If you reblog my stuff I love you

And, I don't buy it. It sounds alot like The Conflict Theory applied to age rather than social class.

To be clear, all of those spaces were built by adults for adults*. They were adult spaces first that were seeded by youth transitioning into adulthood, brought into the spaces by the adults who had previously labeled those spaces "safe" & allowed their offspring access. These social spaces were planned, defined, & christened "appropriate for social activities " by adults wanting to capitalize on the fluidity of disposable cash and the economics of urban development.

Once the kids leave home, those same adults have a) the time, & b) the discretionary funds to return to recreational socializing. They go to the places they built to hang out.

And when they do show up at the pool halls, the diners, the malls - they do what adults do: start imposing order on chaos. (Remember - your own offspring are charming & mildly annoying, other people's offspring are demon spawn that piss you off.) Youth isn't driven out, chased out, nor kicked out so much as "environmentaled" out - much like the plant that requires indirect light finding itself in full sun - the kids move. They. Choose. To leave. Because who wants to hang out with the folks?

Additionally, the internet is a bad example of "kid's social space being usurped". First - kids didn't light that fire either, and second - it can be argued that the web is actually a dangerous psuedo-social space where risk of harm outstrips any parasocial value to unititiated kids.

*A working example of this cycle:

AO3 - Archive of Our Own

Built by adults for adults. Since 2020/21 the site has been inundated by YA writers attempting to plant their "my social space" flag & screaming when an adult shows up in their comments. As this conversation widens to Reddit & Tumblr there has been vocal push back from the adults in the room.

so much fucking bullshit

added to it.

let's go through this point by point because y'all are pissing me the fuck off.

"it sounds like The Conflict Theory applied to age"

not exactly, but like. close enough. and that is a good and useful thing to do because age is a social system of categorisation, privilege, and marginalisation. childhood is a social class. this is literally the theoretical foundation of the modern field of childhood studies and the first thing you would learn if you ever decided to study these topics in 0.5% of the depth that I have.

"those spaces were built by adults for adults"

no, they were built as semi-public spaces (ie, spaces of public access but not public ownership) which were not initially age-gated in any way, and their early popularity was greatest with teens and young adults.

"seeded by youth transitioning into adulthood, brought into the spaces by the adults who [...] allowed their offspring access"

this is just ahistorical garbage. you're just wrong.

"they do what adults do: start imposing order"

you're actually right about this, in a weird and fucked-up way. the whole point I made in my dissertation is that new forms of public space initially lack clearly defined social order and norms, which is exactly what makes them attractive to young people looking for spaces of freedom and experimentation. when they become subsumed into the larger adult-dominated social order, they lose that quality.

that doesn't mean adults=order/youth=chaos, or that adults bringing these spaces under their control is somehow good - that's just you putting reality through your warped ageist mental framework, which is demonstrated extremely well by:

"other people's offspring are demon spawn that piss you off"

fuck you. the world would be a better place if you had never learned to type.

but at least, having been this blatant with your hatred of children, you can no longer claim ignorance about the aforementioned fact that childhood is a marginalising social class - the truth is you just like it that way.

"it can be argued that the web is a dangerous pseudo-social space where the risk of harm outstrips any parasocial value"

yeah, it can also be argued that the moon is made of pudding.

finally, your whole AO3/Reddit/Tumblr example just translates to "I don't like it when young people act like maybe adults aren't right all the time and don't think adults should always get to make all the rules and own everything"

next comment:

"kids aren't being outlawed from the internet"

no one said they were. I didn't even say the word "law" in my post.

"even where they are outlawed from social media, it's not working"

good. I think it should work even less.

"the internet is being baby-fied"

this is a nonsense phrase. it doesn't mean anything. ageist millennials sure as fuck love to say it, I swear it's becoming our generation's "you could afford rent if you stop buying avocado toast and having genders". but it doesn't mean anything!!

the closest any real phenomenon is to what you're describing is mainstream social media sites being sanitised by adults who run media companies, for the benefit of adults who spend advertising money, who are afraid of offending adults who don't want their children hearing the word "fuck". take a moment to notice who's not at fault there, and whose priorities are actually being catered to.

third comment:

"this is not to say kids don't deserve places to hang out and being annoying"

anyone reading this who thinks it's fine to casually define an entire social category of human beings as universally annoying: I hope someone digs a spike trap in your kitchen.

"sites that were created primarily cater to adults"

I'm sorry, you're describing tumblr as that? lol. I think you're confusing "not created specifically as a space-for-children" with "created specifically for adults". this is a pretty common problem, actually, it's called the assumption of public space as adult-by-default, and it's DING DING DING another excellent example of age as a marginalising social structure!

"Preteens 100% should have social spaces"

no one said preteens specifically, but okay

"both irl and online, but we shouldn't create those spaces for them by kicking adults and adult content out of places they created by and for themselves"

no one said that either, but more importantly:

we shouldn't "create those spaces for them" at all, at least not in the heavily curatorial sense you seem to be talking about. that's a big part of this whole issue: that our society wants young people to exist exclusively in spaces that adults design for them. adults are terrified of young people creating their own social environments, their own social norms, their own cultures and orders and ways of being. for the same reason the centre is always scared of the cultures on the margins: because it threatens their order, their power, their privilege.

bonus round: person I'm reblogging this from, via tags:

"pool halls were originally spaces for kids and teens is a hilarious take"

it might have been if I had said that.

as above, "designated as a space-for-children by adults" and "public space popular with young people" have different meanings, which should be easy to tell because they are different words.

