Sorry to long emotional post but I’m basically out here alone pushing back and it’s not easy. Probably the closest aligned to me are the digital privacy rights activists but we have different rolls.

We should just shut down the entire Internet due to safety concerns from these kinds of dummies

Your colleagues are asleep at the wheel. In the end we win.

Do they not see how useful good privacy tools are for victims trying to get out of their current bad situation?

Not that I rate telegram as a good privacy tool.

Do they pretend like this doesn't exist on most if not all the other platforms? If not, are they calling for those to be shutdown too?

I’ve always thought a significant problem isn’t Telegram.. or social media in general but naivety of parents with respect to kids on the internet. Even when I used CompuServe (paid online service) kids would use their parents accounts and of course being a pay service we always thought it was at least young adults we were interacting with. I had to explain to someone who let their 9 year old use their account (this 9 year old was being incredibly rude under the guise of being an adult) that if you don’t let your child unsupervised on the streets of downtown Manhattan why do you let them onto the internet (in this case online services). It can be just as dangerous….

I don’t think that it sunk in with that parent. I’m sure most think it’s “words on a screen”. It can be far more than that to predators. Parents need to NOT let their kids online.. not FB, TwitX, instagram etc. (and by NO means mastodon). I had a predator try to go after my own daughter. Now that she’s grown she’s like “OMG I’m glad you intervened and lost your shit like that!”

Centralized social media is like a drug because it’s so easy to get to. And kids if they have a mental or emotional “hole” in them they’re trying to fill for whatever reason - being acceptance or attention or whatever - social media is the easiest way for them to fill it. Because its all right there in the palm their hands.

It is sad to see people being such blatant, distopian despots, especially when they think they are doing evil for a good cause. Evil has such a hold on the minds of people that they think they would be doing good by attacking every human in earth. It is hard to understand because I'm not low intelligence, ignorant of history, and evil.

Shutting down Telegram feels like cops showing off seized drugs. All for show, really.

We've been slow and steady introducing our teen to the internet and smartphones. Still pretty locked down, but it lets us keep having those important discussions. It's not easy, but she admits she's not dealing with the same issues as her friends. She feels more in control. Funny enough, I'd say she's got more freedom because of it.

Sounds like a terrible job. Easy solution, tell them Macron is a pedo and quit.