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Child labor is work that harms children or keeps them from attending school. Around the world and in the U. S., growing gaps between rich and poor in recent decades have forced millions of young children out of school and into work. The International Labor Organization estimates that 215 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 currently work under conditions that are considered illegal, hazardous, or extremely exploitative. Underage children work at all sorts of jobs around the world, usually because they and their families are extremely poor. Large numbers of children work in commercial agriculture, fishing, manufacturing, mining, and domestic service. Some children work in illicit activities like the drug trade and prostitution or other traumatic activities such as serving as soldiers.

Child labor involves at least one of the following characteristics:

• Violates a nation’s minimum age laws
• Threatens children’s physical, mental, or emotional well-being
• Involves intolerable abuse, such as child slavery, child trafficking, debt bondage, forced labor, or illicit activities
• Prevents children from going to school
• Uses children to undermine labor standards

Read more here.

Sound the alarm. Parents Beware. TIKTOK = CRIME SCENE. Get your kids off the app today.

An 18-year-old in the Bronx was shot in the face and killed, police said, in what may have been the result of a Tik Tok challenge that had deadly consequences, authorities and law enforcement sources with direct knowledge of the case say.

Officers responded to a call about a man shot in the face at the corner of Grand Concourse and East Tremont in Morris Heights just after 1:30 a.m. Thursday, according to police. Raymond Chaluisant, 18, was found unconscious and unresponsive with a gunshot wound to his face.

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Six of the 13 Turpin siblings who were rescued in 2018 from a life of captivity in their parents’ Perris, California, home have filed a lawsuit against Riverside County and the private foster care agency tasked with protecting them, alleging they suffered “severe abuse and neglect” for years in foster care after their rescue.

The younger Turpin siblings say they were the victims of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse by a foster family they were placed with after they were rescued by law enforcement in 2018, according to two lawsuits filed electronically overnight in a California court by the six youngest Turpin siblings. In their legal complaints, the children also allege that the officials charged with overseeing their care “failed to report” the “severe” abuse and neglect when warned of it.

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At least 181 K-12 educators, including four principals, were arrested on child sex-related crimes in the U.S. in the first six months of 2022, ranging from child pornography to raping students.

An analysis conducted by Fox News Digital looked at local news stories week by week featuring arrests of principals, teachers, substitute teachers and teachers’ aides on child sex-related crimes in school districts across the country. Arrests that weren’t publicized were not counted in the analysis, meaning the true number may well be higher.

The analysis found that at least 181 have been arrested between January 1 and June 30, which works out to exactly an arrest a day on average.

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As a critical means to continuously improve anti-trafficking efforts, stakeholders should engage with survivors of human trafficking; to listen to, learn from, and lift the voices of those with lived experience. This year’s introduction centers on survivor engagement and highlights the vital role that survivors of human trafficking play in developing and implementing survivor-led, trauma-informed and comprehensive victim-centered approaches to human trafficking.

Read full report here.

Thirteen-year-old Billy opened Instagram and typed “buy ” into the search bar. Instantly, the platform auto-filled dozens of results for him. He clicked on one of the suggested accounts and quickly connected to a social media drug dealer.

It took Billy all of five seconds and just two clicks to find illegal drugs through Instagram.

Fortunately, in this case, Billy was part of a research project on social media drug dealers. But it’s happening in real life, too.

Researchers Show the Ease of Social Media Drug Dealing

Researchers at the Tech Transparency Project set up Instagram accounts representing several 13- to 15-year-old users. And what they found was alarming. On average, it took two clicks for the hypothetical teen to find a drug dealer.

The researchers reported, “Not only did Instagram allow the hypothetical teens to easily search for age-restricted and illegal drugs, but the platform’s algorithms helped the underage accounts connect directly with drug dealers selling everything from opioids to party drugs.”

A Meta (Facebook and Instagram’s parent company) spokesperson contended that drug sales are strictly prohibited on Instagram. And that they’ve improved detection technology to identify and remove content related to drug sales.

But Meta’s improved efforts aren’t stopping teens like Billy. Instagram can ban hashtags for illegal substances, but what’s the point when the algorithm recommends alternatives instead?

Read more here.

Social media impacts consumers’ spending habits, according to a new study by Bankrate, with nearly half of users admitting to making an impulse purchase based on a sponsored post.

But 64% of social media users who made an impulse purchase from an advertisement regretted at least one purchase. And those purchases “can often harm our finances more than benefit our lives in the way we thought they would from social media,” says Foster.

Comparison is at least partly to blame: 47% of Gen Z and 46% of millenials report feeling negatively about their own financial situation because of another person’s social media post, as did 31% of Gen X and 22% baby boomers.

“Younger generations have grown up with social media, or they’ve watched social media grow and evolve with them,” says Foster, so it is easier to understand why they are more heavily impacted by other’s content.

The youngest generations are impacted as well. More than 64% of parents with minor children that log onto social media believe the content online has contributed to their kids having unrealistic expectations about money.

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The arrests were made from June 13 to June 24 in Operation “Share the Wealth,” the Kerr County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

Nine suspects were arrested in Kerr County, 12 in Kendall County, 14 in Guadalupe County, and 24 in Bexar County on charges involving prostitution, narcotics, and weapons, the release said. Two stolen handguns were recovered, and approximately 19 grams of heroin and 4.4 grams of methamphetamine were seized. Two females were arrested for criminal mischief.

The human trafficking recovery operation resulted in 11 potential victims being contacted. At least three people accepted services that were offered to them as part of this operation, officials said.

Read more here.

It was an honor to join Natasha Sweatte on One America News and discuss what is happening in our classrooms across America. Buckle up. Take a listen. https://www.oann.com/classroom-warfare/ 

An 11-year-old dies by suicide after she is sexually exploited on Instagram and Snapchat. Two teenagers are killed in a crash following a race using a Snapchat speed filter. A sexual predator uses Facebook to lure a 15-year-old girl into trafficking.

Social media companies for decades have been shielded from legal consequences for what happens on their platforms. But a sharp shift in public opinion and a bend in recent court rulings have the industry nervous that this could change — especially when damage is done to children online.

Read more here.