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08-09 Why Aren’t We Treating Child Sexual Abuse Like the Crisis It Is?
This September will mark six years since the world first learned about the horrific abuse that occurred at Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics and exposed the institutional failures that allowed one man to abuse hundreds for decades.
Six years later, although this now defamed doctor Larry Nassar is in prison, the painful reality is that we have done far too little as a country to prevent what happened to hundreds like me — and children across the United States — from happening again.
08-08 Beware: TikTok, Tourette’s, and Nervous Tics: How China Has Reprogrammed Our Girls
The Communist Party of China’s most popular spyware app aimed especially at young girls — TikTok — is actually changing the minds of our children by conditioning their behavior. First, girls are spending countless hours glued to their phones, but then… these young girls are actually developing new mental disorders.
Yes, TikTok is giving girls mental problems.
According to a new report from Christina Buttons at The Post Millennial, girls spending too much time on TikTok are developing their own “functional neurological disorder[s]” — even developing “functional tics” — as a result of the content they’re watching on the app. This means that TikTok is successfully reshaping the behavior of young American girls.
Dr. Omar Danoun, a Henry Ford Health neurologist, explains that many young girls when watching someone with uncontrolled tics or behaviors — such as seizures — will themselves mimic that behavior as a coping mechanism to the tragedy they’re persistently encountering.
Read more here.
08-07 How One Actor is Using Her Skills to Stop Human Trafficking
Actor Marisol Nichols is working as a real-life undercover operative, helping police stop human trafficking. NBC’s Emilie Ikeda reports for Saturday TODAY.
Watch here.
08-06 TikTok Moderators Are Being Trained Using Graphic Images Of Child Sexual Abuse
Horrific and disturbing.
Read more here.
08-05 Visa and Mastercard Suspend Payments for Ad Purchases on Pornhub and MindGeek Amid Controversy
Visa and Mastercard said Thursday card payments for advertising on Pornhub and its parent company MindGeek would be suspended after a lawsuit stoked controversy over whether the payments giants could be facilitating child pornography.
A federal judge in California on Friday denied Visa’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit by a woman who accuses the payment processor of knowingly facilitating the distribution of child pornography on Pornhub and other sites operated by parent company MindGeek.
Visa CEO and Chairman Al Kelly said in a statement Thursday that he strongly disagrees with the court and is confident in his position.
Read more here.
08-04 Back-to-School Reset: 4 Tips on Managing Devices and Screen Time for Families
It’s that time of year again — kids are heading back to school! For lots of reasons, family routines can get disrupted during the summer, from morning routines and bedtimes to TV and video game limits.
Now’s a great time to check in as a family on expectations related to technology and entertainment. The tips and resources here can help you reset rules for screen time, have conversations about using tech in safe and healthy ways, and ease your kids’ transition back to learning in the classroom.
Educators can use this back-to-school checklist to kick off the school year with positive tech and media use.
Bring back family screen time rules.
The start of the new school year is a great time to revisit family rules about screen time and technology. Talk with your kids about when, where, how, and for how long they should be using devices and tech, and then create a plan together with these family media agreements:
08-03 Psychosis, Addiction, Chronic Vomiting: As Weed Becomes More Potent, Teens Are Getting Sick
With THC levels close to 100 percent, today’s cannabis products are making some teenagers highly dependent and dangerously ill.
Elysse was 14 when she first started vaping cannabis. It didn’t smell, which made it easy to hide from her parents. And it was convenient — just press a button and inhale. After the second or third try, she was hooked.
“It was insane. Insane euphoria,” said Elysse, now 18, whose last name is being withheld to protect her privacy. “Everything was moving slowly. I got super hungry. Everything was hilarious.”
But the euphoria eventually morphed into something more disturbing. Sometimes the marijuana would make Elysse feel more anxious, or sad. Another time she passed out in the shower, only to wake up half an hour later. This was not your average weed. The oil and waxes she bought from dealers were typically about 90 percent THC, the psychoactive component in marijuana. But because these products were derived from cannabis, and nearly everyone she knew was using them, she assumed they were relatively safe. She began vaping multiple times per day. Her parents didn’t find out until about one year later, in 2019.
“We got her in a program to help her with it. We tried tough love, we tried everything, to be honest with you,” Elysse’s father said of her addiction.
Starting in 2020 she began having mysterious bouts of illness where she would throw up over and over again. At first she and her parents — and even her doctors — were baffled. During one episode, Elysse said, she threw up in a mall bathroom for an hour. “I felt like my body was levitating.”
Another time she estimated that she threw up at least 20 times in the span of two hours.
It wasn’t until 2021, after a half dozen trips to the emergency room for stomach illness, including some hospital stays, that a gastroenterologist diagnosed her with cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, a condition that causes recurrent vomiting in heavy marijuana users.
Read more here.
08-02 PARENTS BEWARE: Do You Know What A Back-To-School Necklace Is?
What is a ‘Back-to-School Necklace’? All About This Disturbing Trend That Parents Need to Know About
Although it sounds like a fun accessory, this phrase has a truly dark explanation.As summer begins to come to a close, it’s normal to hear about all things back-to-school. Shopping is one activity that is common to hear about at this time—after all, going to the store for new school clothes and accessories is exciting for both kids and parents.
But if you hear students discussing back-to-school necklaces, it’s important to note that they’re not talking about a new, cute piece of jewelry. Instead, it’s a troubling phrase (that doesn’t seem alarming on the surface) you might hear in conversation or see on social media. So what exactly is a back-to-school necklace? We explain.
08-01 Judge Refuses to Remove Visa from Pornhub Child Porn Lawsuit
A federal judge ruled Friday that Visa helped Pornhub “monetize child porn” and sex trafficking — a decision that could have long-lasting implications for credit card companies, legal observers say.
The court denied Visa’s motion to be dropped from a lawsuit against porn parent company MindGeek, ruling there was enough evidence to show the company “knowingly provid[ed] the tool used to complete the crime” of distributing child pornography.
The decision was made in connection with a suit filed by a woman who claims Pornhub dragged its heels after she warned it was hosting an explicit video taken of her when she was 13 — at one point requiring photographic evidence that she was the same child in the video.
Read more here.
Recent Posts
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08-10 Memo to FBI: Kids Are Counting On You
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08-09 Why Aren’t We Treating Child Sexual Abuse Like the Crisis It Is?
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08-08 Beware: TikTok, Tourette’s, and Nervous Tics: How China Has Reprogrammed Our Girls
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08-07 How One Actor is Using Her Skills to Stop Human Trafficking
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08-06 TikTok Moderators Are Being Trained Using Graphic Images Of Child Sexual Abuse