South Dakota Searchlight has an editorial up today, noting “lawmakers seek solutions for problems best handled by parents” lamenting another attempt at government regulation by legislators who claim to oppose big government:
According to an article in Forbes, the Free Speech Coalition believes the age-verification process is “invasive and burdensome with significant privacy risks for adult consumers.” In the same article, an attorney from the ACLU said the Texas law allows “the government to rob adults of their online privacy and burden their access to protected speech, all under the guise of protecting children.”
and..
Is someone in state government going to be tasked with visiting each site to see if it’s complying with the state’s age-verification law?
A state law that seeks to monitor the internet is not the answer. Lawmakers should put their efforts into making sure parents have the resources they need to protect their children themselves. That could mean literature on how to talk to kids about staying safe online or a state stipend that helps with the purchase of web filters or blocking software.
100% agree, the MAGA crowd needs to remember all of these things they want to keep making illegal just because it annoys them will cost every South Dakotan to enforce. I pay enough in taxes; if anything, I want to pay less. If that means I have to parent my children instead of the State, please proceed!
I think it’s interesting that the crew bringing you the bill to protect children with big government action because ‘parents aren’t up to protecting their own children’ are the exact same crew arguing for taking money away from public schools to give it to private schools or homeschoolers because the parents know better. Apparently, being a progressive Republican means bankrupting the state through lawsuits with their assault on free speech and bankrupting our public schools. Please don’t look for consistency from these loons.
Preach smaller government and then add governemnt around every turn.
We must control everything so that we can be free.