Keeping Kids Safe Online: Guest Column

Social Media

If we’ve learned anything, parents are the only ones who can protect kids with their devices.

The clear takeaway from the U.S. Senate’s recent hearing, “Big Tech and the Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis,” is that social media is not safe for children. Senators from both sides of the aisle questioned social media CEOs about the harms their platforms cause to kids. Democratic Senator Dick Durbin noted, “As early as 2017, law enforcement identified Snapchat as the pedophile’s go-to sexual exploitation tool.” Republican Ted Cruz chided Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg for Instagram allowing users to view child sexual content.  

For years, social media companies have claimed that better parental controls would protect children, but as CEO of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation Dawn Hawkins argued in a Heritage Foundation panel after the hearing, “[T]he parental controls … do not work. … They’ve designed these platforms without parents in mind.” 

The conclusion is obvious. Tech companies cannot (and will not even if they could) protect kids. Parents have to. 

Copyright 2024 by the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Reprinted from BreakPoint.org with permission.

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Pro-Life Activists Targeted by the DOJ: Guest Column

Abortion, , ,

Recently, the U.S. Department of Justice put pro-life protestors on trial for their role in a 2021 sit-in at an abortion facility in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee. Each protestor faces over a decade in prison, as well as hefty fines. America has a long history of civil disobedience and peaceful protests, but increasingly the state has grown quite selective in what is tolerated and what is condemned, and now, even convicted. Federal animus toward pro-life activism is increasing, as are examples of hostility from law enforcement. It’s especially odd when compared to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who “declined to comment” about the four men who were released after beating New York police officers. 

Beyond the complexities of the immigration debate and the ethics of civil disobedience, it reflects our cultural mood in which the moral status of individuals is predetermined, based on their group rather than their behavior. The more the state reflects this mood, the more elusive justice will be. 

Copyright 2024 by the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Reprinted from BreakPoint.org with permission.

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Guest Column: The Decline of WPATH

Transgender,

The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) is one of the leading medical associations pushing for the chemical and surgical “gender transition” of minors. In just the last year, WPATH has witnessed a dramatic drop in membership.  

In January 2023, WPATH had over 4,000 global members, including over 3,000 in the United States. As of this month, membership is down to just under 1,600, a 60% drop in membership. U.S. members make up 80% of that number. 

At the same time, more and more European countries are slowing down the push for “gender transition” interventions, mostly because there is no compelling research that such interventions lead to long-term health. In fact, those who pursue chemical and surgical transition are more likely to commit suicide, not less.  

Still, the U.S. government continues to push, and organizations like WPATH continue to proclaim, so-called “gender-affirming care” as gospel truth instead of what it is: the ideologically driven destruction of minors. Christians must not sit this one out. Too much is at stake. 

Copyright 2024 by the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Reprinted from BreakPoint.org with permission.

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