Blog

Gov. Gavin Newsom of California vetoed a bill on Friday that would instruct judges presiding over custody battles in the state to take into consideration a parent’s support for a child’s gender identity when making custody and visitation decisions.
Why It Matters: The veto signals a break from the governor’s stance in support of transgender rights.

In a letter accompanying his veto on Friday, Mr. Newsom, a Democrat, said that while he he shares “a deep commitment” to advancing transgender rights, he urged caution about making legal standards “in prescriptive terms that single out one characteristic.”

“Other-minded elected officials, in California and other states, could very well use this strategy to diminish the civil rights of vulnerable communities,” he said.

The governor added that under existing state law, the court is required to consider a child’s health, safety and welfare in these proceedings, which he said already includes the parent’s affirmation of the child’s gender identity.

Mr. Newsom did not elaborate on his stance. But Scott Altman, a law professor at the University of Southern California who specializes in family law, said that the veto might have stemmed from a concern that courts might overemphasize this one facet of parental love, or could lead courts to discriminate against parents whose religions adhere to traditional gender roles, or that allowing this explicit reference to affirming gender identity might provoke more opposition to L.G.B.T.Q. rights in other states.

Read more here. 

WARNING.🚨 We must discuss IT. September is National Suicide Prevention Month. Attorney LIONEL from Lionel Media🎙️ joins #LynnsWarriors💙with Lynn Shaw on TNT Radio to dissect and critically analyze why so many people, including children consider or commit suicide now in the United States.  Join us. We need to have open and honest communication #Resources #Takeaways #BeAWarrior

Listen here. 

Hundreds of bereaved family members turned out in pouring rain and marched on the White House on Saturday, demanding action in the name of loved ones who died from fentanyl.

The forecast called for thundershowers, but rallygoers said they were the ones bringing the storm when they gathered on the National Mall for the third annual Lost Voices of Fentanyl event.

Tears mingled with rain as people lined up banners displaying the faces and “forever” ages of those who died. From the stage, speakers called for more public awareness and changes in government policies to address a crisis responsible for tens of thousands of American deaths each year.

The group formed into a column midafternoon and marched up the street to the fence in front of the White House, waving signs and chanting anti-fentanyl slogans.

Jeri Horton of Plano made the trip to act as a voice for her 23-year-old daughter Jessie Williams, who died of fentanyl two years ago.

“They want their voices to be heard and they want their children’s lives to matter,” Horton said as she surveyed the crowd in front of the White House. “They don’t want their death to be in vain. They want something done.”

Read more here. 

Contacts at Apple reached out to let us know about major improvements to their nudity blurring feature that the National Center on Sexual Exploitation has been asking for and advising Apple about since the feature was originally announced nearly two years ago. Beginning September 18, 2023, with the iOS17 update,  images and videos containing nudity will be automatically blurred for kids 12 and under in iMessage, FaceTime, Air Drop, and Photos picker—a feature that previously had to be turned on by parents, was unavailable to anyone over 13, only detected still images, and only worked in iMessage. This tool will also be available for teens and adults as an opt-in feature. Additionally, Apple has already made their blurring technology available to other apps for free through API (application programming interface)! What this means is that apps accessed through iOS could apply the nudity blurring feature to their platform. You can read our press release on Apple’s changes for more details!

*While not a focus of the DDL, NCOSE is deeply concerned and disappointed that Apple does not scan for child sex abuse material (CSAM). We’ve been pressing on Apple for years to do so, most recently together with a coalition of child safety experts.

With almost 90% of US teens owning an iPhone, Apple can rightly be called a primary “gatekeeper” to what America’s children are accessing online…as well as who is accessing them. Caregivers trust and rely on Apple’s App Store age ratings and descriptions to determine what apps are safe and appropriate for their children to use. App age ratings also “trigger” several aspects of Apple’s parental controls (called Screen Time), blocking entire apps or content based on the designated age.

Yet at a time when child safety experts and mental health professionals – including the United States Surgeon General – are sounding the alarm that our kids are in crisis due in large part to social media, Apple’s app descriptions remain vague, hidden, and inconsistent: further jeopardizing our already-at-risk children.

Read more here. 

Jason Lance thought Jan. 21, 2010, was a day like any other until the call came.

He had dropped off his 9-year-old son, Montana, at Stewart’s Creek Elementary School in The Colony, Texas, that morning.

“There were no problems at home. He was smart. He wore his heart on his sleeve and he talked and talked and talked,” said Lance. It was “the same old, same old normal day. There were kisses and goodbyes and he said, ‘I love you, Daddy.'”

A few hours later, school officials called to say Montana had died by suicide while locked in the nurse’s bathroom.

“I knew he had some issues going on in school, but I never seen it coming,” said Lance. His shock and grief were complicated by the realization that there may have been more signs his son was struggling.

Read more here. 

Thanks to a 2021 law, certain charges will be cleared from the records of trafficking survivors if they prove the crime was committed due to trafficking.

Learn more.

Come to Washington, DC and be part of history. Let’s educate Congress and make them the 118th Congress for Child Safety!

Supermarket giant Lidl has issued a recall of Paw Patrol snacks after the website listed on the products’ packaging began displaying explicit content unsuitable for children.

Lidl, which operates more than 12,000 stores globally, is urging shoppers in the United Kingdom to return the snacks for a full refund.

Affected products include Paw Patrol Yummy Bakes and Paw Patrol Mini Biscotti, snacks recommended for children aged two and above. Lidl’s recall notice [PDF] dated August 22 warns that the product’s packaging contains a web address that has been “compromised” to display content “not suitable for child consumption.”

“We recommend that customers refrain from viewing the URL and return this product to the nearest store where a full refund will be given,” Lidl states.

🚨 URGENT RECALL: Four types of Paw Patrol snacks are being recalled by Lidl after a website URL listed on the back of the packaging was compromised with explicit content unsuitable for children.

Customers should return the products to their nearest Lidl store for a full refund.

he U.S. does a surprisingly poor job of protecting its children. Over a quarter million children have been married in the U.S. in the last two decades, even though we know that child marriage has deeply harmful consequences. Additionally, 160,000 children experience physical punishment in U.S. schools each year. Thousands of children have been condemned to die in prison through life without parole sentences. And children are exposed to dangerous conditions while working in agriculture, sometimes with deadly consequences.

The U.S. is the only country in the world that has failed to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history. The treaty addresses children’s rights to education, health, protection from violence and exploitation, and a broad array of other rights. Ratification would require the U.S. to strengthen its protection of children. But in the U.S., many of these rights are left up to individual states, not the federal government.

Last year, Human Rights Watch published a scorecard that measured U.S. state compliance with key children’s rights established in international law. We looked at child marriage, corporal punishment, child labor, and juvenile justice because these key measures can affect a child for the rest of their lives.

Read more here. 

Listen here