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In March, the national spotlight turns to women as the U.S. celebrates Women’s History Month.

Fighting for equality, historical and modern-day changemakers, and their contributions are an integral part of society, and this Women’s History Month, we’re taking a deep dive into why the month was created, how it is celebrated and more.

Learn more here. CELEBRATE!

A picture of a smartphone with a red line through it serves as a warning in the window of a hairdresser’s shop in a French village that has voted to ban people scrolling on their phones in public. “Everyone is struggling with too much screen time,” said Ludivine, a cardiology nurse, as she had her hair cut into a bob, leaving her phone out of sight in her bag. “I voted in favour, this could be a solution.”

Seine-Port, in the Seine-et-Marne area south of Paris, with a population of fewer than 2,000 people, last weekend voted yes in a referendum to restrict smartphone use in public, banning adults and children from scrolling on their devices while walking down the street, while sitting with others on a park bench, while in shops, cafes or eating in restaurants and while parents wait for their children in front of the school gates. Those who might check their phone’s map when lost are instead being encouraged to ask for directions.

The village has also approved a charter for families on children’s use of screens: no screens of any kind in the morning, no screens in bedrooms, no screens before bed or during meals. If parents of teenagers sign a written agreement not to give their child a smartphone before the age of 15, the town hall will provide the child with an old-fashioned handset for calls only.

American kids are the freest, most privileged kids in all of history. They are also the saddest, most anxious, depressed, and medicated generation on record. Nearly a third of teen girls say they have seriously considered suicide. For boys, that number is an also alarming 14 percent.

What’s even stranger is that all of these worsening mental health outcomes for kids have coincided with a generation of parents hyper-fixated on the mental health and well-being of their children.

What’s going on?

That mystery is the subject of Abigail Shrier’s fascinating, urgent new book: Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren’t Growing Up.

Read more here.

So many falsehoods surrounding the bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act #KOSA now awaiting vote in Senate.

The Warriors always shares truths not fears. This bill(S.1409) will protect ALL children.

Learn the facts and share information with family and friends.

It’s 2024. You can no longer sit on the sidelines. We can and must take action.

#communitycreateschange #KOSA #protectkidsonline #BeAWarrior

Learn more here. 

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) is releasing a brand-new analysis of children who were lured out of their homes and were reported missing to NCMEC. The report analyzed 476 cases reported missing to NCMEC between 2020 and 2023.

Online enticement is a broad category including online grooming, sextortion and sending, receiving or sharing sexually explicit images and videos. The cases addressed within this analysis contained serious scenarios where the offender ultimately met up with the child to commit a sexual offense or abduction, leading them to become a missing child. 

By reviewing these cases and learning more about these children’s experiences, the National Center hopes to better inform parents, caregivers, law enforcement, child welfare professionals and others who work to prevent this crime and bring missing children home safely.

Staca Shehan, vice president of NCMEC’s Analytical Services Division, the team who worked on the analysis, says that this information is important because it uncovered additional data and trends related to children and youth who went missing after being enticed online and expands upon anything NCMEC has released previously. This includes information on the child being targeted by adults online before going missing and age differences between the offender and the child.  

Within the analysis, NCMEC found that 41% of offenders in these cases were more than 10 years older than the child. The largest age difference was 48 years.

“These age differences demonstrated that although the rates of missing children enticed online are low when compared to the number of children online, when they do occur much older adults are targeting kids and using their vulnerabilities against them,” Shehan said.

Read more here. 

BALTIMORE — More than 68% of youth reported exposure to online pornography, according to the National Institute of Health.

Experts say exposure to this kind of material at an early age can cause psychological and even physical harm. However, Maryland lawmakers have proposed a solution to protect children from this harmful content.

The Maryland Online Child Protection Act would mandate safety settings on phones, tablets, and game devices marketed to minors, that would automatically block obscene content.

“A lot of people think that it just stops there, but it doesn’t,” said De’ Asia Wiggins, a survivor of online trafficking.

For De’Asia Wiggins – who lost her mother when she was just 11 – being exposed to pornography while she was in foster care, led to unwanted real-life encounters.

Read more here.