Trolls Are Swarming Young Climate Activists Online
buzzfeednews.com
buzzfeednews.com
It's also a glaring example of weak points in current law and Twitter specifically. First, Twitter really needs expand its privacy options. Someone should be able to publicly share an opinion without allowing anyone to reply to their timeline or DM them. On the legal point, sending graphic pictures to underaged girls is a sex crime, and underfunded law enforcement is not keeping up given physical crimes and multijurisdictional nature. Interpol or a related entity has to start chasing down criminals that send sexual material to young people. It is plainly child abuse regardless of politics.
Is it just me, or is there something disturbing about an 8 year old activist for anything? I cannot see anything good coming from turning young children into activists. Kids that age need love and stability, not the fear that the world is going to end unless they do something.
Having a genuine, important and understandable cause is likely to amplify that.
Something as simple as gathering twigs for a campfire is unusual specifically because it’s helpful. Activism at that age is a mix of learning experience and actually useful. So, IMO it can be a positive activity in the right context.
This appears to just be a continuation of the disturbing trend of adults trying to make themselves feel virtuous by speaking through their children.
I specifically remember a science class in third grade that had photosynthesis producing Oxygen and asking my dad for more information. In the age of the Internet someone getting the basic chemistry idea that molecules are made from atoms thing down should not be that surprising.
IMO, it’s plenty old enough to understand why cars get so hot inside when left in the sun which is about as far as the vast majority of adults understand climate change.
The fear should be focused on the message, and could turn into: What are you personally doing to combat climate change? What will you say you did when you look back in 2050.
*There is an exception for those who seek to undermine the system. The Nazis, the people who send porn to 13 year olds, the columnists who continuously deny climate change is real.
Then we should be doing something, we should be building a world where they don’t have to live in credible fear of mass extinctions, food crises, escalating natural disasters, and state violence in response to them. That children aren’t being afforded that by our inaction and complacency, are forced into this role to defend their basic survival, is what is far more disturbing.
They are forming their own opinions. Sometimes strongly held. They are forming their own opinions on how well the world is not being managed environmentally, climatically etc. It's kinda hard to miss.
Kids get more reposts/retweets/shares so the parents can rake in that ad/sponsorship money by making them public figures
I find this phenomenon of pushing these kids to the forefront of climate change protests really alarming. Any call to action seeks to bypass your critical thinking especially when it comes to children. Emotions start to short circuit the rational thought.
Yes, this is a global problem in that it affects us all and needs some global cooperation, but this is not the way.
This will cause more harm to these kids and I fear the hasty decisions taken based on this activism would be myopic and may lull us into complacency or worst do more harm than good.
When I was a kid I was told to never link any online account with my real identity and to always regard every person encountered on the web as a potential bad actor. The article begins with the story of an 11-year-old whose identity is linked to a public Twitter account.
There is a distinct lack of recognition for the failures in parenting taking place here. Personal safety and privacy are necessities for a healthy childhood, a public soapbox is not.
It would be one thing if the kids were doing original research and social media were the only way to distribute the research, but neither of those are true.
I think pretty much everyone involved here, aside from the children, ought to be ashamed of themselves. I don't buy into the idea that people ought to be driven out of society though.
I must point out that the larger problem here is that our politics is such a cesspool of trolling and sensationalism and personal attacks. We have lost the ability to even have a rational discourse about issues with the dialogue now being dominated by shrill fanatics and attention whoring trolls on all sides.
We really have to do something to reduce the firehose of twitter/FB bots and trolls with no accountability. It's like the old days of email spam, but with targetted abuse and harassment.
If crime increases in the neighborhood, do you tell your children they're going to die? No, you tell them to be careful, to follow some simple, easy-for-them rules, and that things will be fine.
In this case, do you think these children are being presented with any alternate views at all? Are any of them being presented with the arguments of climate change skeptics in a neutral forum? Of course not. Most adults are never presented with these arguments, let alone children. No, they're being told that for inexplicable reasons the world is filled with evil people who want everyone to die and they ... children ... must fight them or the world will end! That'd have been like telling 8 year olds in the 1950s they had to fight communism. There's no way bringing children of that age into things can ever be a good idea.
Think about it. When you're a kid, you're not yet jaded by the harsh realities of the world. That corporations drive everything and we are basically just along for the ride.
The kids are looking at our dying planet and wondering "why is nobody doing anything?!?" I often feel the same way. The difference is, I have to go to work and focus on providing for my family. I also know that no amount of protesting or public speaking will change the path we are on in any significant way. Children still believe they can make a difference and I admire that passion. They are not worried about how old they are because they are watching the "adults" sit around and argue over even the smallest of corrective measures (carbon tax).
Yes, but so what? 8 year olds are passionate about eating endless amounts of ice cream. Doesn't mean that passion should be acted on.
There is the truth and there is misinformation perpetuated by the oil/natural gas/plastic/etc companies
Plastic companies? That's a new one! I don't think I've heard Big Plastic be described as staffed by liars before.
You sound like you've never really listened to climate change skeptics. Some of them make valid points, worrying points about media exaggeration of genuine science, actual scientific malpractice and the frequency of failed predictions in the past. You should try it. It may prove mind expanding.
