Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed urged a group of young boys to &#8220;have conversations with all your neighbors&#8221; about the upcoming elections in a video he released Tuesday on social media.
&#8220;All our kids are all our kids,&#8221; El-Sayed wrote in the video&#8217;s <a href="https://x.com/AbdulElSayed/status/2092280307596558448">caption</a>.
The Democratic candidate joined the boys, many of whom wore &#8220;Youth for Abdul&#8221; shirts, on a soccer field and explained how decisions made in Washington would affect their futures.
&#8220;My whole job is to go to Washington, D.C., to try and make laws that are better for you,&#8221; he told the boys. &#8220;That&#8217;s the whole point. So you have better schools, so that you can breathe cleaner air, you can drink cleaner water, so we don&#8217;t go send our money to kill other people instead of keeping it here, to protect you and give you healthcare, to make sure your parents have good jobs, that they have protections from a union.&#8221;
&#8220;The world that we&#8217;re building right now is the world you&#8217;re going to live in a lot longer,&#8221; he continued, adding, &#8220;When you are going out having conversations with all your neighbors and talking about elections and voting, what you&#8217;re asking them to do is build a future that&#8217;s better for you guys.&#8221;
El-Sayed told the children that he wanted them to &#8220;fight for their future&#8221; and promised he would do the same if elected to the Senate in November.
Some social media users objected to El-Sayed&#8217;s &#8220;all our kids&#8221; caption, interpreting it as suggesting that children belong collectively to the broader community, and <a href="https://x.com/CatB99261688/status/2092298658897097204">ripped</a> the Democrat for the lack of diversity in the video.
El-Sayed&#8217;s campaign did not respond to a request for comment from The Daily Wire.
The caption El-Sayed used for the post is similar to a quote from civil rights activist James Baldwin, who <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/notes-house-bondage/">wrote</a> in The Nation in 1980, “The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality.” Baldwin espoused many socialist ideals and <a href="https://lvdsa.org/2020/07/08/socialist-spotlight-james-baldwin/">argued</a> for socialism to be implemented in the United States.
El-Sayed has attempted to distance himself from socialism throughout his Senate campaign, telling <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/im-not-a-socialist-michigans-mamdani-has-the-lefts-new-playbook-but-doesnt-want-the-new-label">The Daily Wire</a> in February, &#8220;I&#8217;m a scientist. I’m not a socialist.”
Yet many of El-Sayed&#8217;s <a href="https://abdulforsenate.com/priority/money-in-your-pocket/#h-taxing-billionaire-wealth">positions</a> are indistinguishable from socialist ideals, and he has campaigned with democratic socialists, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). He has also joined forces with Marxist streamer Hasan Piker, whom he refuses to disavow even after Piker made <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hasan-piker-delivers-ominous-warning-to-pro-israel-jews">threatening comments</a> warning pro-Israel Jews to stop supporting the country before somebody “takes action” against them.

Democratic Senate Candidate Abdul El-Sayed Holds Primary Night Event In Detroit

El-Sayed Enlists Children To Spread Political Message: ‘All Our Kids Are All Our Kids’

