The UK government’s recent campaign against end-to-end encryption is the latest of many examples of the “think of the children” narrative being used to restrict individual rights or liberties in the name of protecting children from harm.
In this particular campaign, the UK government is pressing social media companies to “confirm they will not implement end-to-end encryption until they have the technology in place to ensure children will not be put at greater risk as a result.” The UK government’s goal is to soften public opinion before introducing new amendments to its controversial “Online Safety Bill”. These amendments would force multi-national companies to install surveillance backdoors in end-to-end encrypted messaging apps that would allow third parties to snoop on anyone’s private messages.
