Hey, PSA:

On your phone, go to Settings> Security and Privacy> Privacy> Other Privacy Settings> Ads> Delete Advertising ID

Then go back to Other Privacy Settings> Google location history> Turn off Location History &/or Turn-on Auto-Delete (you can set a time period of how long to keep it)

Then, staying on Other Privacy Settings, go to '+ See all activity controls'> Web & App activity> Turn off (you can also turn-on Auto-Delete for here too)

Then Scroll down to Personalized ads> My Ad Center> Turn Off Personalized Ads.

Google has no business knowing/storing everything you do online, and knowing/storing where you go everyday. Turn it off.

These instructions are for an Android phone, IOS might be different. If you have IOS or another operating system feel free to add on with your own map to where they've buried these settings in your phone to help others.

One thing I despise about kids being uneducated about internet safety is the amount of times I’ve had to delete not just their identifying details from my page (don’t fucking tell me where you go to school), but also mine.

If you saw me at work or out and about, no you fucking didn’t.

Shut the fuck up, I’ve had death threats.

Hey teenagers.

You aren't slick. We adults know you look at our smut. We know no amount of minors DNI is gonna stop you from looking at our smut. We were teenagers once too, you know?

But please. Don't interact with people about sexual things online. Reading somebodies adult fic is fine. I don't like it, but you're gonna do it. Commenting on that smutfic, or joining a discord server for it, puts everyone in a really dangerous situation. Thats an entirely different level of risk. Not even with people your own age, since you can never know for sure.

Just saw someone ask for someone's irl age in their bio for "safety" or some shit and--

Friends, I'm telling you: this is the internet. There should be no expectation of access to your personal information.

Say nothing! Or if that doesn't work for you, fucking lie. Use a pseud! Say you live in a snail's shell off the coast of New Brunswick! Answer every info-gathering question asked of you with a different, less comprehensible answer! Tell anyone who says you've got to put your real age in your bio that you're 85, ta ever so, and they're very rude to bother you with this!

But your first step to internet safety is to say nothing.

Make it harder for bad actors to find you, manipulate you, or steal all your shit.

The good actors won't fucking ask.

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

KOSA AFFECTS US ALL

there will be no room to call for a free palestine, congo, sudan, or yemen when imperialists control what stays on the internet.

there will be no room for sharing queer joy, safe binding and tucking guides, or tutorials on how to safely navigate kink when queerphobes and puritans decide what kinda of relationships and identities are "acceptable".

there will be no room for anticapitalism, protest organizing, pirating, or sharing anti-establishment resources when the establishment can erase whatever ideas are too threatening to them to stay.

there will be no room to be someone who doesn't conform.

DOWNLOAD ALL THAT IS IMPORTANT TO YOU. CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES. PROTEST AS LOUDLY AS POSSIBLE. SIGN PETITIONS. BUILD ALTERNATIVE COMMUNICATIONS FOR YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS. AND DO IT NOW BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE.

Hey guys, it's time for an Internet Safety lesson!

It's been a while since I got one of these messages. It helps that they all use pretty much the same script though!

This is a scam.

Please try to remember how this looks - learning to recognize these patterns is an important tool that will help us later.

This ask is not addressing you by name or directly referencing anything personal - it's meant to be sent out to 100s of accounts and thus must sound generic.

This account has no posts that are older than 23 hours.

The user is requesting payments through paypal, asking to mark it as friend or family, because if you ask for your money back, you will not be able to dispute it as a fraud donation.

The user is stressing keeping this donation drive private because many people recognize this scam and will speak out against it.

If you're worried, please search the #tumblr scam page and feast your eyes upon many other cats in eerily identical medical situations:

Always remember to verify donation drives before you give away money. A person who is actually in need will understand your need to double-check details before donating.

This is a terrifying norm I’ve been seeing in fandom recently, with a lot of people asking for photo ID’s to enter a server or for 18+ commissions or to follow a private Twitter account. While I understand the sentiment and realize that there’s an issue of minors trying to get into adult spaces, this is an incredibly dangerous practice that needs to stop.

I have seen this popping up more and more in the past year and frankly, I’m sick of sitting back and watching it become a social norm. Not to mention, there is a huge difference between a company with a team of lawyers and legal statements with the intention to protect your information and giving this to a random person online.

Here is an article from IAPP discussing more in depth the current difficulties for age verification online.  Thanks to @murmurkins for digging around to find this!

