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June 22, 2024 - Lionel Nation
29:58
Digital Safety and What It Means
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Well, as you can see, my special guest is Lynn Shaw from Lynn's Warriors, who happens to be married to me, but that's neither here nor there.
I wanted to do this for a while because we have a lot to discuss.
It's a very critical issues.
And let's just jump in right off the bat, if that's okay.
Governor Kathy Hochul announced something which he's very proud of, of some law or legislation which will, what exactly, in your words?
Governor Kathy Hochul announced the same...
New York Governor.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul, our governor here.
We are in New York State.
It is also something the Warriors believes in, that we traveled up to Albany, if you recall, about six weeks ago, to rally for child.
Safety.
However, I have a little bit of a bone to pick.
This was quickly, quickly put to the forefront of all legislation that the SAFE Act.
Now, I've been saying this all along, including the day I was in Albany, but nobody had an answer for me.
The SAFE Act will enable parents to shut down, for instance, let me give you some examples, their children's social media between the hours of midnight and 6 a.m.
Also, there's a companion act that, and something I do agree with, that children's information cannot be sold, you know, with the algorithms and all that.
So that's fine.
But I go back to how are we actually enforcing something everybody's applauding yesterday and today, of shutting down social media between these hours of midnight and 6 a.m., of shutting out, you know, harmful content.
I'm here to say it cannot be done.
We are the biggest warrior.
Just stop for a second, because I'm dense here.
What is the SAFE Act?
This was passed, a watered-down version, or the same act that you and your colleagues had pushed?
What is the SAFE Act, at its best, or what is the SAFE Act that you would want enacted?
Listen, this SAFE Act basically, in my opinion, came out of nowhere in the springtime.
Just out of nowhere.
And we're going to go up to Albany.
I will never miss a chance to go up to Albany to promote the Warriors to talk about child safety.
Again, I should point out bipartisan issues.
Remember, this belongs to no political party.
It's about child safety.
And that is basically it, that this SAFE Act will give parents the leverage, or guardians, caretakers, to protect...
Now, I ask you, without breaking down the entire bill, and we can put the bill actually in the body of this video, that how would that be enforced?
How do you force parents or kids to turn off their devices?
Well, let me just tell you something before you say the next thing.
What I read today is now New York Governor Kathy Hochul has passed this on to New York Attorney General Letitia James to figure out a plan how to enforce this.
Okay.
I'm stupid, okay?
Here's my child's, this case is my child's phone.
And I'm going to take this.
Now, right now, what can I not do without the SAFE Act that I can do with the SAFE Act?
What?
Well, that is an excellent question and one I've been asking myself.
What it boils down to, and I try to keep these issues extremely simple because they're very difficult and convoluted to understand, believe it or not, It comes down to the parent in that household taking the action themselves, being educated themselves about what goes on online.
That is up to you as the parent, adult who bought that device, who pays for the internet, the routers.
You are the parent, not the child.
Even if the child, I get the argument, is 17, they are still not legally an adult.
They are a minor.
You could collect the phones at nighttime.
Okay.
You can take control.
We need education of parents and family members.
When I hear the words, and I say this to you a lot, ban, enforce, it does not work, especially when it comes to the internet.
You can't do it.
Again, I'm stupid.
A parent now could say, give me the phone, I'll give this phone back to you tomorrow.
That's one thing.
Number two, a parent could use some of the great resources from And our dear friend Chris McKenna on Protect Young Eyes, where there are routers and devices that he will help a parent use and hook up, where you can find out what's on the child's phone, limit a variety of things, so you can actually do things through your router.
I think Griffin is one of the brands, but he can do this.
And you don't need legislation for that.
That's there anyway.
Because I'm sick and tired of these parents who say, you don't understand.
These kids, they all have phones.
Oh yeah?
Well, kids all do drugs and they all get pregnant.
They all get STDs.
Is that your attitude?
That's another issue.
Again, my dear, the SAFE Act would allow or mandate what that is not currently available today?
What?
Other than preventing data from being collected.
I just explained, Letitia James is going to be coming up with, as they put it, a concrete plan how to enforce an act, shutting down phones.
Now, let me just explain this for a minute.
What scares me, again, forget the words ban and enforce, which are not part of our warrior's vocabulary, it is, I am saying this in my opinion, parents being very lazy.
Because as you pointed out, We now live in an environment where we have to take action.