"they were simply public spaces owned & operated by adults that may or may not have allowed children in"

The problem wasn’t what I had access to. It was that I didn’t have access to a safe adult I could actually talk to; someone I could trust to help me without immediately cutting me off from everything and everyone. I remember getting messages from strangers on Skype. I didn’t even respond. But when my parents found out, they banned me from using it entirely. That meant losing most of my contact with friends outside of school. So what did I do? I went behind their backs. And once I was hiding, I couldn’t tell them when something actually dangerous was happening, like when I started being groomed. By the time things escalated, I was already alone with it.

I think about an episode of Scared Straight where a girl was dragged through a prison because she’d been talking to adult men online. She wasn’t doing that because she was reckless or malicious; she was lonely. Her parents weren’t present, she was being bullied at school, and these men gave her attention, told her she was pretty, told her she mattered. She was already being harmed. And the adults in her life responded by terrorizing her. Humiliating her. Calling her a slut. Telling her she deserved it. Breaking her to pieces.

What lesson does that actually teach? Not “this is dangerous, come to us.” It teaches: If you get hurt, we will hurt you more. Do you really think that makes her stop, or does it just make the predators look safer by comparison? They might as well have driven her straight into the jaws of those predators with torches and pitchforks. Because when every path back to safety is lined with punishment, kids don’t run away from danger. They run deeper into it.

If you want kids to be safe, stop treating them like problems to control and start treating them like people worth protecting. Stop ripping away their autonomy the second they make a mistake or encounter something risky. Stop teaching them that honesty will cost them everything.

Dear Representative [Name],

I am writing to express my strong opposition to H.R. 8250 (The "Parents Decide Act"). As your constituent and a concerned citizen, I believe this bill introduces unprecedented risks to digital privacy and security.

Specifically, I am alarmed by:

SEC. 2(a)(1)(B): Requiring age verification to even use an operating system creates a mandatory "hardware lockout" that ends anonymous computing and forces users to hand over sensitive identification data to major corporations just to power on their devices.

SEC. 2(a)(3): Mandating that OS providers create a system for all app developers to access verification data is a massive security vulnerability. This effectively creates a centralized API of user identities accessible to thousands of third-party developers, many of whom may lack adequate data protection.

This bill does not protect children; it creates a centralized surveillance infrastructure at the OS level. I urge you to protect the privacy of your constituents and vote NO on H.R. 8250.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

Given that, in the wake of this mandatory identification policy, my country seems to be moving to hand over its citizens biometric data, like fingerprints, Face ID files, and identification documents, over to the USA and to ICE to maintain the visa free travel (ESTA) we have, I strongly urge any US resident to send these emails, or make calls.

But if you can’t do that, the most powerful thing you can do is spread the word. Tell your friends, family, coworkers, anyone who can help.

My reach will likely be small, and so I don’t know if this will mean very much in the grand scheme of things, but I cannot stand to see this tracking happen to another population as it did to mine.

And if you think it won’t affect you, it will. All anonymity goes out the window when your accounts can be linked via your personal ID

Which means that pirating a show in 2026 demonstrates consumer interest in a product, and HBO/MAX will use that data to make decisions about whether or not to renew the thing.

Animators are speaking up about the mismanagement / their mistreatment in the crew! while hargreaves is busy writing a so called response to the article tom posted earlier about legacy

Since Thursday our politicians have been trying to rush the 'Kids Online Safety Act' (KOSA) and SCREEN acts alongside 15 other bills through committee in order to censor the internet while lying about it being for child safety. It was such laws that allowed the UK, Australia, and Europe to become the hellholes they are where youre arrested for mean posts.

Sadly, our same leaders are also trying to repeal Section 230 alongside these bills. What Section 230 does, in simple terms, is categorize stuff you make online as part of your freedom of speech.

My daughter is back with me, we're seeing a social worker Monday to do stuff like sort out my welfare payments, apply for emergency housing, get in touch with some charities to help us with food etc. It could be the thing that makes life actually manageable so I don't have to beg on here 24/7 anymore

But we have to survive until then and I need to be able to care for her or her abusive father will have grounds to challenge custody

I know it's always a damn crisis with us but we are so close to being okay. I got her here, I got an emergency custody order, and this is the final thing we gotta do to be safe and stable

I am truly begging for any help at all to get there. We need fuel to drive there (from the country to the city) especially, as well as every other living expense that's been eaten up in the perpetual crisis we've been struggling through

Please if you've ever thought about helping this would be the absolute perfect time. We are literally just days away from being okay if we can hold it together

PayPal: [email protected] (link)

Ko-fi: /FakeJuly (link)

I'm trying to get the money together for fuel (we're right on the borderline of having enough), groceries (we don't have a supermarket so doing it before or after the appointment would make things soooo much easier + be less expensive) and incidentals (I haven't had a meeting like this and don't know what they need from me besides what they mentioned)

his own mom uploaded it to tiktok.

it had millions and millions of views and over 200k comments. and i thought about finding out my dad died when i was a teenager and i thought about hearing my family find out and what they sounded like and how those were some of the most painful moments I’ve ever lived, and the way that time has tempered many of those memories so we can all heal.

and then i imagined if those moments were captured on a porch camera for millions to see.

to spend the rest of my life looking at strangers in the street and knowing that hypothetically there is a chance they watched the worst moments of my entire life unfold between two meme videos on their feed.

i don’t know that i would ever forgive my mom. and that woman alone isn’t only culpable.

so are the platforms that allow that kind of content of children being used for views and every single person who liked that video and commented on it in support of the mother and her choice to upload her child in that state