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> Google turned on SafeSearch as its default for under-18 users in August 2021, having been pressured by Congress to better protect children across its services

> Google turned on SafeSearch as its default for under-18 users in August 2021, having been pressured by Congress to better protect children across its services, including search and YouTube. This is basically an end around the First Amendment. While the government is not allowed to ban speech, so it pressures corporations to ban speech on its behalf, with an implied threat they will will hurt the corporation in some way if it does not comply.

wang_li 4y ago
>so it pressures corporations to ban speech on its behalf, with an implied threat they will will hurt the corporation in some way if it does not comply. Which is not actually legal. It's been found repeatedly in court that the government can't work hand in glove with a third party to violate civil rights. Otherwise the FBI would work hand in glove with third parties to beat people with rubber hoses until they confess.
- DamnInteresting 4y ago
  > Which is not actually legal. Perhaps so, but the legality of an action is immaterial if it is left unprosecuted.
leeroyjenkins11 4y ago
But showing adult content to minors is illegal already. If a minor tries to buy that content in a store, the store owner would be violating the by selling it. Why is the internet different? It's also illegal for an adult to give that material to a minor, even if a minor asked for it. Because Google is a corporation, are they not required to obey the law?
- charcircuit 4y ago
  A law already existing doesn't make something okay.
- LorenPechtel 4y ago
  Note that Safe Search would exclude any visuals that would get a movie an R rating--but it's legal for parents to allow their children to see R rated movies. (And note that there's a grey area where there's stuff that's NC-17 but really contains nothing farther than an R, but either more of it or homosexual rather than heterosexual.) And I recently ran into a tidbit about the rules in Australia: Detailed pictures of female genitalia are automatically 18+, even if the purpose is educational in showing girls the range of normal genitalia to show them that theirs is normal.
  - vinay427 4y ago
    > or homosexual rather than heterosexual. Do you have a source or more information on this? I'm sure it was implicit due to social norms in decades past but I couldn't find anything recent about this online.
    - LorenPechtel 4y ago
      I suggest watching "This Movie is Not Yet Rated".

wang_li 4y ago

>so it pressures corporations to ban speech on its behalf, with an implied threat they will will hurt the corporation in some way if it does not comply. Which is not actually legal. It's been found repeatedly in court that the government can't work hand in glove with a third party to violate civil rights. Otherwise the FBI would work hand in glove with third parties to beat people with rubber hoses until they confess.

DamnInteresting 4y ago
> Which is not actually legal. Perhaps so, but the legality of an action is immaterial if it is left unprosecuted.

leeroyjenkins11 4y ago

But showing adult content to minors is illegal already. If a minor tries to buy that content in a store, the store owner would be violating the by selling it. Why is the internet different? It's also illegal for an adult to give that material to a minor, even if a minor asked for it. Because Google is a corporation, are they not required to obey the law?

charcircuit 4y ago
A law already existing doesn't make something okay.
LorenPechtel 4y ago
Note that Safe Search would exclude any visuals that would get a movie an R rating--but it's legal for parents to allow their children to see R rated movies. (And note that there's a grey area where there's stuff that's NC-17 but really contains nothing farther than an R, but either more of it or homosexual rather than heterosexual.) And I recently ran into a tidbit about the rules in Australia: Detailed pictures of female genitalia are automatically 18+, even if the purpose is educational in showing girls the range of normal genitalia to show them that theirs is normal.
- vinay427 4y ago
  > or homosexual rather than heterosexual. Do you have a source or more information on this? I'm sure it was implicit due to social norms in decades past but I couldn't find anything recent about this online.
  - LorenPechtel 4y ago
    I suggest watching "This Movie is Not Yet Rated".