Here is also some resources for Discord specifically on how to moderate and run a server that has 18+ channels and designating a server as 18+. Discord also notes that if you are locked out of 18+ channels, you can appeal this by sending a picture of yourself and either a photo ID or your Discord tag. Again, while not a perfect solution, this is their last resort, not the intial requirement. It’s dangerous to do, and Discord recognizes this, which is why they have a system to protect your information AND they require that all third-party individuals have a privacy policy telling individuals how they will protect others’ information. 

If anyone wants to respond to this post with more information on other websites, feel free! The biggest issue I have seen with this is on Discord, so that is where my information is focused.

TL;DR: Don’t give your ID out online to random people for your safety. Make sure who you are giving personal information to has a privacy policy. While it is an issue that minors are accessing 18+ content, this is not a safe solution to the problem.

IMPORTANT.

death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA death to KOSA

Internet Etiquette

Devastating! You just saw a take that you don't agree with! This is a check for reading comprehension and the practice of good faith. 

Analyze 

What emotion was this intended to inspire?

What was the goal the speaker was trying to achieve?

How could this be interpreted differently?

Is there context that would change the meaning?

Is the speaker qualified?

Reflect

What is your first reaction and why did you have that specific reaction?

Is it an issue that is harming you and/or did the group being harmed directly state that this harms them?

Do you accept the consequences that could result from interacting?

Is the speaker someone you can reason with?

What assumptions are you making about the speaker?

Speak

What is the goal of your words?

What audience are you catering towards?

Are you talking to the person with respect?

How could your words be interpreted differently?

What reaction will people have towards your words and how is it being achieved?

stopkosa.com

change.org petition

a post with other helpful links

KOSA or the Kids Online Safety Act is an Internet bill being pushed by the American government. It claims its purpose is to "protect" kids, but really its methods of enforcing this is mass censorship and control of the Internet. The passing of this bill would lead to LGBTQ+ related information, reproductive healthcare, and other topics that government officials may find "dangerous" to children be restricted or censored.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

In the website linked above, there is a petition you can sign as well as a pre-filled message you can send. You can also write to your representatives, and if you don't want to come up with an entire message, I've attached sample scripts. Also, go to badinternetbills.com for another petition that references similar bills. For more information about KOSA, you can see this article: eff.org/deeplinks/2024/02/don… .

Spread information about this, and do what you can. This bill being passed would mean an era of censorship for the Internet.

IMPORTANT: KOSA MASTERPOST

Please, don't just scroll past! Share, reblog, and check out the content on these links! I will be adding things as I find (so make sure you reblog the original post, you can do this by clicking on my name and going to the pinned post which is this!!) and/or as the situation changes, and if there are resources you want to see added, send them to me.

LATEST UPDATES: HERE (as of 5/1/24)

INFORMATION

What happens if KOSA passes?

What's at stake?

KOSA isn't designed to help kids.

How will KOSA passing affect you?

KOSA is a privacy nightmare.

Banning kids from social media isn't the answer.

American Action Forum

90+ LGBTQ organizations oppose KOSA

Popular Apps affected by KOSA

Rally for the Internet Archive

KOSA changes don't make it less dangerous

Senate Schedule

Current KOSA status (sign up to get alerts from this if you're able!)

KOSA will actively target trans and LGBTQ+ content

The TikTok ban isn't about China, it's the fact that it's largely pro-palestine and has other content the government doesn't want us talking about.

KOSA applies to EVERYONE here.

Israel is revealed to be behind the infamous Tiktok ban

Read the bill itself

Call Script for KOSA

An actually helpful alternative

RESOURCES

Huge list of resources

Tell Congress

Tell Lizzo

Linktree

Bad Internet Bills

StopKOSA.com

Petition - we need 35k signatures and we're almost there!

Contact list

Fight for the future

Speak out against KOSA

Censorship won't make kids safe

Internet red alert

EFF Action Center

More Petitions List (check and sign as many as you can!)

Fight against the TikTok ban as well

Another petition - 123,000/130,000 signatures

Share your story of how social media has helped you

Help keep the ACP alive

Another masterpost

WHERE ELSE CAN YOU FIND MORE RESOURCES?

The Stop Internet Censorship discord server has a ton of useful resources that I pulled from some of to make this post, even. Following and looking at tags like #stop kosa will help make sure you stay informed and they stay trending, as well.