We can no longer depend on our government to protect us, the education system to protect us.
It is up to us, our precious children.
There are plenty of good resources.
My top ones, as you pointed out, protectyoungeyes.com.
Lots of free information also about the tech world, the platforms, the gaming systems, blogging.
Chris McKenna will write to you individually.
We also have Bark, B-A-R-K.us.
That's a little bit different.
That is a system that you do have to pay a couple of dollars to.
Well worth it.
That would alert you.
You connect it to your child's phone, nude images coming through, inappropriate dialogue, a little bit more involved.
$4.99 for young kids and 12 and up is $9.99.
Well worth it a month to pay that so you don't have to do all the work.
And it has saved, again.
Bark.us.
You'll see all the proof.
You'll see all the studies.
You'll see all the blogging information.
We've got that going on.
We've also got Gab, G-A-B-B.com.
These are phones that look exactly like an iPhone, but only have, you can call or text.
There's no internet capabilities.
So that old argument goes out the window.
My child feels left out.
My child's having issues.
They don't have a phone.
They can have a phone, but they can only call mommy or daddy.
You know, or text their sister or brother.
They don't have access to the world.
So I'm here to say, people are being lazy.
We cannot have legislation that, because when we enact this, which again, I'm going to point out, only started late spring.
Yeah, late spring is already passed by our governor, but our governor, who will not address many...
Other things with human trafficking, sexual exploitation.
Wait, wait, wait.
You got to understand something.
A lot of people, this is overwhelming to them.
I want to go back.
Number one, at lenswarriors.org, if you are a parent and you say, what are these functions?
All of that is listed out for you.
You can go to lenswarriors.org.
I have the link.
And you can go to find out.
I don't want to hear this stuff about, I'm not tech savvy.
I don't know how to do these things.
I can't even program my VCR.
Remember that old line?
I mean, they love to wallow in their ignorance.
So that's number one.
Number two, Kathy Hochul is a joke.
And she's only the governor of New York, my opinion, because Salazzo Cuomo...
Andrew, when he was bounced for his sexual irregularities, she was the lieutenant governor.
And we got this pig in a polka, nobody knows anything about her.
This is the same Jadrul who the other day rolled out, just give me a second, congestion pricing that Salazzo, Fredo's brother Salazzo Cuomo, came up with.
And then she realized, you know, right now, as we inch towards November, and they...
Crushing defeat of the Democratic position, she said, I'm going to back off on this congestion pricing, and all of a sudden, this is my long wind-up, I'm going to pretend like I give a damn about kids and social media, even though I'm passing or suggesting legislation that doesn't say anything, that doesn't provide anything.
It's almost like it's precatory.
It's hopeful.
It's wonderful.
It's wistful.
It's beautiful.
But there's nothing that mandates.
You know and I know that Apple or Big Tech or TikTok or Instagram or whoever it is is not going to change anything.
They might theoretically pretend not to provide information, but your phone is still your phone.
So it doesn't matter.
Okay, let's move that out of the way.
There are people, parents, who still don't understand.
That the way that the predators, sex predators, child predators, human traffickers, the way that they get to new people is through the phone.
Not the guy in the white van by the river, whereas that's Chris Farley.
Not the guy who grabs somebody from behind a bench in a trench coat, necessarily, though I'm sure they're still there.
It's the phone.
Explain that.
Explain to a parent watching now that that device that looks innocuous, that the kid seems to be at home, well, at least she's home.
At least they're here playing away with her friends and watching her little dance moves.
Explain how that's the portal to their predation.
Well, I have to be honest with you.
I am very tired.
Please be honest.
Well, I'm very tired of explaining this because I don't think...
Okay, thank you very much.
Our guest is...
No, I want to explain something to you.
And before I say why I'm tired of explaining that, is I just want to go back to Governor Kathy Hochul for a minute.
She has also proposed about two weeks ago that she is working towards legislation to ban phones in all schools in New York State.
Now, again, I want to point out a couple of things here.
This is a program that the Warriors and many other good colleagues of ours, Partners of ours, organizations have been working on, because we do have studies that show, multiple studies, a child needs to be in the school without distractions, learning, communicating, socializing with their peers, not distracted by phones all the time.
So we've always promoted, and there's no federal laws, state laws right now, that it is a school-by-school, district-by-district.
We have on the Warriors, under our Take Actions, an actual program that's been there for a while.
How to approach your school.
