When her teen with autism suddenly became angry, depressed and violent, the mother searched his phone for answers.
She found her son had been exchanging messages with chatbots on Character.AI, an artificial intelligence app that allows users to create and interact with virtual characters that mimic celebrities, historical figures and anyone else their imagination conjures.
What could go wrong?
Two parents in Northampton County are pleading for the community’s help to find their 14-year-old daughter.
Enci Wu, who goes by Aubrey, ran away from her home in Palmer Township in early January and hasn’t been seen in more than a month. Her parents told us they believe she may have been the victim of human trafficking.
We met Jiajie Wu, Aubrey’s mother who goes by Jade, and Aubrey’s stepfather John Gehrmann in their kitchen, where they’ve set up a command center to search for their daughter. They’ve been working to find her since Jan. 10.
f you order up coffee on a mobile app while scrolling your social feeds, or can’t stop watching videos and reading news articles on your phone at bedtime, listen up!
Researchers studied what happened when people agreed to block the internet from their smartphones for just two weeks. And turns out, 91% felt better after the break.
“What we found was that people had better mental health, better subjective well-being and better sustained attention,” says Adrian Ward, a psychologist at the University of Texas at Austin.
Talk to your kids. NOW.
A Somerset County man is accused of giving gift cards to a minor and then threatening the victim’s family when he didn’t get to meet him in person.
Sebastian Romero, 27, was arrested at his Somerset home on Aug. 2, according to the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office.
He’s charged with first-degree production of child sexual abuse material, second-degree debauching the morals of a child, second-degree luring, second-degree aggravated sexual extortion, third-degree CSAM possession, and third-degree obscenity to a minor.
President Trump’s Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday teased plans to release bombshell documents in Jeffrey Epstein’s case — which could include his client list.
Bondi said there are “a lot of documents” related to the dead pedophile’s case sitting “on her desk” waiting to be reviewed during an interview with Fox News’ “America Reports.”
She said she was briefed on the materials shortly after being confirmed to her high-profile post in the Trump administration — and that looking at them was a “directive” from the president himself.
he notorious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, the brutal MS-13 organization, and half a dozen Mexican cartels have been designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the State Department.
The announcement, dated Feb. 6 and published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, prohibits Americans from providing “material support or resources” to the organizations — and allows the US to deport those involved in the gangs.
In addition to Tren de Aragua and MS-13, the cartels given the designations include Cartel de Sinaloa, formerly led by notorious drug lord “El Chapo“; Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, Carteles Unidos, Cartel del Noreste, Cartel del Golfo and La Nueva Familia Michoacana.
Kevin – Metcalf – William Shakespeare’s words in Macbeth capture a profound sense of despair and futility:
“Life’s but a walking shadow; a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
At first glance, these words might seem like a resignation to meaninglessness. But when applied to the fight against human trafficking, exploitation, and abuse, they take on a different meaning—one that acknowledges the enormity of the battle, yet refuses to yield to despair.
We cannot end human trafficking any more than we can eliminate poverty, mental illness, bad parenting, or people who exploit others for personal gain. The world has always known suffering, and it always will. But the goal is not to achieve some mythical final victory; it is to fight for the next one.
The 37-year-old is currently under house arrest in Romania and is awaiting trial on human trafficking charges. His brother, 36, and two Romanian women are also awaiting trial.
