Blog

08-18 Today is Sunday – Let It Be A Rest Day. Put Down the Devices. This Goes for You and the Kids.

August 18, 2024 lynnswarriors Blog

The Negative Effects of Technology on Children

From smartphones and social media to TV and tablet-based toys, today’s kids are constantly inundated by technology. While it’s important for children and teens to develop an aptitude for technology, after all, they will use computers their whole lives, too much technology use can have detrimental health and physical effects. The negative effects on children’s health run the gamut from increased risk of obesity to loss of social skills and behavioral problems. Of course, this doesn’t mean parents need to ban technology entirely, but it’s important for parents to be aware of the potential effects of technology on children and develop strategies to limit their children’s screen time.

How Technology Affects Children

Technology is everywhere, and while we cannot and should not ban technology entirely, we can set limits for our children to offset some of the negative effects. Too much screen time can affect your child’s physical health as well as their behavior. Learn more about the physical and mental effects of too much of a good thing (read: technology) and discover what you can do to help your child.

08-17 Encourage Your School Administrators to Implement a Phone-Free Policy Based on the Best Practice Definition. Be Sure to Share the New Phone-Free Schools Administrator Toolkit

August 17, 2024 lynnswarriors Blog

Adopting a phone-free policy is one of the most impactful steps you can take to enhance student educational outcomes, behavior and well-being.

Share this Administrator’s Guide with Your School/s. Join the movement.

08-16 Tips 2 Protect: Encourage Your Kids to Take Social Media Breaks from Their Devices

August 16, 2024 lynnswarriors Blog

08-15 The Silent Epidemic Among Teen Girls – Eating Disorders. Learn More. Take Action.

August 15, 2024 lynnswarriors Blog

First, learn more and all facts about eating disorders.

WASHINGTON D.C. (August 14, 2024) – Earlier this month, the U.S. House of
Representatives and U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee passed their Fiscal Year 2025 bills.
Appropriations bills are instructions from Congress to federal agencies to tell them how money
should be spent. Appropriations bills allow funding for one year and have significant power to
influence discretionary programs. The bills are led by the U.S. House and U.S. Senate
Appropriations Committees.
For Fiscal Year 2025, the Eating Disorders Coalition for Research, Policy, & Action, in strong
partnership with our Congressional champions on the U.S. House and U.S. Senate
Appropriations Committees, Representatives Robert Aderholt (R-AL-04), Stephanie Bice (R-
OK-05), Sanford Bishop (D-GA-02) Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ-06), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03),
Andy Harris (R-MD-01), Ashley Hinson (R-IA-02), Marcy Kaptur (D-OH-09), Jake LaTurner
(R-KS-02), Chellie Pingree (D-ME-01), David Valadao (R-CA-22), Bonnie Watson Coleman
(D-NJ-12), and Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), John Boozman (R-AR), Katie Britt (R-AL),
Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), John Hoeven (R-
ND), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) secured strong funding and report
language in the House and Senate FY25 Appropriations Committee bills. A brief summary of the
victories for eating disorders include: read more here.

08-14 TAKEDOWN: Inside the Fight to Shut Down Pornhub for Child Abuse, Rape, and Sex Trafficking

August 14, 2024 lynnswarriors Blog

THIS is the book to read. #traffickinghub #childabuse #sexualexploitation #victimsdeservejustice

NATIONAL BESTSELLER – ORDER HERE

The gripping, true story of one woman’s battle to expose and shut down a criminal online porn empire.

Pornhub was the 10th most visited site on the Internet, often praised as a progressive champion of women. Then one day, an activist discovered a secret they had been keeping from the world for over a decade: it was infested with child sexual abuse and rape videos.

Now for the first time, anti-trafficking expert and mother of two Laila Mickelwait tells the story of her battle against Pornhub’s billionaire executives and the credit card companies who helped them monetize the abuse of countless victims—some as young as three years old. Readers will follow her from her first horrifying discovery of criminal content on Pornhub to closed-door meetings with credit card executives, White House and Justice Department senior officials, a powerful hedge-fund manager and more. Through insider accounts from Pornhub moderators and executives, you’ll meet the world’s first online porn tycoon, AKA “the Zuckerberg of porn,” along with Pornhub’s top brass (known internally as “The Bro Club”) who operate in secrecy.

The culmination of years of activism, Takedown is the true, never before told story of how Mickelwait mobilized a movement of two million people and together they accomplished “the biggest takedown of content in Internet history.” (Financial Times)

08-13 The Warriors Applaud Senators for Standing Up for Children and Calling on Major Tech Companies to Participate in NCMEC’s Take It Down Service.

