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Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., intends to make his focus in the current Congress a legislative package aimed at protecting children online — including by setting the age threshold to be on social media at 16.

In an interview with NBC News, Hawley detailed some top lines of what his agenda will include, such as:

• Mandating social media companies verify the age of their users.
• Providing parents a right to demand that tech companies delete their kids’ data.
• Commissioning a wide-ranging congressional mental-health study on the impact social media has on children.

“For me, this is about protecting kids, protecting their mental health, protecting their safety,” Hawley said. “There’s ample evidence to this effect that big tech companies put their profits ahead of protecting kids online.”

Read more here.

The popular Netflix children’s interactive cartoon “Battle Kitty,” which launched last year, seems fun and harmless at first glance.

But the series — about a “feisty kitten” who embarks on a quest to become a great warrior and defeat all the monsters on “Battle Island” — has disturbing sexual overtones, according to some parents who are trying to get Netflix to cancel it or at least change its age rating. The streamer has rated the show as appropriate for children 7 and up.

Although “Battle Kitty,” which debuted in 2022, has garnered some positive reviews, characters dress in bondage gear and obsess about butts and twerking to the point that it’s inappropriate for young children, some parents say.

Rosalia Rivera, founder of Consent Parenting, a site aimed at helping parents protect their kids from sexual abuse, said she was horrified when she began watching “Battle Kitty” after her kids put it on. She wants the show canceled.

Read more here. 

Neuroscience has confirmed what most of us already know — humans are terrible at understanding big numbers. This limitation likely contributed to challenges in how the American public perceived and grappled with COVID. Two neuroscientists explained it this way, “Numbers are a useful, clear and efficient way to summarize [harms], but … the brain simply can’t understand what it means that a million people have died.”

In a similar way, most people struggle to process this even bigger number: 28 million people are trapped in human trafficking situations globally, including 3.3 million children. To make better sense of this number, I’ll convert it into units that are more familiar — 28 million people would fill Chicago’s Wrigley Field 672 times. Twenty-eight million also represents the population of DC, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and North Carolina, combined.

Read more here. 

Using sexual images to extort victims could soon become a crime in New Jersey after lawmakers in the Senate unanimously passed legislation Thursday to criminalize “sextortion.”

Sextortion can involve someone hacking into a person’s computer or phone to steal sexual material and threaten to distribute it, or coercing a victim into taking explicit photos or videos and then using them to demand more.

The bill, sponsored by Sens. Steven Oroho (R-Sussex) and Fred Madden (D-Gloucester), would make it a third-degree crime punishable by up to five years in prison and a $15,000 fine. If the victim is a minor or adult with developmental disabilities, the offense would be a second-degree crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $150,000 fine.

“This bill puts some real teeth in the law,” Oroho said in a statement. “Young victims are often reluctant to report their abusers due to fear of embarrassment or retaliation.”

The Assembly passed the bill unanimously last month. Because the Senate amended the bill Thursday, it must return to the Assembly for another vote. If the governor signs it, New Jersey would become the 18th state to ban sextortion, according to Legal Momentum, a national nonprofit that advocates for the legal rights of women.

Read more here.

A 17-year-old Michigan boy kills himself after he’s financially sextorted online by someone in Nigeria. A 5-year-old Iowa girl is repeatedly re-victimized as images and videos of her being sexually abused are shared online in other countries, including Denmark, Australia and Germany. The sexual exploitation of a 9-year-old North Carolina girl is being live streamed in Brazil. 

Children today face dangers not just in this country but from around the world. With the internet, child predators have found new ways to sexually exploit children and share images and videos of this abuse online with little fear of getting caught. As a result, child protection in the United States has become a global challenge that has steadily intensified. As the internet has removed borders and barriers to how U.S. children are sexually abused online, NCMEC has stepped up to meet this challenge and to address the global threat of online child sexual exploitation.  

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) operates the CyberTipline, the designated place in the U.S. to report suspected online child sexual exploitation. Last year alone, it received a staggering 32 million reports, with more than 93% linked to other countries. With each new emerging online threat, NCMEC has developed innovative ways to help protect and rescue children and bring their abusers to justice, not just in this country but around the world. 

Read more here. 

Traffickers prey on vulnerable people. They transport victims across state lines to isolate them and prevent escape, break them with violence and fear to force compliance, and coerce them into prostitution. Once they’re in, victims face a litany of barriers that make it extremely difficult for them to escape the sex trade, and there is limited support or services available to help them. In a 2008 study that interviewed 854 people currently or recently in prostitution, 89% said they wanted to exit the sex trade, but were unable due to lack of other survival options.

Our current policy approach — criminalization — fails to address the needs of people who, whether through trafficking, coercion, manipulation, or economic desperation, have been forced into the sex trade. People in prostitution are treated as criminals rather than as traumatized victims in need of critical support and services.

Read more here. 

Once family-friendly brand DISNEY is now trying to change the culture for kids and families. Bill and I discuss the crisis facing in America and why the Catholic League just released a documentary “Walt’s Disenchanted Kingdom” available now on their website.

3-4PM ET Lynn’s Warriors 1460AMNY WVOX App WVOX.com

CatholicLeague.org

What to do if your child sees pornography? Parents intimate guide to TikTok and what you need to know.  How can I protect my child’s image online?

Read more here from Common Sense Media.

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warned children should be banned from social media until they’re between 16 and 18 to avoid a ‘distorted’ sense of self in their developmental years.

Murthy expressed that 13 is far too young for kids to be on sites, such as TikTok and Instagram.

His warning came following the release of a study that suggested teenagers on social media will likely become ‘hypersensitive’ to criticism as adults.

Read more here.