Blog

Lynn’s Warriors with Lynn Shaw

To your kid, TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, and other platforms may seem essential for a healthy social life. But as an adult, you know social media also opens them up to the Wild West of the internet, including exposure to potentially hateful content, online harassment, and other harms.

Until now, the onus has been on parents and caregivers to navigate when and how their kids should access social media. That’s still the case, but key mental health groups and players have recently weighed in to say it’s time to give parents and caregivers more guidance.

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, MD, issued an advisory last May 23 on the topic of Social Media and Youth Mental Health. The report outlines the current scientific evidence on the health effects of social media use in kids, as well as action items for key stakeholders, including parents and caregivers.

Surgeon General’s advisories are a type of public statement “reserved for public health challenges that require the nation’s immediate awareness and action.”

Read more here.

“Instead, it is a testament to the challenges of navigating a legal system that currently does not provide an affirmative defense for victims of sex trafficking,” Moore said in a statement to The Washington Post, “and [a] district attorney who has refused [to] view this case within a necessary trauma-informed lens.”

The state of Ohio vs. a sex-trafficked teenager. Trevino was among three people charged in Murillo’s death. Philip Aguilera Baldenegro and Jesse Martinez, who were 19 and 18, respectively, at the time of the shooting, were each charged with capital murder and aggravated robbery and are awaiting trial.

Read more here

Make students’ mental health and well-being a priority.

Growing up has always had its challenges. But for kids today social media and tech have a way of amplifying the typical stressors of adolescence. Instead of simply telling kids to get off of their screens, how can we help them cope in realistic ways?

These free, back-to-school resources from Common Sense are a positive and accessible place to start. Our new Digital Well-Being lessons for grades 6-12 were co-developed with the Center for Digital Thriving at Harvard Graduate School of Education. And our new Device Advice lessons for grades K-5 are a great way to help young students build healthy habits with media and tech.

Promote a healthy start to the school year with our digital well-being resources.

Learn more here.

Teachers and parents are being warned to look out for new ‘High Light’ Chinese vapes that are designed to look like highlighter pens.

The vapes are packaged in bright neon colors that resemble typical pencil case items and come in 20 kid-friendly flavors like blueberry ice, mango and strawberry banana. But they contain nicotine, which is breathed in through the lungs when the vapes are used, which can cause damage to children’s lungs and brains, as well as cause nicotine addiction, lung damage, gum disease and oral cancers.

Teachers are fighting back against the school vape epidemic as the new term begins in September.

Previous research has shown that the average teen vaper in America starts aged 13, which has gotten lower since 2014. need a number of vapers. 2.5million high schoolers or middle schoolers

Read more here.

Illicit Fentanyl is 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times stronger than heroin. There are two types of fentanyl: pharmaceutical fentanyl and illicit fentanyl. Our work addresses illicit fentanyl. Drug cartels make and supply deadly illicit fentanyl either as a standalone substance, as an additive in other dangerous street drugs, such as heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine, or as substitutes for these drugs. Illicit fentanyl is purposely and deceptively added to other drugs because of its extreme potency, making drugs cheaper, more powerful, more addictive, and more dangerous. Illicit fentanyl has also been identified in counterfeit prescription pills. These fake pills are made to look identical to legitimate prescription pills — such as Oxycontin®, Percocet®, Vicodin®, Adderall®, Xanax® and other medicines—and have been found in every state in the country. Criminal drug networks are also harnessing the accessibility of social media to push deadly drugs into American communities.

Read more here and take action with Voices for Awareness Facing Fentanyl. 

Listen here. Please also learn more and follow Dr. Fran and Nurses United Against Human Trafficking fighting to abolish modern-day slavery.

Our partners at Gabb Wireless tell us that in the last several years, there has been a significant decline in youth mental health and troubling incidences of youth violence.

So how do emojis have anything to do with self-harm and violence? The Crisis Text Line analyzed over 129 million messages and discovered that those who use the pill emoji (💊) in texts with the hotline were 4.4 times more likely to die by suicide than others. (Crisis Text Line, 2020)
Most cell phones (even Gabb Phones) have emojis. Usually, emojis are a fun way to communicate with others and express yourself. In most cases, emojis are harmless, but parents need to understand how emojis can be used to indicate self-harm and violence.

This information is meant to empower parents to take a second look if their kid is using any of these emojis in a negative way. Also, use Promo Code LYNNSWARRIORS for a discount to devices to keep your kids safe.
👉Learn more! #OnlineSafety #Kids #Teens #ParentingTips #ParentingHack #Parenting #DigitalSafety #Emojis

Last week at the National Organization for Women’s New York office, women’s rights advocates, anti-trafficking groups and former prostitutes convened to galvanize New Yorkers to take action against the city’s booming sex trade. In addition to arguing for enforcement of existing laws — and for the penalization of buyers and pimps as opposed to the women and children who are their victims — they wanted to send an important message about the language used around the problem.

“The media uses terms like ‘sex work’ and ‘sex worker’ in their reporting, treating prostitution as a job like any other,” said Melanie Thompson, a 27-year-old woman from New York City who introduced herself as a “Black sex-trafficking and prostitution survivor.” The language of “sex work,” she argued, implies falsely that engaging in the sex trade is a choice most often made willingly; it also absolves sex buyers of responsibility. (My colleague Nicholas Kristof recently profiled Thompson, who now works for the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women.)

“I urge the media to remove the terms ‘sex work’ and ‘sex worker’ from your style handbooks,” she said.

Read more here.