2026 Midterms

Abdul El-Sayed

Children

Democrats

Islam in America

Michigan

Republicans

Socialism

U.S. Senate

When a child begs to play Roblox, parents often assume it’s harmless. They hear it’s wildly popular with classmates. And those blocky cartoon characters often lead parents to assume it’s a safe game for kids.
In reality, Roblox is not a single game, but a massive, user-generated platform hosting millions of varied &#8220;experiences.&#8221; Much like a YouTube for gaming, the content varies widely in what’s appropriate for children. Illicit worlds encourage users to simulate sexual violence or predatory behaviors on other players.
Roblox rolled out child-safety features earlier this year only after immense public pressure and hundreds of lawsuits. Yet these don’t address many of the risks kids still face, like predators, pressure to spend virtual currency (Robux), and addictive design tricks that keep them hooked. 
<h4>Do Roblox’s new age checks do enough?</h4>
Users must now complete an age check before accessing communication features. This is done by either facial age estimation or government-issued ID verification for those 13 and over. 
Once verified, users can communicate with others in the same age group. Ages 5-8 are placed in Roblox Kids, where the chat is disabled by default, though parents can enable it. Ages 9-15 are grouped into Roblox Select, and those 16+ are grouped into standard Roblox.
I understand why that sounds reassuring. Parents want to believe the adults have been separated from the children.
However, accuracy is a real concern. Facial estimation only verifies the apparent age of the face presented at one moment. It can’t guarantee that the same person will continue using the account. 
Roblox may ask users to repeat the check if it detects a discrepancy, but parents are still left with an important question: Is the person chatting with my child actually the person whose face or ID Roblox checked? 
I’m privileged to interface with concerned parents regularly in my work at <a href="https://www.defendyoungminds.com/">Defend Young Minds</a>. When it comes to age verification, many parents have reported that their children were assigned to incorrect age groups. One mother shared a Roblox notice saying her 13-year-old’s account had been unlinked from hers because the platform considered him an adult. Her parental controls disappeared with it. Another shared that her teen was estimated as six years old.
Some parents, uncomfortable submitting a child’s face or ID, used their own faces instead, unintentionally pushing the child’s account into an adult category. Parents are being asked to choose between two risks: hand over a child’s facial data or ID, or refuse and potentially leave the account in the wrong age group. 
Even when the age is correct, children can still chat with strangers. An age label doesn’t make a stranger safe. And mature games still evade content moderation and appear in Roblox Kids.
Not surprisingly, the new system has created a digital black market for verified accounts. 
Sellers group accounts by specific age groups and sell them for a few dollars on illicit forums or e-commerce sites like eBay. While eBay prohibits and removes these listings, some still slip past content moderation due to crafty listings. This allows an adult predator to buy an account already categorized as a minor, completely bypassing age-restricted chat filters. Many online forums provide tutorials on how to find these listings.
Remember, these reactive safeguards were added to a platform whose basic design was already exposing children to risk. Age groups don’t change that. Let’s take a closer look at these dangers.
<h4>Predators can enter your child’s play space</h4>
Most parents would never invite an unknown adult into their child’s bedroom or playdate. Yet online gaming can create the digital equivalent.
Roblox&#8217;s social features serve as a hunting ground for predators, who use in-game interactions to groom children before moving conversations to unmonitored apps such as Discord or Snapchat. This progression can lead to requests for personal information and nude images, often using Robux as bait. From there, the child may face threats, sextortion, or requests to meet in person, putting them at risk of assault or even physical abduction.
David Gomez, a former police officer who has spent years working with children and families, has seen this firsthand.
“I’ve personally arrested predators in their 30s and older who had multiple Roblox accounts for the sole purpose of finding and grooming children,” he <a href="https://www.defendyoungminds.com/post/4-ways-roblox-endangers-your-kid-cops-safety-guide-for-parents">warned</a>. He has also responded to cases involving children as young as eight who were befriended on Roblox and then lured onto other apps.
<h4>User-created content can turn sexual or disturbing</h4>
Roblox prohibits sexual content. However, the sheer volume of user-created and altered content makes moderation difficult.
Children can encounter violent material, bullying, or coded communication intended to evade filters. For example, players can type on signs (like public billboards) in real time and avoid chat filters. Kids can easily encounter sexually explicit avatar behavior and illicit “condo” games built around simulated sexual activity.
Pornography doesn’t stop being pornography because the bodies are blocky or animated.  
One reason I wrote the &#8220;<a href="https://www.defendyoungminds.com/books">Good Pictures Bad Pictures&#8221;</a> read-aloud books was to give children the ability to recognize pornography and the vocabulary to report it before exposure happens. Kids can learn a simple definition of pornography, a warning of why it’s dangerous, and a plan to stay safe that includes telling a trusted adult.
<h4>Robux turns play into pressure to spend</h4>
Furthermore, the platform operates as a marketplace driven by aggressive monetization. Its business model pressures children into spending Robux, which costs real money, by making them feel excluded or unsuccessful if they don’t buy clothing, abilities, or upgrades.
Officer Gomez has responded to homes where children have spent thousands of dollars before parents realized it. One 10-year-old memorized his father’s debit-card information and bought add-ons while he slept. 
Addictive design
Roblox never really ends. Many games have no natural stopping point. There is always another experience, reward, purchase, or limited event. Coveted items awarded during gameplay, or drops, happen at odd hours to keep players constantly watchful. Randomized rewards can begin to feel a lot like slot machines. 
Gomez has taken 911 calls involving children screaming, breaking things, or making threats when told to log off. 
Even if Roblox’s age-safety controls worked perfectly, parents still face a platform designed to keep children playing, spending, and returning.
<h4>What can parents do?</h4>
I believe the wiser choice is a smaller, private environment, like Minecraft Realms, limited to people parents actually know. Or an offline game that offers fun without constant internet access or communication with strangers. 
Parents who permit Roblox need to be prepared for a lot of oversight. They should play alongside their children, link and secure the parent account, restrict chat and spending, keep devices in shared spaces, establish firm stopping times, and review the controls regularly.
Teach children to reject requests for secrecy, personal information, and pictures. And make this rule nonnegotiable: Never, ever move a chat onto another app without a parent’s knowledge and permission. 
Predators depend on access, secrecy, and a child’s reluctance to tell. With these steps, parents can interrupt all three. 
Roblox’s new safeguards may reduce some dangers, but they don’t replace parental judgment. Or the wisdom to decide that Roblox just isn’t worth the risk.
***
Kristen A. Jenson, MA, is the founder of <a href="https://www.defendyoungminds.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Defend Young Minds</a> and the author of the bestselling <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Good-Pictures-Bad-Guide-Girls/dp/0997318783" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Good Pictures Bad Pictures</a> series of read-aloud books that help parents talk with their kids about pornography and build healthy digital habits. She has spent years equipping families to protect children in a screen-saturated world.
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

