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988 is now the three-digit dialing code that routes callers to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (or 988 Lifeline). On July 16, 2022, the Lifeline transitioned away from the National Suicide Prevention Line reached through a 10-digit number to the three-digit 988 Lifeline. It is funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and administered by Vibrant Emotional Health (Vibrant).

When people call, text, or chat with the 988 Lifeline, they are connected to trained counselors that are part of the existing 988 Lifeline network, made up of over 200 local crisis centers. These counselors are trained to provide free and confidential emotional support and crisis counseling to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress, and connect them to resources. These services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, across the United States.

The previous 988 Lifeline phone number (1-800-273-8255) will always remain available to people in emotional distress or suicidal crisis.

The 988 Lifeline’s network of over 200 crisis centers has been in operation since 2005 and has been proven to be effective. Trained counselors listen, provide support, and connect to resources when appropriate.

Callers who follow the “press 1” prompt are connected to the Veterans Crisis Line. A Spanish Language line is available by pressing 2 when calling 9-8-8, and more than 240 languages are supported through a Tele-Interpreters service. Callers now also have the option of following a “press 3” prompt to be connected to a counselor specifically trained in supporting LGBTQI+ callers.

Numerous studies have shown that callers feel less suicidal, less depressed, less overwhelmed and more hopeful after speaking with a 988 Lifeline counselor.

Learn more here. 

Apple spent years trying to design a system that would stop the spread of child sexual abuse material on iPhones and iCloud. When the company scrapped it, key members of the team behind the project left and child protection investigators were frustrated. But Apple’s privacy-first approach gained plenty of fans in the process.

Danny Masterson was sentenced Thursday to 30 years to life in prison for raping two women in Los Angeles decades ago.

A jury of seven women and five men in May found the 47-year-old actor guilty of two counts of forcible rape. Both attacks occurred in Masterson’s Hollywood-area home in 2003, when he was at the height of his fame and starring on the Fox network sitcom, “That ’70s Show.”

The jury could not reach a unanimous verdict on a final count — an allegation that Masterson also raped a longtime girlfriend — which was dismissed after prosecutors said they would not retry him. Judge Charlaine Olmedo allowed all three women to provide victim impact statements during the sentencing hearing, which was also packed with the actor’s supporters.

“When you raped me, you stole from me,” one of the victims said Thursday. “You are pathetic, disturbed and completely violent. … The world is better off with you in prison.”

Read more here. 

After a long struggle, and sticky start, the senate bill calling for harsher penalties for child sex traffickers has cleared its latest hurdle, and is well on its way to becoming one of California’s newest laws.

On Friday, the Assembly Appropriations Committee voted unanimously to pass SB 14 after making amendments to the bill’s language.

In a press conference held Friday afternoon, Senator Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield) thanked the millions of Californians who contacted her in regards to the bill to make sure that sex traffickers were “rightfully prosecuted as perpetrators.”

“I want to thank the Assembly Appropriations Committee members who stood today in defense of the victims of child sex trafficking and voted to let SB 14 out of committee. The amendment affirms what is already in statute to ensure victims of human trafficking are protected,” Grove said following the committee meeting.

SB 14 calls for sex trafficking crimes against children to be classified as serious offenses in the State of California and that each offense include a strike under the Three Strikes law. Grove said the focus of the bill is to go after repeat offenders.

According to Grove, the bill has strong bipartisan support with 64 co-authors from both parties and both houses.

Said Grove, “Protecting victims of child sex trafficking should not be a partisan issue. Today is a victory for every survivor. I am confident most members of the Assembly want to vote for this bill, and thanks to today’s vote they will have a chance. However, the fight to make the human trafficking of a child a serious felony is not yet finished, and I urge every Californian to stay engaged until the bill is signed into law.”

Concerning questions and concerns raised regarding the amendments made to the wording of the bill by the Appropriations Committee, Grove said the committee did so to affirm that the victims who are in trafficking situations not be “wrapped up” in the roll and charged as perpetrators.

Said Grove, “That was never the intent of the bill… to have a victim be charged as a criminal.

Read more here. 

There are more than 20,000 migrant children in NYC who might not be vaccinated ahead of the new school year.

NEW YORK – Staten Island’s borough president is taking aim the New York Department of Education.

