Current Events – Page 3 – Family Council

Study Shows Staggering Number of Young Men Trapped in “Addiction Economy” of Gambling, Pornography

Sep 1, 2026Jerry CoxCurrent EventsBig Tech, Church Ambassador Network, Gambling, Pornography, Prediction Markets, Social Media, Sports Betting

Approximately one in eight men ages 18 to 29 use pornography, gamble, and play video games every single day, according to the Institute for Family Studies (IFS).

The IFS report released last month is based on a YouGov survey of 2,000 Gen Z men living in the United States.

In a statement online, sociology professor Brad Wilcox of the University of Virginia said the report shows, “We have a generation of young men trapped in the ‘addiction economy’—and the numbers are staggering.”

Wilcox pointed out that the data shows 11.9% of men in their late teens and twenties use pornography, gamble, and play video games — all three — every single day.

Almost one in four young men said they gambled daily. More than one in four (27%) reported using pornography daily.

But while large number of young men appear to be trapped in the “addiction economy,” Focus on the Family’s Daily Citizen points out that the news isn’t all bad for Gen Z:

“While some may look at the facts above and immediately conclude men are the primary source of society’s problems, there are heartening statistics about young men returning to church and prioritizing family life.

“Young men today are more likely to desire positive important life decisions – like going to church regularly, getting married and having children – than young women are.

“According to Gallup, more young men today (42%) say religion is “very important” to their lives than at any point in the last 25 years. Young men are now more likely than young women (29%) to say religion is “very important” to them.

“For the first time in American history, more men attend church than women – with the disparity especially pronounced among 20-somethings.

“In terms of marriage, IFS reports that 68% of unmarried young men want to get married someday, and 62% of childless young men aspire to be fathers.”

The Daily Citizen is right. We have written before about the “quiet revival” taking place among young adults in America and abroad.

Young adults — men and women alike — have driven Bible sales to record levels and are being baptized into the Christian faith. That’s good news.

But the IFS report’s findings are still deeply concerning. Millions of young adults are trapped by addiction — and in some cases, multimillion-dollar corporations are profiting from it. That should trouble everyone.

Arkansas has taken steps to protect young people from gambling and from internet pornography and other harmful material. Clearly more work still needs to be done.

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

Socialism: Same Old Pitch, New Packaging

Aug 31, 2026Jerry CoxCurrent EventsCommunism, Socialism

The Cato Institute recently published a column explaining the flaws with socialists’ soundbites and political positions.

Rasmussen reports that support for capitalism has declined since 2023, and a growing share of likely voters now say socialism is better. Last November, Zohran Mamdani won New York City’s mayoral election. Mamdani, 34, belongs to the socialist Working Families Party. In his victory speech, Mamdani promised New Yorkers a “new age,” saying, “We will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve, and no concern too small for it to care about.”

But this modern socialism is really just a repackaging of the same arguments and soundbites that communism used in the last century.

Earlier this month, the Cato Institute published a column titled “Ten Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) Arguments for Socialism and Why They’re Wrong.”

The column points out well-documented problems with socialism — like rationing in the Soviet Union and collectivized agriculture in Communist China, which oppressed millions of people and kept them in abject poverty.

The Cato Institute argues that government intervention in housing and real estate tends to actually raise housing prices instead of making homes more affordable.

The article also notes that socialism is inherently totalitarian, writing, “Socialism, as law professor Ilya Somin observes of its century-long record, has always required coercion to make people surrender their property to the state.”

Socialism and communism have a well-known track record of tyranny.

As Ben Shapiro put it a few years ago, “Socialism is bad, because socialism is tyranny. Not it’s an aspect of tyranny. Socialism itself is tyranny. … The notion of socialism is that you don’t own your own freedom.”

Or as the Colson Center’s John Stonestreet said last year, “The reason oppression results every time socialism is tried is because it’s built into the system. Oppression is not a bug of socialism. It’s a feature.”

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said in 1953, “Communism is irreconcilable with Christianity,” because it is atheistic and materialistic and because “the methods of communism are diametrically opposed to Christianity.”

Socialism and communism have simply never worked. Capitalist systems have flaws and weaknesses, but they have still managed to produce good results. Socialism has not.

Maybe that’s why the Democratic Socialists of America has an online store powered by Shopify that accepts all major credit cards and sells DSA merchandise like $30 T-shirts and $45 hoodies.

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

Big News on Big Tech — Plus Defending Life, Fighting Assisted Suicide, and More Stories from the Week

Aug 28, 2026Jerry CoxCurrent EventsCurrent Events, Update, Weekly Rewind

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Here’s a quick recap of the week’s top stories from Family Council and our friends:

From Family Council

Homeschool Surge Continues in Arkansas. In 2016, there were 19,520 homeschoolers across the state. Today, that number has more than doubled. Keep Reading.

U.S. Sen. Cotton Praises Pregnancy Resource Center for “Doing the Lord’s Work,” Building Strong Families. Last week, U.S. Senator Tom Cotton from Arkansas posted a video at the New Beginnings Pregnancy Center in Saline County, praising the center and saying, “They’re doing the Lord’s work for young moms and dads and babies, helping to turn them into strong families.” Cotton said protecting the unborn is one of his top priorities in the U.S. Senate. Keep Reading.

Meta Settles Teen Social Media Addiction Lawsuits for $17 Billion. If approved in court, Arkansas would receive nearly $172.5 million. Keep Reading.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Files Lawsuit Similar to Arkansas’ Against TikTok. The lawsuit is similar to a pair of consumer protection lawsuits Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin filed in 2023. Keep Reading.

Chinese-Backed Temu has Until End of this Week to Respond to A.G. Griffin’s Deceptive Trade Allegations. Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin sued Temu in 2024, alleging Temu uses bargain pricing as a lure so the company can secretly harvest users’ private information. Keep Reading.

U.S. Senators Ask TikTok to Answer for its “Depraved” Safety Experiment. Two U.S. senators are demanding answers from TikTok over a “depraved” experiment it ran that involved secretly withholding a safety feature from millions of users — including children — on its platform. Keep Reading.

Reinventing the Sabbath: Guest Column. A recent article by science writer Elizabeth Svoboda at the Wall Street Journal argued that an occasional 24-hour break is good for mind and body. As she wrote: Keep Reading.

News Report Shows How Legalizing Marijuana Fails to Stop the Black Market. WXYZ-TV News in Detroit reported last week that police raided a gas station accused of selling tobacco and marijuana to minors. Nationwide, states like Michigan have legalized marijuana to varying degrees, and federal regulators have eased restrictions on the drug. But while policymakers push for more marijuana, pundits continue to raise concerns about legalization’s unintended consequences. Keep Reading.

Colorado’s Assisted Suicide Reports Show Incomplete Medical Data, Lack of Mental Health Evaluations. Public health data from Colorado shows that patients approved for assisted suicide likely are not being screened by mental health experts, and the assisted suicide reports that doctors submit to the State are sometimes incomplete. Keep Reading.