Try to get some other parents involved with you to start this movement of, we'll take it out of this middle or high school.
We'll start here.
So that's been going on.
But now I'm hearing Kathy Hochul.
She seems to be going all in here in New York State.
I'm going to have new legislation where we're going to take the phones out of schools altogether.
Well, I'm here to remind you.
I know firsthand from a lot of parents, a lot of children are doing their school activities on these devices because we have government-issued Chromebooks.
Once that Chromebook is lost, broken, or stolen, the children who are mandated, you have to do it on these Chromebooks, okay?
Not the notebooks and all that, the Chromebook.
And they don't have it anymore, and they can't get a replacement.
What do they have left?
They got a phone, or they can't do their schoolwork.
So I have so many questions.
How is this all going to be enforced, handled?
It makes no sense to me.
It is just a soundbite.
It's look at us.
We're doing so great.
Election year.
Parents, look at us.
We're going to protect your kids.
So all these other distractions can occur behind our backs while everybody's focused on, isn't this great?
Now I won't have to worry about my child on a phone.
You have to worry about your child on every device, every single moment of the day.
That's the first part of the question.
And the second part of the question is why I'm tired.
I'm tired of talking about this because the predators are winning.
Because we are in a world that is digital, online.
We all live in it.
We love it.
We're not giving it back.
Then leverage it for good.
Understand that you have a responsibility to your child to parent up.
If you give them a device, you buy it.
You pay for it.
Know what's going on.
I do not understand.
We are so strict about do not drink.
Don't do drugs.
You've got to wear a seatbelt.
You've got to put a bicycle helmet on to walk down the street.
You've got to wear a mask.
Exactly.
But nobody will listen about the devices.
You will allow this to a child, a teen, to have free reign where the rest of the world has free reign and understand the demand is for children.
It is a power thing.
It is a money thing.
The amounts of money being made off the backs of our children is despicable.
And that's what Kathy Hochul should be talking about, okay?
Kids should not have their phone in bed with them at night, number one.
First of all, because of the radiation.
I don't care what anybody says.
When you're sleeping with this thing against you all night, that cannot be good for you.
You should not have a phone in the bathroom.
Now I know most parents are going to say, whoa, wait a minute, hold it, because that's replaced, dare I say, magazine collections and LL Bean and all of those other little library functions.
Why does a kid have a phone in the bathroom?
The minute you put anything online.
You put it out there, it is never truly gone.
You have to remember that.
It could be a half a second something later, it has already been captured around the world.
The predators have full-time jobs in just sitting there, tracking children, pretending they're a peer.
Our children are so vulnerable, we have a very well-documented youth mental health crisis.
Tell us how it works.
Give us a scenario.
I'm getting to that.
But you have to remember, what we understand in our household, most people do not understand.
So I have to explain how this works.
We also just had our U.S. Surgeon General last week, Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, put out, I think we need a warning label on all social media sites like we did with cigarettes, with the tobacco world.
Okay, that sounds nice.
That's great.
If it helps, good.
But that's just thrown out there.
That's no kind of law, legislation so far.
But what happens with this, our kids are so vulnerable.
We learned a lot during that whole C-word period, you know, COVID, I like to say, is that because we give away as society now, for the most part, so much information about ourselves.
We put pictures of our kids online.
We're dancing on TikTok in bikinis and we're 50 and 60 years old.
We're doing this.
The kids replicate that.
They're living in a bubble.
It's not their fault.
The last study said four devices at their disposal of phones and Chromebooks and laptops and gaming consoles in their homes, in their environment.
They think this is somehow private, you know, all these devices.
And what happens is within, it used to be 48 hours, now it's 24 hours, a child, a teen, will give away a lot of personal information, thinking usually it's a peer.
You know, a boy with a cute girl, a girl with a boy, and they're so vulnerable.
And they're miserable because their mother won't let them have a phone at nighttime.
Or they're miserable because something happened in school.
And they live in this town.
And they form this very quick relationship online.
And the next step is, you know, I'm going to send you a little picture of myself.
Oh, that looks like a cute girl or boy.
This is how it usually starts.
And, okay, send me a picture of yourself.
The next step very quickly is, okay, show me what you look like.
And this is a family program.
Well, on Facebook, I know this is different.
They're my friends.
They're lulled into this complacency.
They have nothing to worry about.
These are my friends.
And by the way, one more time, you all of a sudden, all right, kid, guess what?
I'm really not Mandy.