EVERYTHING HELPS!! Let's make sure this bill doesn't pass! Reblogs > likes!!

last updated: 8:18 pm EST, 5/9/24

here's a list of mozilla add-ons for all of you tumblrinas out there to have a better internet experience

also, if you like my post, please reblog it. Tumblr hates links but i had to put them so you adhd bitches actually download them <3 i know because i am also adhd bitches

BASIC STUFF:

AdGuard AdBlocker / uBlock Origin : adguard is a basic adblock and with origin you can also block any other element you want. for example i got rid of the shop menu on tumblr

Privacy Badger : this add on will block trackers. if an element contains a tracker it will give you the option to use it or not

Shinigami Eyes: this will highlight transphobic and trans friendly users and sites using different colors by using a moderated database. perfect to avoid terfs on any social media. i will explain how to use this and other add-ons on android as well under the read more cut

THINGS YOU TUMBLINAS WANT:

Xkit: the best tumblr related add on. with many customizable options, xkit not only enhances your experience from a visual standpoint, but provides some much needed accessibility tools

bonus: if you are into tf2 and wanna be a cool cat, you can also get the old version to add cool reblog icons

AO3 enhancer: some basic enhancements including reading time and the ability to block authors and tags

YOUTUBE

Return of the YouTube Dislike : pretty self explanatory

Youtube non-stop: gets rid of the annoying "Video paused. Continue watching?" popup when you have a video in the background

SponsorBlock: gives you options to skip either automatically or manually sponsors, videoclip non music sectors and discloses other type of sponsorships/paid partnerships

Enhancer for YouTube: adds some useful options such as custom play speed, let's you play videos in a window and most important of all, it allows you to make the youtube interface as ugly as your heart desires. I can't show a full image of what it looks like because i've been told its eye strainy and i want this post to be accessible but look at this <3

PocketTube: allows you to organize your subscriptions into groups

YouTube Comment Search: what it says

FINDING STUFF

WayBack Machine: you probably know about this site and definitely should get the add on. this allows you to save pages and access older versions with the click of a button. while you can search wayback using web archives, please get this one as well as it allows you to easily save pages and contribute to the archive.

Web Archives: it allows you to search through multiple archives and search engines including WayBack Machine, Google, Yandex and more.

Search by Image: allows you to reverse image search using multiple search engines (in my experience yandex tends to yield the best results)

Image Search Options: similar to the last one

this next section is pretty niche but... STEAM AND STEAM TRADING

SteamDB: adds some interesting and useful statistics

Augmented Steam: useful info specially for browsing and buying games

TF2 Trade Helper: an absolute godsend, lets you add items in bundles, keeps track of your keys and metal and your recent trades, displays links to the backpack tf page next to users profiles and more. look it tells me how much moneys i have and adds metal to trades without clicking one by one oh may god

IN CONCLUSION: oooooh you want to change to firefox so badly, you want to delete chrome and all the chrome clones that are actually just spyware and use firefox

HOW TO USE MOZILLA ADD-ONS ON YOUR PHONE

if you already use firefox on android, you'll know there are certain add-ons compatible with the app, some of them even being made just for the mobile version such as Video Background Play FIx. while most of them are pretty useful, some more specific ones aren't available on this version of the browser, but there's a way of getting some of them to work

you need to download the firefox nightly app, which is basically the same as the regular firefox browser but with the ability of activating developer mode. you can find how to do that here. once you've enabled it, you need to create a collection with all the add ons you want. i wouldn't recommend adding extensions if the creators haven't talked about phone compatibility, but XKit and Shinigami Eyes should work

also, don't tell the government this secret skater move, but you can try using both the regular firefox browser and nightly so you can have youtube videos in a floating box while you browse social media.

see? i can block this terf while Rick Rolling the people following this tutorial. isn't that tubular?

I think we should bring this shit back for a lot of the minors on the internet nowadays tbh. Not even being condescending either, I legitimately feel that internet safety hasn’t been being taught like it’s supposed to be. I’ve seen way too many bad things happen to young people because they simply weren’t aware of basic internet safety protocols. I know a lot of us may think it’s just common sense, but we were still taught these things.

Think about back when you were 13. We all thought we were smart as hell when we were young teens! But looking back, we know we made stupid choices because THOUGHT we knew right at the time (we didn’t). The only reason we knew about internet safety is because abuse we were taught at a fairly early age. We knew better (for the most part) because we were taught it! We need to bring internet safety back.

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.