Do Privacy Protection and Age Verification Have to Be at Odds?
At what age does a child reach “Digital Adulthood”? That is, at what age can a minor independently consent to the collection, use, and sharing of their personal data without parental involvement? According to the latest version of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0), which recently passed in the Senate by unanimous consent, […]
Wuthering Heights
Emerald Fennel has repackaged the timeless Gothic classic for the TikTok generation. How should we, as Christians, view this latest adaptation? Emerald Fennel earned her Gen Z bona fides with the 2023 release of Saltburn, a dark comedy loosely inspired by Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited. Her follow-up project, though it claims a more direct connection […]
Who Will Protect them from their “Protectors”?
If, as Nelson Mandela posits, “There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children,” then recent headlines have given us a glimpse into part of America’s soul, and it is dark. Last week transgendered Minnesota State Rep. Leigh Finke, a two-term Democrat, spoke in opposition […]
Addictive By Design
She sits in a darkened room, face illuminated only by the constantly changing colors and flashing lights of the screen. She has lost all sense of time. The occasional “ding” gives her the momentary dopamine hit she’s been chasing for hours, but still she craves more. So she keeps going, hoping for the big payout […]
Your Voice Heard on Antitrust Hearing Highlighting Netflix Cultural Monopoly
Netflix is already a dominant player in the world of streaming media. With 325 million subscribers globally, it has more than twice as many subscribers as the #2 streaming service, Disney+. Netflix is looking to expand its empire by acquiring Warner Bros./Discovery. This acquisition would mean not only a significant expansion of Netflix’s program offerings […]
Parents Won’t Believe What May Be Coming Soon to Disney+
One of the most startling brand misalignments in recent history would have to be Disney and Ryan Murphy. For those unfamiliar with Murphy or his work, Ryan Murphy is an openly gay producer whose shows most frequently showcase sexual deviancy and demonic/occultist themes. His first successful series was an FX drama about a pair of […]
Grok’s Deepfake Problem
It has been observed that whenever new technology is introduced, bad actors are often the first to exploit it. Or, more accurately, they are the first to use the new technology to exploit others. In late December, X (formerly Twitter) introduced a new image and video edit tool for Grok, the platform’s proprietary AI interface. […]
This Christmas, Put the Phones Away
Your children are only young once. It’s such an obvious truth, yet it bears repeating because so many of us are missing out on precious moments and the opportunity to build memories together because we are addicted to our phones. We hear so much in the news about the harm smartphones have inflicted on a […]
Congress Revives Effort to Shield Kids from Online Pornography
Early last year a troubling report came out of the UK: The National Analysis of Police-Recorded Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Crimes Report stated that British school children, ages ten to 17, committed more than 6,800 rapes in a year. An average of 18 rapes each day. In addition, “There were 8,020 sex attacks plus 15,534 […]
OpenAI Has Not Mitigated Mental Health Harms – They Are Fanning the Flames
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently announced that his company plans to “relax restrictions” on adult content, including erotica, for verified users. The idea, he says, is to “treat adult users like adults.” The justification for this move, according to Altman, is that OpenAI has “been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues” that have […]
I’m Dreaming of a Tech-Free Christmas (And Why You Should, Too)
Forty Christmases ago, the “must have” toy of the season was a talking teddy bear called Teddy Ruxpin. Teddy Ruxpin was, in reality, little more than an audio cassette player hidden inside a stuffed teddy bear with animatronic eyes and mouth that moved as it played back pre-recorded audio tapes. But electronic toys have come […]
History Doesn’t Repeat, But It Often Rhymes
In 1996, the Internet was still in its infancy. AOL was only introduced to the American public a few years prior in 1992, and it would be another five years before the majority of American households had Internet access. Yet that same year, Congress passed the Communications Decency Act, aiming to protect innovation and “preserve […]
When a Friend-Making App Becomes a Predator Hunting Ground
Two-thirds of parents in the U.S. say raising children today is harder than it was twenty years ago—and most blame technology. A recent New York Post headline shows why: “Wizz is like ‘Tinder for kids,’ as teens use the app to hook up while adult predators lurk.” But the real headline is that this story […]
The Netflix Wake-Up Call Parents Have Been Ignoring for Too Long
An unfortunate casualty of our increasingly fragmented media marketplace is parents’ ability to keep on top of the content their children might be consuming. Because everything is available everywhere, all-at-once, it is not merely unrealistic to expect parents to vet every reel, short, YouTube channel, streaming series, Insta feed, and video game – it is […]
AI Chatbots Fueling Family Division, Mental Health Crisis
What was once considered a far-off fantasy or a plot device for science fiction films like 2001: A Space Odyssey or Terminator has become a present-day reality: Artificial Intelligence (AI). And just as those science fiction stories warned us, it didn’t take long for AI systems to learn how to manipulate human behavior, isolate and […]
What Parents Need to Know About Instagram’s New Teen Account Restrictions
This week, Meta, the parent company of Instagram, announced new PG-13 content restrictions that will automatically apply to all Instagram accounts belonging to users under the age of 18. Minors will not be able to opt out of these restrictions without a parent’s permission. The same limitations will also apply to Meta’s AI-powered “digital companions,” […]