I've got your photo.
And if you don't give me X amount of money, I'm going to tell your parents.
I was trying to get to that point.
I'm sorry.
I have to break it down.
People have to really understand after that initial development of this.
This faux relationship that escalates very quickly.
Again, I said 24 hours usually.
That the next step is $75.
It is horrific.
It is awful.
The problem is, especially among teenage boys, the FBI has put out three advisories in the last year alone.
They are targeting.
And it is from every race, every rich, poor, no matter what.
Because the boys, they have found out.
Are so much more vulnerable and get embarrassed than go to their trusted adult, their parent, their grandparent, and say, hey, this is happening.
I don't know what to do.
It is a well-oiled operation happening targeting American teen boys.
Remember one thing the kids have to understand.
There's no deal that says that if you provide this photo, there won't be any.
Dissemination of the picture.
Because they're going to pass that picture around no matter what.
I don't want to tell people.
One of the reasons why you should not pay any money is they're going to use a picture anyway.
It doesn't really matter.
But anyway, that notwithstanding.
You're correct.
I wish we could inoculate our kids, to use a word I've gotten from you over the last few years, and say, go ahead and spread it.
And that that child would go to their mother or father and say, I did this.
And the parent would react, not in a screaming matter, not delete that, and just say, okay, we're going to deal with this.
And then the parent has to know, anything with a minor is against the law.
What do you do?
What are those first three steps you take to report this crime?
It is illegal.
By the way, there are also faux emails going to people, and adults and others, that say, I've got a hold of your, when you thought your phone was off, it was on, and we have you doing, you know, whatever it is.
Whoever you are, old people, it doesn't matter.
Doing the same thing, send so and such, so much money in Bitcoin or Ethereum or whatever it is.
So it's apparently, remember, if one person is doing it, that means they're making some money.
Now, it comes down to simply this.
You sit down with a kid.
I don't care how you do it.
You say, guess what, little Madison?
You know what I heard the other day?
Did you hear about this?
There was a little girl about your age who was playing a game.
And somebody she was talking to said, and then she was embarrassed.
Now you're going to tell me, are you not?
Because we have to be on the lookout for this.
You've got to help protect these kids and be a policeman.
If this ever happens to you, you'll come to me, right?
You're not in trouble.
We have to keep an eye out for the other little kids.
And kids, a lot of them love to snitch.
So you don't scare them.
You don't yell at them.
You can say, if anybody, if I ever find out that you did this, well, guess what?
You've just ensured the child is never going to talk to you.
But inoculate.
Immunize them.
Tell them.
I used to always, there was a time years ago when kids used to be told, Remember, there's a strange person who picks you up and says, hey, Tabitha, because they're reading the name on the back of the backpack, your mom isn't going to be able to pick you up, but she's hurt.
And I'm her friend, and I'm going to pick you up.
Whatever.
People were very open about that.
And kids knew about safe words and code words.
But for some reason, we stopped that dialogue.
And the way to do it is to make the kid understand they're smarter than you think, especially when you address it in such a way that you're not scaring them, but you make them in on it.
Makes them feel smart.
They're a cohort.
They're working with you.
Plus, it makes the parent seem more like a friend than a protector, than somebody who's always looking to yell at you.
And I've never...
This is one of the things which could be...
The easiest of them all.
How many times have you heard of kids who've left in the middle of the night to go meet a friend?
Or the parents had no idea what was happening because there was just this innocuous phone, this harmless phone.
That's not rare, is it not?
Listen, we just had the case of Jocelyn, 12-year-old, murdered.
She left her house 10 o 'clock at night in Houston, Texas.
I believe, it hasn't come out yet, that she was communicating perhaps somehow on a phone and was urged somehow.
The last time she was seen on camera was at a convenience store a couple of blocks away.
Somehow, I believe, we'll see how this plays out, she was on the phone somehow and was called out.
She was going to meet a friend.
She was going to meet somebody.
Perhaps even, we don't know yet, buying drugs because we know you can buy with two clicks.
We know all this, yet we still have to talk about it because people are still in the dark about what occurs on these devices.
So we're going to play out that story.
She left in the middle of the night.
She ended up, that's the truth, that's the reality.
What we have to think about, we can't ban, we can't enforce, we can't actually have legislation because right now the law is all with the big tech platform.
So leave that for a minute.
We have to parent up.
There is something called parental autonomy.
You cannot tell anybody when to buy any of these devices.
