Child‑Safety Pivot Masks Speech Limits

The Prime Minister repeatedly answers free‑speech criticism by invoking the need to protect children from paedophilia and suicide content online. This reframes debate away from civil liberties toward child protection, providing political cover as thousands face online‑speech investigations and arrests. — Child‑safety framing can normalize broader speech restrictions and shape policing and legislative agendas without acknowledging civil‑liberties costs.

Sources

*FDR: A New Political Life*

Tyler Cowen 2025.11.30 62% relevant

Beito/Davis’s account shows FDR using national‑security and public‑order rationales (wartime sedition prosecutions, telegram monitoring) to justify speech curbs—an instance of the broader narrative that invoking emergency or protection rationales masks durable restrictions on expression.

Britain’s free speech shame

Adam King 2025.10.01 100% relevant

Starmer’s Chequers remark drawing a ‘limit’ between free speech and content that ‘peddles paedophilia and suicide’ to children, amid a reported wave of online‑speech arrests and the Met’s call to change the law.