August 13, 2024 lynnswarriors Blog

Take It Down is a free service that helps remove online nude, partially nude, or sexually explicit photos and videos taken before the age of 18. If you need help, please visit: TAKE IT DOWN

The Warriors thank;

Shaheen, Scott Call on Big Tech CEOs to Adopt Programs Cracking Down on the Spread of Non-Consensual Intimate Imagery on Online Platforms.

(Washington, DC) – U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Chair of the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies, and Rick Scott (R-FL) are sending letters to multiple Big Tech CEOs urging them to participate in two voluntary programs to locate and take down non-consensual intimate imagery (NII) on online platforms. The bipartisan group of Senators sent letters to the CEOs of X, Alphabet, Amazon, Match, Zoom, Pinterest, Discord, OpenAI, Twitch, Microsoft and Patreon requesting written confirmation that they intend to adopt the Take It Down and Stop NCII programs, which allow online users to remove explicit images of themselves from digital platforms. The increasing spread of NII remains a dangerous and concerning trend in a rapidly evolving digital world. Last year, the Revenge Porn Helpline reported an alarming 106 percent increase in total reports received compared to the previous year, 34 percent of which represented cases of sextortion.

In part, the Senators wrote: “With one post, NII shared online has the opportunity to ruin the life of an individual, often times young women and girls, and the presence of such on your platform cannot be taken lightly.

08-12 Sound the Alarm! Not Even a Minute: Don’t Leave Kids Alone in Cars.

August 12, 2024 lynnswarriors Blog

By Patricia Davis

08-08-2024

On an oppressively hot afternoon, a Florida teenager was startled to see what someone had ditched at the foot of his neighbor’s driveway: a child’s car seat with a 21-month-old boy still strapped inside.

It was lucky that Jamichal Young, 16, found the missing child when he did with temperatures already well into the 90s and the sun blazing. Jamichal videotaped the child on the driveway with his phone and quickly called 911, while his family gave the toddler some juice and a fresh diaper and posted the video on social media to help find his parents. Broward County sheriff’s deputies and the child’s grateful, crying foster mom arrived quickly.

What happened that hot summer day in a neighborhood near Ft. Lauderdale is just one example of a frightening trend across the country: Car thieves are stealing cars in record numbers, and a growing number are startled to realize at some point that they haven’t just stolen a car but also a child, sometimes more than one.

Babies and small children are being abducted – 162 children last year and 63 so far this year, according to Kids and Car Safety – when they’re left alone in the backseats of vehicles while their parents hop out for just a minute to pump gas, pick up take-out food or dash back into their homes for something.

When car thieves realize there’s a baby on board, they often panic and get rid of the child or abandon the car with the baby in it, like the child in Florida. But recently, the trend has taken a deadly, tragic turn.

On July 11, a 29-year-old Columbus, Ohio, mother was fatally struck by her own car as she jumped on the hood and tried to stop a car thief from driving away with her sleeping 6-year-old inside. Alexa Stakely had just picked up her son from the babysitter’s home and left the car running while she dashed back inside to retrieve something. When she returned to her car, she saw it beginning to back out of the driveway and jumped on the hood. The suspect began driving erratically, throwing her onto the roadway. She died of head injuries the next day.

08-11 Time Out. A Reminder to Take a Day Off from Devices/Internet and Spend Time with Family & Friends. It’s Healthy!

August 11, 2024 lynnswarriors Blog

How to Unplug. Let your mind unwind. Dream. Create. It will ALL still be there. Just take a break. #BeAWarrior

08-10 Take Action, Warriors! Back To School Time Means Let’s Review & Use the FREE Screens in Schools Action Kit.

August 10, 2024 lynnswarriors Blog

Back To School Time Means Let’s Review and Use “Screens in Schools Action Kit”. Thank you FairPlay for creating and all of you Warriors in advance for your work on behalf of the mental, emotional, psychological, physical and academic health of our children.

Please review:

Fairplay and Screen in Schools Action Kit.

08-09 Join Parents SOS. KOSA is Our Best Chance for Long-term Guardrails that will Save Lives. #ProtectKidsOnline

August 9, 2024 lynnswarriors Blog

The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) now called KOSPA – Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act – is a groundbreaking piece of legislation addressing growing concern about the impact of online and social media platforms on children and teens. It responds to extensive research and whistleblower insights revealing that such platforms often engage in practices detrimental to the young users’ mental and physical health. We need your help. Urge your Representatives to support in the House. Learn more and how to participate. It takes only seconds.

KOSA acknowledges the correlation between social media usage and mental health issues like negative body image, addiction, and self-harm.
The Act challenges harmful business models of tech companies that prioritize profit over youth safety.
KOSA imposes a duty of care on online platforms to proactively mitigate risks like cyberbullying and sexual exploitation.