What you can tell them, though, is why does a child need a phone?
There are different programs.
We have Delay is the Way.
We have Wait until 8th, which means why should a child need a phone before 8th grade?
They don't.
We need kids with everything documented, the youth mental health crisis, kids with the self-harm, kids self-medicating.
The education system, kids can't focus.
We need kids to get back to, I dare say, basics at the Warriors we are promoting this summer, reading actual books, cover to cover, turning the pages, feeling accomplished when you've read a book and then you can share it with the parents.
So we need parents to really think about this in an entirely different way.
Parent up.
You need these family digital partnerships in your home.
Two more things.
One is...
How many times have you heard, you told me of a study or some study or studies that said that kids sometimes often would say, I didn't think my parents paid attention or cared.
They were so busy on their phones, they never even, they never noticed me.
The mothers were too busy snapping photos, dancing in the kitchen or whatever it was.
Kids have said that.
And number two, and we see it here in the Jersey area, we saw it in...
Oh, that's really not in New York, but in the suburbs.
Why, in the name of God, do people at graduation time put a big sign in front of their house that says, Happy Birthday, Morgan, or Tiffany, or a name, you know, Stacy, Kelsey.
So you're telling the world, there's a kid in there who just graduated from high school named Kelsey.
What?
One of them had a picture.
Where was it?
I think we saw it recently.
I thought to myself, you're kidding me!
And if I went to these parents and would say, what are you doing?
They would look at you like, I never thought about that.
Why?
Because that's what we do.
I don't understand it.
Well, you know, look.
We're going to keep preaching about it.
We used to have stranger danger like every kid.
Stranger danger, stranger danger, like you knew that.
It started during COVID.
Those signs have been around for well over a decade.
Congratulations, Susie, class of whatever.
During COVID, I noticed when kids couldn't graduate.
There was no in-person.
They started hanging, like in front of the high schools, middle schools, pictures of the kids, like on fences.
And I thought to myself, what is that, four years ago?
This is strange.
They're putting the child's face with the name.
Then, the year later, I saw a transition to front lawns where these signs now were on front lawns with not only Susie, their big face on it.
And I thought, wow, because we do have reports that somebody will say, I want that blonde child, you know, and they know you live there.
I don't understand.
We know people are proud of their children.
We have to reel it in and have privacy.
Why does the American society, culture in particular, feel they have to give everything, say everything, give out?
And children are minors.
They can't consent.
How many times have we heard, we've known people who have pictures of their kids toilet training, kids in their bathtub?
What happens when they're 20, 30, 40, and those pictures, and those pictures, by the way, I'm here to say, I know 99.9% of those cute bathtub pictures or those cute swimming in the nude in the backyard pool are uploaded to...
Let us stop right there.
Let us not overwhelm.
I'm going to put the link, Lens Warriors.
There is no excuse if you don't know anything about phones, if you're a parent and you say, okay, now I've got to get to...
I'm going to do something.
All of the links are there.
What is the caption where one...
It's on the front page.
It's on the landing page of Lens Warriors.
But...
All of the information, Protect Young Eyes, Gab, all the devices, all the routers, that is on your website, correct?
Correct.
But if you can do one thing, I ask all of you, you know, follow Linz Warriors.
It's all Linz Warriors.
It's very easy for you.
On Twitter, on Facebook, on Instagram, daily stories, information you can read, educate yourself, take your time, learn about legislation that is pending, maybe in your state, maybe on the federal level.
Just understand, community creates change is our hashtag at the Warriors.
We need each and every one of you to protect your child, your children, our children, because nobody else is doing it.
And inoculate them, immunize them with the truth.
My dear, thank you so much.
We will do this again.
Lens Warriors, all of the information will be contained therein.
And you can also, if you have any questions, any ways of commenting, I'm going to put something...
For how they can contact you as well.
Alright, my darling, thank you so much.
We'll be talking again soon.
And for those who are watching, let me remind you, my friends, we will continue with this.
And let me say, as we always do, are the monkeys dead?
No, is that the wrong one?
Yes.
You know what?
Forget that.
That doesn't go with this video.
How about just leaving us with something like, you know, our community creates change.
Just something empowering and engaging.
You don't want to talk about the dead monkey?
Okay, alright.
Anyway.
I don't like that for this one.
Okay, fine.
Well, we'll have people comment anyway.
In fact, as they comment, as they see fit.
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