to some of the questions in this thread and that's better than usual, thanks! 1/3
jandi
in reply to jandi • • •Answering past questions would be a neat thing to do too, there are many similar threads, with lots of responses from the fediverse, and a feeling of a "one-way press releases" account. Take a look at past posts with many comments.
Also, it could be valuable if you tried to convey the better points raised here up the ladder, too, making the fediverse heard, and the whole thing more two-way. 2/3
jose
in reply to European Commission • • •Ray McCarthy
in reply to European Commission • • •It's up to the parents.
Any attempt to regulate what children see on the Internet simply removes all privacy for all adults. Exposes them to exploitation by US Corporations and malicious governments. The verification people will sell the info and it will be kept.
It's not like sometimes younger adults having to show ID in a shop. That's not stored or transmitted and it's a minority of adults.
The idea of Child protection on the Internet rather than parental supervision is daft.
sanjibo
in reply to European Commission • • •The problem is not the children.
The problem is the unregulated, illegal content
Enforce law to protect people against abusive firms, instead of passing laws to survey people.
aprilfoo
in reply to European Commission • • •Inc Hulk 🧪
in reply to European Commission • • •There is a fundamental problem with claiming to protect children, when undermining the rights of privacy of all individuals.
In Hungary, Orban makes big claims about how his policies are to protect children - then the abuse of children by officials in the ruling party reveal that the policies only had theoretical child safety, the real case was the opposite.
Flaky
in reply to European Commission • • •Manic
in reply to European Commission • • •Hopefully you set up Age related safe spaces instead of banning children from social media. Cutting children off that are under 16, just isolates them from gaming communities and branching out into hobbies their friends may not partake in.
Let them grow, don't prune them. Let them be a part of their sports clubs events and celebratory photos on socials.
Dr0id
in reply to European Commission • • •Radomír Žemlička
in reply to European Commission • • •dendrite
in reply to European Commission • • •European Commission
in reply to dendrite • • •Morwud
in reply to European Commission • • •European Commission
in reply to Morwud • • •At this panel, participants discussed the responsibility of tech companies, as well as digital literacy for children, their parents and teachers.
You can get involved in our policies too! Check this space for debates that interest you: citizens.ec.europa.eu/index_en
Citizens' Engagement Platform
Citizens’ Engagement PlatformMorwud
in reply to European Commission • • •jesterchen42
in reply to European Commission • • •Please include actual experts from @CCC or @digitalcourage or @eff or similar groups as well.
If you can convince these folks with your plans and laws, they might actually BE good.
Don't wait for them to participate, reach actively out to them!
Thom, bring back Token Ring
in reply to European Commission • • •Have you considered just banning Facebook/Instagram and Twitter? Would solve like 99% of the problem.
Stop coddling these tech giants. Why do they get special treatment no other EH citizen gets? It's infuriating.
JWcph, Radicalized By Decency
in reply to European Commission • • •Back up. Before going all "Will somebody think of the children", let's mandate that digital corporations have no more leeway to harming ANYONE, adults included, than is allowed in the non-digital world.
With proper safety & privacy regulations on digital services half the child endangerment - if not more - disappears right away.
itsFriday
in reply to European Commission • • •European Commission
in reply to itsFriday • • •But we do believe in including young people in our policy process. That’s why, as just one example, we established the first ever presidential youth advisory board. Youth representatives from every EU country met with President Von der Leyen last year to discuss this very issue.
And that wasn’t just a one-time thing. Learn more here: commission.europa.eu/topics/yo…
The President's Youth Advisory Board
European CommissionitsFriday
in reply to European Commission • • •Thanks you for you answer. I actually did not expect the comments to be read. I'm positive surprised.
Why then exclude young people from the internet and making it worse for every one in the process?
European Commission
in reply to itsFriday • • •We are not proposing to exclude young people from the internet. Our post is about convening a panel of experts, from youth advocates to computer scientists, to weigh different options. The next panels will actually focus on the advantages for minors in accessing online spaces, and how to prevent risks and harms without losing these benefits.
We are all about a balanced approach, and listening to the voices of experts.
supernova
in reply to European Commission • • •J—dV
Unknown parent • • •European Commission
Unknown parent • • •Hello @LookWhatTheCatDraggedIn! This panel was commissioned to forge a strong, realistic, European approach to keep our children safe in the digital age. In all of this work we will be guided by the need to empower parents and build a safer Europe for our children.