Vito Fossella says the city’s public schools will start the year with thousands newly arrived migrant children, who may be unvaccinated. All children must be immunized to attend school in New York Public Schools. But this school year, there’s a lot of new students. Over 100,000 migrants from Central and South America, Hati and oversees arrived in the city last spring, bringing with them more than 20,000 children.

“If you’re going to impose a standard on ordinary citizens, then that same standard should be imposed on individuals from 120 different countries and want to show up on day one for school,” said Fossella at a news conference Saturday, where a handful of Staten Island leaders and residents stood in front of P.S. 038, arguing that migrant children who can’t prove they’ve been inoculated against diseases like Diphtheria, Tetanus, Polio, Hepatitis B, Measles and Chickenpox, shouldn’t be allowed to start school next week.

Read more here. 

IT is one of the toughest decisions faced by parents – when to give in to their younger children’s constant demands for a smartphone.

Startling recent figures from communications regulator Ofcom show that 20 per cent of kids have a smartphone by the age of three, and that rises to 55 per cent between the ages of eight to 11. But the residents of one seaside town in Ireland have decided they do not want their little ones to spend their most formative years peering into a tiny LCD screen. The entire parent population of Greystones in County Wicklow got together to agree not to buy smartphones for their kidsuntil they were in secondary school. All eight primary schools in the town, 15 miles south of Dublin, had already stopped pupils from bringing the electronic devices into the learning environment. But the school parent associations then went further by initiating a voluntary ban among themselves.

It is a revolutionary approach which would likely be welcomed by parents in Britain as well.

Read more here. 

A “drag” performer arrested 22 years ago for possessing both child pornography and illicit drugs has been hired to be the school principal of an Oklahoma City elementary school, and the school district is defending its decision.

Dr. Shane Brent Murnan, 52, the new elementary school principal at John Glenn Elementary, had his personal devices confiscated by police in 2001 on suspicion of possession of child pornography, V1SUT reported on Substack. Almost 20 years later, he was investigated for another crime, according to a 2020 court filing.

Police arrested the then-30-year-old in August 2001 after a Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) search recovered four deleted images of children engaged in sex acts, according to court records. Police also found 6 grams of marijuana in his home. Murnan, at the time, was a fifth-grade teacher at Stillwater’s Will Rogers Elementary School. After the arrest, school officials suspended Murnan and he resigned in May 2002.

Read more here.

A proposed law in California to lengthen prison terms for child sex trafficking that ignited public outrage and divided Democrats this summer was changed during a critical vote on Friday to address concerns over victims potentially being prosecuted.

An amended version of Senate Bill 14, which would add the sex trafficking of minors to the list of felonies classified as serious under California’s penal code and subject people to additional time in prison under the state’s “three strikes” law, passed the powerful Assembly Appropriations Committee on Friday.

The amendments “exempt human trafficking victims from the serious felony provision,” said Pasadena Democrat Chris Holden, chair of the panel.

The changes were pushed by progressive Assembly Democrats in response to criminal justice reform advocates’ concerns that the bill could harm victims. Holden called the amendments “very narrow,” and said they were designed to ensure that trafficking victims are “not further victimized.”

Though the Republican state senator who wrote the bill had said earlier this week that she didn’t want it to undergo any changes, she said Friday that she was satisfied with the modifications.

Read more here. 

Suicide. American crisis. Why are so many children attempting or succeeding at killing themselves.

We need much more public awareness, education and take actions.

9 8 8. Did you know that there is now a three-digit code if you or a loved one are in crisis.

Let’s talk about it. Learn more. BE A WARRIOR.

A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked an Arkansas law forcing social media companies to verify users’ ages and requiring that minors get parental consent to set up account.

Tech industry trade group NetChoice in June sued to strike down the state law as unconstitutional, arguing it violated users’ First Amendment rights and imposed “onerous obligations” on digital platforms.

In granting NetChoice’s request for a preliminary injunction against the law, U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Brooks expressed deep reservations about its constitutionality and efficacy.

Brooks wrote that the law “is not targeted to address the harms it has identified, and further research is necessary before the State may begin to construct a regulation that is narrowly tailored to address the harms that minors face due to prolonged use of certain social media.”

The law, which was supposed to take effect Friday, marks the latest in a bevy of attempts at the state level to restrict or ban minors’ access to social media over concerns that the platforms exacerbate mental health issues for younger users.

Read more here.