Blog

World Children’s Day is UNICEF’s annual day of action for children, by children. From climate change, education and mental health, to ending racism and discrimination, children and young people are raising their voices on the issues that matter to their generation and calling for adults to create a better future

Mothers and fathers, teachers, nurses and doctors, government leaders and civil society activists, religious and community elders, corporate moguls and media professionals, as well as young people and children themselves, can play an important part in making World Children’s Day relevant for their societies, communities and nations.

World Children’s Day offers each of us an inspirational entry-point to advocate, promote and celebrate children’s rights, translating into dialogues and actions that will build a better world for children.

Learn more here.

Please join us at 2PM ET on TNT Radio for a reality check about all forms of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. November 20 is World Children’s Day. The exploitation of our kids is happening in every town, city and rural are in the United States. No exceptions. It is happening online and in real-time. This discussion will be disturbing because it is all true.

The head of the FBI says the bureau has “national security concerns” about the U.S. operations of TikTok, warning that the Chinese government could potentially use the popular video-sharing app to influence American users or control their devices.

The FBI has “a number of concerns,” director Christopher Wray told a House Homeland Security Committee hearingabout worldwide threats on Tuesday, just days after Republican lawmakers introduced a bill that would ban the app nationwide.

“They include the possibility that the Chinese government could use it to control data collection on millions of users or control the recommendation algorithm, which could be used for influence operations if they so chose, or to control software on millions of devices, which gives it an opportunity to potentially technically compromise personal devices,” Wray said.

TikTok, which hit 1 billion monthly active users in September 2021, is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. Chinese national security laws can compel foreign and domestic firms operating within the country to share their data with the government upon request, and there are concerns about China’s ruling Communist Party using this broad authority to gather sensitive intellectual property, proprietary commercial secrets and personal data.

Read more here.

What took so long? The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has axed the sale of 15 child-friendly e-cigarette devices shaped like toys and featuring popular cartoon characters.

Five companies are accused of using popular imagery from TV shows such as The Simpsons, Squid Game, Rick and Morty, and Family Guy to market the vapes to children and teens.

Other devices highlighted by the FDA are shaped like Nintendo Gameboys, popsicles, bananas or feature animals from children’s cartoons like BabyBu

A report published last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that 2.6million US middle and high-schoolers use e-cigarettes.

The five manufacturers warned Wednesday — Wizvapor, R and M Vapes, Shenzen Quawins, Ruthless Vapor, and Moti Global — are based in China, Canada and Hong Kong. They must stop selling the products in the US immediately.

Dr Brian King, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, said ‘the designs of these products are an utterly flagrant attempt to target kids.” It is yet another example of the agency cracking down on teen vape use in America as use of the devices reach a near-epidemic level.

More than four-in-five teen vapers reported using flavored devices – which the FDA has also cracked down on in recent years for marketing to children.

Read more here.

Lynn’s Warriors WVOX is in full swing today. Senator Krueger will join us to talk about the exploding sex trade industry and how we must combat it. We’ll discuss her new legislation the Sex Trade Survivors Justice and Equality Act and what the future holds. A must listen. Lynn’s Warriors  3-4PM ET  1460AMNY  WVOX.com WVOX App Join us. #BeAWarrior

Almost a third of pre-teen boys are playing over-18s online games and are more likely to be exposed to violent imagery and harmful content, according to new research.

The figures are contained in the annual report of the internet safety charity CyberSafeKids.

According to the data, 95% of children aged 8-12 own their own smart device, while 87% have their own social media or instant messaging account, despite minimum age restrictions of 13 on all of the most popular apps.

Over a third of children reported that they can go online “whenever they want”, and 15% reported having “no rules” in place at home for going online.

Over a quarter of children surveyed said they had been bothered by content they had encountered online, and 29% of them kept it to themselves rather than report it to their parents or someone else.

Read more here.

Elevated digital screen time (i.e., 2+ hours per day) is associated with suicidal ideations, planning, and attempts during adolescence. Recent studies suggest quality, rather than duration, of digital screen time is most impactful on adolescent mental health. We investigate the role of cyberbullying victimization on the relationship between elevated digital screen time and risk factors for completed suicide. We pooled five years of biennial Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance (YRBS) survey data (2011-2019). Participants were n = 73,011 high school students in the United States (US). Elevated digital screen time reflected spending 3 h (or more) per day on leisure, digital media. Outcome variables were: (1) feeling sad/hopeless; (2) suicidal ideation; (3) suicidal planning; and (4) suicide attempt.

Read more here.

The F-word has taken over television. How did we get here? And are we better or worse for it? Let’s analyz

First, an acknowledgement. The meaning of “television” in 2022 is vastly more complex than it was not just in the days of basic and premium cable, but what it meant as recently as 2013 — when “House of Cards” became the first episodic television series produced for Netflix by an outside studio.

In 2022, Netflix and a host of other streaming services — Amazon Prime, Hulu, Apple TV+, Disney+, Paramount+, Peacock — are constantly rolling out original programming on their platforms, giving consumers a bewildering number of options.

So, how pervasive is the F-word in television entertainment? Consider the following:

• The website ReelGood.com ranks the most popular television shows on streaming. The most recent listings show that of the top 10, six are rated TV-MA and include multiple uses of the F-word, including the cartoon “Rick and Morty.” Another, the TV-14-rated “Cobra Kai,” also has the occasional F-word.
• At the most recent Emmys, seven of the eight nominees in the outstanding comedy series category were rated TV-MA and featured use of the F-word. (The TV-PG comedy “Abbott Elementary” was the lone exception.)
• Seven of the eight nominees for outstanding drama series are rated TV-MA and feature use of the F-word. The lone TV-14 show on the list was Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” which went from zero uses of the F-word in its first season to nine in its fourth season.
• Another TV-14 Netflix series, “Locke & Key,” also features infrequent use of the word.
• Now that it features a few R-rated films like “Deadpool,” the Disney+ streaming service is no longer F-word free.

Read more here.