Articles and Videos – Page 46

Commercial Surrogacy and Modern-Day Slavery: Guest Column

May 13, 2024John StonestreetSurrogacyCommercial Surrogacy

According to Britain’s The Independent, calls to an anti-slavery hotline grew from just under 10,000 in 2022 to nearly 12,000 last year. Whether the increase in calls reflects an actual increase of slavery in the U.K. or an increase in awareness of the hotline, it’s a reminder that an ancient evil is still very much part of the modern world.

Today, slavery can take the form of things like organ harvesting, or even surrogacy-based slavery, when women are warehoused, financially pressured, or otherwise coerced into providing children for paying Western customers.

This booming market, child advocate Katy Faust says, “is the real #HandmaidsTale,” with customers and “providers” willing to go to unconscionable lengths to secure the “product.” With so much money to be made and little to no legal restrictions, women and children are dehumanized and made commodities.

Make no mistake, this is one of the great human rights crises of our day.

TikTok Sues to Block Federal Ban

May 10, 2024Jerry CoxSocial MediaSocial Media, TikTok

Social media giant TikTok filed a federal lawsuit this week challenging a new law that would ban the app or force its Chinese parent-company to sell the social media platform.

With an estimated one billion users worldwide and 150 million in the U.S., TikTok is considered by some to be the most popular social media platform in the world — especially among teens and young adults.

The company has struggled to protect private user data from entities in China, and the platform has faced criticism for letting its algorithm serve users what some call a steady “diet of darkness” online.

As U.S. Congressman Bruce Westerman wrote in March,

Although TikTok executives claim that it does not share any data collected by the app, there are several Chinese laws in place that provide CCP [Chinese Communist Party] officials access to all user data collected by Chinese-owned tech companies, like TikTok. This means the CCP has access to sensitive data, like the location of every TikTok user worldwide, including the over 210 million Americans who have downloaded the app.

Likewise, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin has voiced concerns over the fact that TikTok is subject to Chinese laws that “mandate secret cooperation with intelligence activities of the People’s Republic of China.”

In April, President Biden signed a bipartisan piece of legislation requiring TikTok’s Chinese parent-company, ByteDance, to divest itself of the platform by January 19, 2025. If ByteDance fails to sell TikTok, the law would ban TikTok in the United States.

TikTok’s federal lawsuit claims the law violates the U.S. Constitution and asks a federal court to block the law.

As we have said repeatedly, there is mounting evidence that — by design — social media platforms like TikTok may deliberately push objectionable content to kids and put users’ personal information at risk. With that in mind, it’s good to see policymakers taking action to rein in these tech giants.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

Gender Ideology Coming for Courts: Guest Column

May 10, 2024John StonestreetLGBTLGBT, Transgender

Judges in the state of California who oversee child abuse and neglect cases are now required to take an annual training course entitled “LGBTQ+ Considerations.” The training urges judges to “use the name and gender of the youth they request” and “insist the Department use their requested name and gender.” And, recently in Ohio, a state-backed function featured a workshop in which activists told judges to affirm the transgender identity of youth.

Adopting language amounts to adopting ideas. When gender ideology shapes the courtroom, both the health and wellbeing of vulnerable young people and the God-given responsibility and prerogative of parents are threatened. Young people who struggle with gender are already at a higher risk of depression or suicide. Affirming their confusion does not lead to better mental health outcomes.

If the courts really hope to protect young people, they will protect the family and not undermine it with bad ideas.