However, if you have concerns over privacy relating to age verification, you can learn more about the privacy-first age verification solution we are developing here: digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/…
Commission makes available an age-verification blueprint
Shaping Europe’s digital futureEuropean Commission
Unknown parent • • •Hello @lexinova!
At this stage, we are meeting with experts and youth representatives to discuss the issue. Yesterday's discussions revolved around holding tech companies accountable & promoting digital literacy. While age verification may be a part of a future solution, we are developing and testing a privacy-first age verification method. It’s like this: the site you want to access will only receive the info if you are over 18 or not, nothing else.
More info here: digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/…
Commission makes available an age-verification blueprint
Shaping Europe’s digital futurejesterchen42
in reply to European Commission • • •Age limits aren't a solution. First of all, if implemented in the "usual" way of politics, they'll just lead to deanonymisation and MASSIVE targeted ads and profile building.
Next, why not just take existing laws like GDPR, DSA, and whatever and force the major players to stop their current business model (which might lead to broken business models, and hey! - that's good, because all of their daily business is against the law*)
Next, will you this time think of open source and free stuff (as in e.g. mastodon), or will you AGAIN forget to add safe harbours for stuff like freifunk in Germany?
Commit to freedom and democracy, don't let big players help write laws where they actually benefit from.
* no matter if tiktok, xhitter, meta, openai, ...
FartWithFury
in reply to European Commission • • •Jacen
in reply to European Commission • • •Evi & Emily
in reply to European Commission • • •Sensitive content
multifact
in reply to European Commission • • •Please, stop using the excuse of child protection to remove EU citizens right to privacy.
Privacy is fundamental to protect civil rights and children alike.
Etam
in reply to European Commission • • •Age verification is punishing the victim and only delaying the harm. The algorithms designed to exploit engagement are the problem.
Btw was this the same event, or something else: en.panoptykon.org/dsa-vs-reali…
CC @panoptykon
DSA vs. Reality: Are children safer online? | Panoptykon Foundation
DSA vs. Reality: Are children safer online? | Panoptykon Foundation·𐑚𐑧𐑯𐑦𐑑𐑨
in reply to European Commission • • •I'm proud of the EU, its political decisions and values, but this changes everything. Such a decision is more like what the RF or any other dictatorship would do than what an egalitarian and democratic polity would do.
European Commission
Unknown parent • • •FluffyBunnikins
in reply to European Commission • • •mastodon.social/@Tutanota/1162…
Tuta
2026-03-10 09:53:13
Yiannis
in reply to European Commission • • •Greg
in reply to European Commission • • •OK, but it is not sufficient to declare child safety trumps all else.
- Child safety IS an indespensible essential that must be addressed to save abuses & death
- The right to privacy IS ALSO an indespensible essential to save abuses & death
You cannot and must not make achieving either ascendent over the other, but you MUST find solutions that maximize BOTH!
For example, privacy preserving age verification that works on-device to send an age verification token that varies each time it's used (like Aegis' 2FA code generator) but doesn't leak/reveal identity. Or, perhaps identity is revealed only below an age threshold, so no identity implies old enough - requiring one time visit to trusted party (police) with phone to calibrate and then use that as proof for other device use. I'm sure #eff will have some well thought out ideas around this.
Under an umbrella of 'online safety', Child protection advocates and privacy advocates must work together for an equitable solution.
European Commission
in reply to Greg • • •Thanks for sharing your views. Rest assured we are approaching this subject with the utmost care. Our post is about convening a panel of experts, whose role it is to advise us. Computer scientists, youth advocates, digital literacy experts, they all have a seat at the table.
Regarding your thoughts on privacy-preserving age verification, you may find that the solution you are describing here is quite similar to the solution we are developing.
Read more: digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/…
Commission makes available an age-verification blueprint
Shaping Europe’s digital futureGreg
in reply to European Commission • • •Thanks for your (unexpected) response. I'll take look at your link.
On a slight tangential note. Is the EU working at pace to stop Google from implementing their gatekeeper role with developer verification. It's an overbearing, monopolistic play, in the guise of 'tightening security'. There are many alternatives that are less monopolistic. Perhaps EU could force Google to offer equivalent powers to EU nominated trusted app repositories, such as F-Droid & Obtanium & the alternate OS providers, Lineage & Graphene. That way, security would be preserved. The nominated entities could then maintain developer privacy & not charge (or just charge minor admin costs)
Dragofix
in reply to European Commission • • •GitHub - upper-up/meta-lobbying-and-other-findings
GitHubnictakiego
in reply to European Commission • • •Fediway
in reply to European Commission • • •