Soot [none/use name]

Governments have persistently censored and surveilled the internet ever-more on the basis of “but the children :(” without ever doing a single actually good thing for the children like decreasing class sizes or letting parents spend more time with their children. Both of which would actually help address the issue.

This is the equivalent of abstinence education, just keep 'em ignorant and then when they finally see porn on superundergroundillegalporn.com.illegal it’ll just be 10x worse.

You’re not wrong, but it absolutely is getting worse.

I do agree. But calling the UK Orwellian is kind of funny, given Orwell’s 1984 is largely, if not mostly, based on the UK:

• Like Winston, Orwell worked in the UK as a war propagandist, and lamented that he constantly had to lie and censor facts, but thought it worth it to defeat the Nazis.
• The ‘ministries’ were entirely based on the UK’s, especially e.g. the ‘Ministry of Defense’ actually being a ministry of war.
• Orwell complained that the UK secret police constantly opened all his letters because he was a commie.
• Room 101 and the Ministry of Truth is basically just satire of the BBC.

As well as cultural changes in the 80s-90s, I think people don’t quite realise how much the internet ‘escaped’ the grasp of governments for the past few decades. By constantly banging the drum of “what about the children D:”, governments are finally just catching up to where we used to be.

I mean sure, but it’ll still likely leave 'em scratching their heads for a while before they go “I guess I just… replace the semicolon…?”