#internet access

[laurenfoxmakesthings]

Petition: Do not ban children from using virtual private networks

We call upon the UK Government to reject any calls or lobbying that propose to restrict or ban the use of virtual private networks ("VPNs")

[ourpalebluehome]

Recent Good News Stories You Might Have Missed 🌍🩵

Check out this week's edition of three positive news stories you might have missed! (All links included below!)

🩺⚡💧Major progress in access to basic needs like water, healthcare, and electricity

For over a decade, the Sustainable Development Goals have delivered results — now the world must urgently scale up what works, UN report fin

7 July 2026 - Since their adoption in 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have delivered results at scale – bringing access to wa

Since 2015, the world has seen some extraordinary improvements across the board:

Nearly one billion people gained access to safe drinking water and 1.2 billion to improved sanitation, which includes sanitation facilities that aren’t shared with other households and that safely dispose of waste

New HIV infections declined by 30% and AIDS-related deaths by 35%

92% of the world’s population now has basic access to electricity

Internet access has rapidly increased from 40% to 74%

For the first time in history, more than half of the world’s population now has access to social protection, which comprises of policies and programs that aim to reduce poverty and inequality

(+ some more major gains under the article's "Progress" section of its "Additional key facts and figures"!)

☀️♻️ The Philippines leads the world in solar energy as it becomes the world's largest purchaser of solar panels

In response to rising fuel prices due to the war on Iran, people in the Philippines flocked to install rooftop solar to stave off rising power bills. This shift has resulted in $407 million in panel imports from March to May, a 145% increase from a year earlier!

🌲🌳❤️‍🩹 Reviving Northeast US forests made a remarkable recovery after centuries of deforestation

Living on Earth: The Spectacular Regrowth of New England Forests

When European colonists landed in North America, some of the most dramatic changes they made were to our forests. Clearcutting ran rampant,

When European colonists arrived in North America, entire New England forests were cleared and leveled for agriculture, cities, and resources — by 1850, the region was roughly 80% deforested, in some places 90% and 100%. But, something remarkable has happened — long after its old growth forests had been deforested, the northeast witnessed the revival of lush “second-growth” forests as nature reclaimed abandoned farmland.

Hope you enjoyed this week's dose of good news! 🩵

Follow along on Instagram, TikTok, and Bluesky for more! 🫶🏽

[pinkyprincessnom]

Oddly specific tip for bypassing age verification: if you have a realistic doll or figure that looks like an adult maybe you could use that? I honestly don't know if this works but I have a feeling it could.

If there's a will, there's a way

[enberlight]

The Biden administration is capping the cost of internet for low-income Americans

Twenty internet providers, including national companies like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon have committed to the program.

Good news if you have a low income and a high internet bill: The Biden Administration is changing that.

The Affordable Connectivity Program will provide plans of at least 100 Megabits per second of speed for no more than $30. An estimated 48 million Americans will qualify.

Twenty internet providers, including national companies like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon, as well as regional companies, such as Hawaiian Telecom and Jackson Energy Authority in Tennessee, have committed to the program.

Update: The program also gives eligible families a $30 monthly benefit they can apply to their bill. It can be one of the $30 plans at the 20 participating providers (bringing the bill to $0!) or used against the bill at 1,000+ other providers.

To see if you qualify, and for full details, go to:

Get Internet | The White House

Learn how President Biden is reducing the cost of high-speed internet and find out if you qualify to sign up.

[tearsofrefugees]

France: Authorities accused of seizing phones of unaccompanied minors in north of country

At the beginning of March, the Utopia 56 association criticized the seizure by the French state of the phones of unaccompanied minors who re

[spaceshipsandpurpledrank]

[everettrosette]

this is a big ol’ post about internet censorship + parenting

if you are already against it or staunchly and unwaveringly in favor of it, you might not get anything from this post. however, i encourage anyone who’s on the fence to continue. worst case scenario, you’ll have more knowledge about what you’re arguing for :)

i am also writing this as someone who’s lived in the medium-southern US for all 18 years of his life, but i think most/all of what i say is applicable regardless of location. this is a kind of heavy subject and deals with: safe sex + consent, lgbtq issues, mental health, bad/semi-absent parenting, and possibly more. it’s p long but there is a tl;dr at the end if you want the bare-bones summary

ok so listen. as someone who’s had basically unrestricted internet access since the age of 10, have i seen things i was probably too young to be seeing? yes. but as someone who grew up in a suburban small town in the southern US, if i didn’t have that internet access, i would not know what a condom is. i CERTAINLY wouldn’t have a comprehensive idea of consent, assuming i had one at all. i am 18 and have never gotten a sex talk, not at home or at school.

(granted, covid happened when i was like 12-13, but the point definitely still stands. i had 3.5 mostly present parental figures (iykyk) and was back to in-person schooling before 14.)

(cw for mental health + talk of suicide for the next two paragraphs and brief talk of SA in the paragraph after that. skip to the green text to avoid, but i’d recommend reading if possible.)

depending on the level of censorship we’re talking (since a lot of folks seem REAL keen on keeping kids away from all lgbtq content), i might not know what being trans is, and if i didn’t i would be dead right now. like, with 100% certainty, i would’ve killed myself by age 13, at the oldest.

i was suicidal at age 10 and thought, because i was happy occasionally, i literally couldn’t have depression. my body was changing and i fucking hated it, but i had no idea why and no words to explain it. (note: i also have a LARGE family history of mental health issues that nobody told me about, so i was kinda flying solo)

i feel like this is pretty self-explanatory how this applies to kids who’ve experienced SA and don’t know about sex/have the words to describe what happened to them. given that and the fact that i don’t have any personal experience to speak on, i’ll leave that point there.

(ok no more cw for those who skipped)

as people (mainly schools and parents) try to keep kids away from “adult topics,” be it sex or queer identities or mental health issues (on and offline! think book bans and people censoring school + public libraries!) they aren’t just policing their 8 year old little timmy. they are policing future 9-17 year old timmy, all <18 year olds, and all 18+ year olds. (also, y’all we GOTTA stop lumping 5 year olds and 17 year olds in the same category).

there’s a lot of talk about parents needing to be the ones who control what their kids see instead of the government (which is true), but people need to realize that parenting your kids doesn’t just mean shielding them from any and all “uncomfortable” topics/conversations. it means having those uncomfortable conversations. so, unless you want your kid learning about sex from some 30 year old on roblox: the dating app edition, talk to them.

policing the internet is not going to make innocent kids. it is going to make ignorant adults (and/or sneaky kids). kids grow up at some point, so talk to them. people need to realize that, not only are children future adults, they are current people who deserve autonomy.

tl;dr: should i have been reading porn at age 12? maybe, maybe not. is that a reason to block everyone under 18 from seeing any “adult” content (as defined by the government of all things)? definitely not.

wow that was a long post. imma go take a nap and work on college stuff. get ready for a mess of tags.