But do you really want to immerse yourself in ambiguity? Or do you want to see the world as a titanic struggle between good and evil? Children very much want the latter. Disney movies always depict a purely good hero/purely evil villain dichotomy because these are stories designed for children who can't/won't handle anything complex, and additionally in order to teach them a moral code.
When I see the rhetoric around climate science, it often reminds me of Disney movies. There's Good People like the speaker and then a dark, shadowy conspiracy of Evil People whose inexplicably malign and self-destructive motives are never explained ... and who certainly aren't allowed to explain themselves!
After all, are you the devil you decry?
The difference is, I have to go to work and focus on providing for my family.
Indeed. Or put a bit more harshly, "why is nobody doing anything" has a simple answer: because people like you have chosen to enjoy the benefits the world has to offer in its current form, benefits like having a family and a job that's based further than walking distance.
Children have never had to provide for anyone. How can they understand this decision, the tradeoffs that go into it? Why should any adults care what they think about the big issues of the day when they've spent their entire lives in carefully controlled environments, one in which to disagree with the opinions of "experts" (teachers) yields swift and immediate punishment? They can't even start to think for themselves until they're outside that environment, which for a few could take a couple more decades.
When it comes to randos on the internet who hide behind anime or Warhammer 40K avatars and post mostly memes, the answer is "hell, no".
If a child wants to opine on climate change or abortion or whatever, that's fine. But activists and the media shouldn't push to elevate that child to the national stage to score political points.
Once you've set yourself up as a political activist, people will respond to your beliefs, and they won't always be kind.
People are not responding to their beliefs though - this is straight up abuse, racism, and crass insults. Presumably as they are unable to engage with those beliefs at a rational level.
Hopefully the mods will second-chance it, as despite the oh-so-predictable trash comments there's an important issue.
Just one point to make to that: For any kid protesting, or caring about climate, it's been an issue that's been constantly in the background their whole damn life. Longer than they've been able to read.
Things we've had longer than 18 years: Recycling bins; climate and associated environmental stories such as species loss on news, documentaries, in schools; politicians talking about, dismissing and greenwashing climate; climate related taxes; alternative lightbulbs, insulation and low-energy promotions from utility companies. [other countries may vary on details, and age of majority]
How can they possibly not be forming strong opinions, and wanting to do something?
Remember CND and the peace movements? That was part of the kid's and youth culture of the sixties - for that generation that was impossible to miss with the constant Cold War backdrop. This generation gets added trolling and conspiracy claims of it being adults pulling strings.
I fully support protecting the environment but this is child exploitation for political purposes. These movements should be led by scientists, not children. Is it any wonder people are still skeptical?
If it's shameful that a 16 year old is being forced to lead a movement, the shame is on society and the older generations for not doing anything about climate change despite manifest urgency.
It doesn't say much at all for the generation that's ignoring the issue.
The "kids" will inherit our poor decisions so they're making a stand.
Why? If your child is passionate about something, why would you disallow them from pursuing it?
“In lifeproof houses they hover over the young, sop up a little of what they shut out. Only the young bring anything in, and they are not young very long.”
― William S. Burroughs
I know climate change is a huge problem, but using young children like this feels creepy and cult-like.
The real joke are the adult idiots who'd rather destroy our planet than listen to someone speaking uncomfortable truths.
We also shouldn't elevate our children to become spokespeople for the world.
Let kids be kids.
Trolling is a fundamental right , not being trolled is not
If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and take the spirit of the site more to heart, we'd appreciate it.
Freedom of association is as fundamental a right as freedom of speech, and freedom of association means that nobody is entitled to an audience.
If you email me, I have the right to block your emails, and indeed refuse all email from your domain.
If you DM me on Twitter or Mastodon, I have the right to mute you, and indeed the right to refuse all DMs from non-mutuals.
If you come to my house to harangue me, I have every right to call the police and have you charged with harassment -- and in some jurisdictions I might even be able to get away with shooting you and claiming I did so in self-defense.
You have freedom to express yourself, but using that freedom to harass others for fun is strongly discouraged in society. It flies on the Internet because people can show their worst behavior with practically no discouragement.
But let's leave that aside. Do you consider gratuitous insults, slurs, doctored images and defamation aimed at a single individual, a protected right? If a troll did that in person, he would likely be dealt with legally, that's why they do it in numbers and behind a virtual gate. The idea of impunity brings the worst of them.
This is hilariously wrong in most jurisdictions, probably including the one you’re thinking of.
You may be parseing down ‘trolling’ to ‘behaving argumentatively on the internets’ but this is not the substance of what attacks are being brought against these young women, who are also minors.
Feel free to double down on “death threats aren’t trolling” and so on, if you’ve missed the point. UDHR article 12 for further reading.
"Young girls not being able to express an opinion because of trolls" is a totally ass-backwards way of looking at the situation. Society in the age of social media just needs a way of shoving trolls back under the rocks they've historically sleazed around under.
The truth is most of these children are just that, children, they are being used by capitalistic parents as a walking billboard for whatever agenda or service is being promoted.
Awareness is great and all but not many people are looking to be more aware, we are looking for practical solutions, none of which are being offered with all the attention goes to idolizing a child.
Adults are bullying children
I'm not sympathetic to those who are moralizing about trolling this child they like, when they just put down the torches and pitchforks they had out for a different child they don't like.
We're lucky kids her age are still talking, and haven't decided that the situation is sufficiently dire to justify the use of violence.