A reckless subway-surfer gang risked their lives riding over the Williamsburg Bridge on Friday, as the NYPD and MTA try to curb the deadly social media trend.

Seven people dressed in black were spotted riding on top of a subway car Friday as it entered the bridge headed away from Marcy Avenue, video obtained by The Post shows.

“I’ll be sitting and working, minding my own business, and see people surfing the subway out my window. It’s a regular thing, all the time,” the Brooklynite who shared the footage told The Post.

The video shows one daredevil standing as the train — which appears to be a J, M, or Z — barrels toward Manhattan stops. Several other people can be seen crouched down or slumping onto their stomachs as they go under a lower part of the bridge.

Between January and June of 2023, over 450 instances of subway surfing were documented by MTA officials.

Read more here. 

A bill allowing child trafficking is back, and it’s worse than ever.

Hello, this is Senator Lisa Keim of Oxford County. I’m joining you for this week’s Republican Radio Address to talk about a horrifying bill that would be used for the trafficking of children. Does this seem like déjà vu?

As some of you may remember, the Judiciary Committee recently worked a bill, LD 1735, which would have promoted child trafficking for so-called transgender care by limiting the rights of not only Maine parents, but also parents from all across the nation who would lose their parental rights at the Maine border.

Parents from across the country vehemently voiced opposition to that bill. In fact, no other bill in Maine’s history caused so much national worry and angst among parents who feared their child could be trafficked to Maine to receive so-called gender-affirming care.

Read more here. 

Teens at New York high schools have the FBI paying them a visit.

Students say it is a little scary, but not in the way you may be thinking.

Schools around New York are collaborating with the FBI child exploitation and human trafficking task force, which includes numerous agencies. This week’s presentation was by the New York State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigations.

School leaders and the FBI want to stop “sextortion” before it starts.

“They’re children; even our juniors and seniors are children. It’s very difficult to see them go through emotional issues that they really never had intended to,” says Bishop Ludden Principal Michael McAuliff.

“[We’re] letting them know that who they’re talking to isn’t always who they think they’re talking to, that they can be a victim very easily of a lot of different nefarious activities that happen,” says Sarah Ruane, a public affairs specialist with the FBI Albany field office.

Read more here.

Right now, few protections exist to prevent Big Tech from tracking, collecting, and selling children’s personal data to third parties…

…and nothing to stop those third parties from targeting your child or teen with harmful messaging and advertising.

Two new bills aim to fix that: 

The NY Child Data Protection Act stops online sites from collecting and selling your child’s data

The SAFE for Kids Act protects children and teens from addictive algorithms on social media.

LEARN MORE

Common Sense Media has done all of the work for you.

Help your kids beat the break-time boredom, while also keeping screen time to a minimum, with this great list of podcasts. From family-fun trivia to activity shows, interactive audio adventures, and exercises in movement and exploration, these podcasts are sure to provide hours of entertainment. With such a wide variety, you’ll find options that spark your child’s interests and whatever Spring Break plans your family may—or may not!—have. Make sure you check out Great Podcasts to Listen to as a Family and Great Podcasts for Tweens and Teens for more Spring Break listening inspiration.

Bryan Hearne never became a big star like Amanda Bynes, Ariana Grande or Drake Bell when he was one of many child actors in the Nickelodeon universe that dominated children’s TV in the late ’90s and early aughts.

Because of his outspoken mother, he ended up being one of the lucky ones.

Hearne, now 35, was let go in 2003 from “All That” — the kids’ sketch series that featured Bynes, Kenan Thompson and others — after two years.

Read more here. 

Federal authorities are investigating Meta Platforms for its role in the illicit sale of drugs, according to documents and people familiar with the matter.

Read more here.

As state attorneys general, we have two primary duties: defending our states’ laws and interests, and protecting the rights and wellbeing of the people we were elected to serve. When Americans across the country faced urgent, and powerful threats to their health, safety, and prosperity, attorneys general across the nation have stood together to take them on:

• In the 1990s, state attorneys general stood up to big tobacco after years of false advertising and illegally marketing to children.
• During the housing crisis we took on the big banks that recklessly led the country into a massive economic recession.
• More recently we have worked together to hold big pharma accountable for the opioid crisis that has led to addiction and tragic overdose deaths across the country.

Now, as a mental health crisis exacerbated by social media giants seeking to addict and commodify the attention of children grows worse and worse each year, it’s time to take collective action again.

Our teens’ addictive social feeds heighten risks

Recent research demonstrates the devastating mental health effects caused by social media use, including increased rates of depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation and self-harm. Adolescents who spend more than three hours per day on social media face twice the risk of poor mental health outcomes. Addictive feeds — designed to harness personal data to curate users’ content that will keep them on the platform for as long as possible — have dramatically heightened the risk to young users’ wellbeing and made our children addicted to these social media outlets.

Read more here.