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The Hidden Dangers Of Kids’ Favorite Game

Internet

Internet safety

Upstream

In the memories of Gen Z and Millennials, back-to-school snacks feature fruit snacks, fruit roll-ups, Dunkaroos, Oreos, and a litany of processed foods. But years later, the science has caught up to these lab-made food-like substances, and the results don’t look good for the food dyes and processed sugar. And as the <a href="https://cdn.realfood.gov/DGA.pdf">new U.S. dietary guidelines</a> emphasize whole fruit, veggies, and protein, the next generation can do far better.
With back-to-school season in full swing, it’s time to load up on easy snacks to send along with the little ones this year — or grab for your own work bag. Here are eight MAHA snacks to add to the rotation. 
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/L%C3%84RABAR/page/5A01DEC3-FD90-4D9B-999A-67933E9D116A?tag=ustxtaddt-20">Larabars</a>. A blend of dates, nuts, and mixed fruits, spices, or chocolate, these bars are perfect to tuck into any lunch box. They come in multitudes of flavors from <a href="https://www.amazon.com/LARABAR-Larabar-Chocolate-Cookie-6Count/dp/B08MRXFP6C?ref_=ast_sto_dp&amp;th=1">chocolate chip cookie dough</a> to <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Larabar-Lemon-Gluten-Vegan-Fruit/dp/B08TQ14RBL?ref_=ast_sto_dp&amp;th=1&amp;psc=1">lemon bar,</a> as well as mini sizes, and each flavor features only a handful of pronounceable, good-for-you ingredients.
Trail mix. Nothing beats the customizability of trail mix! For every flavor palette, there’s a dried fruit, nut, and chocolate chip combination that hits the spot, and for nut-free classrooms, sunflower seeds are an easy swap in for almonds or peanuts. The trick is avoiding dried fruits that have added sugars or preservatives as well as nuts that have been roasted in seed oils. Fortunately, bulk food sections and Trader Joe’s both have a vast selection of simple and organic nuts, seeds, and dried fruit. Putting bags of trail mix together is also an easy way to get kids involved in the kitchen, let them choose their favorite combinations, and teach them about the food they eat. 
Simple Mills crackers. Though the Lunchables-style mystery meat and Ritz crackers are a snack choice Gen Alpha should probably leave in the past, there are a host of healthy crackers hitting the market for a salty snack. Simple Mills has come out with a line of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/64BF600B-6B5E-45A5-A2BF-D7BCC6797164?ingress=2&amp;lp_context_asin=B08ZFM4TSM&amp;lp_context_query=simple%20mills%20almond%20flour%20crackers&amp;visitId=e9922b75-1899-4b1c-a55a-7290c2d27495&amp;store_ref=bl_ast_dp_brandlogo_sto&amp;ref_=ast_bln">almond-flour crackers</a>, and for a sweeter treat, they’ve added <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Simple-Mills-Cookies-Cinnamon-Chocolate/dp/B0D36GSVSF?ref_=ast_sto_dp&amp;th=1">graham cracker–style snacks</a> made with nut and seed flours and sweetened with coconut sugar — all made with pronounceable ingredients. 
Popcorn. If salty is your child’s favorite flavor — or if they’re a picky eater — then you can’t go wrong with a bag of popcorn. Of course, plenty of brands sell individual servings of pre-popped kernels, but when a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/NOW-Foods-Organic-Popcorn-24/dp/B004S8CMVK/ref=sr_1_6?crid=LSHSEV7CX9ZK&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.bFe9TgWHDI5faD_q4I6VndIbhlXbtnWrhF8lt-pWAZslhayYw6SyfHAqFEOCwBSbwyjCt3J1FsFZ4eut_d0LDbDuclNibY9l65Vlw6ottWb5QiiqLha6CCvK_k1tPC3P59kISg0ISyljnUJOFpR0BXJg45drDDaEH4yiYVsG3NS2g45VfiRsfMVTDyjln-KqB3-cnYqQKVBsVDw1_f4KDOp-UxWEUKc_u1D0r6BoUPJ8-o9Xp73JTdzGuxqk9c25mXwKXvKwXuUEq6sm5ywEL-SHyeDl9FZB1FQcXG0vVxE.n-yHCGJzB5B_iVLVXJnYIu39rnZPQtBiWzmQ7WL65ps&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=organic%2Bpopcorn&amp;qid=1786417016&amp;s=grocery&amp;sprefix=organic%2Bpopcor%2Cgrocery%2C395&amp;sr=1-6&amp;th=1">big bag of unpopped corn</a> costs less than $10, this can also be an easy snack to make at home and bag up for the week. And while there are plenty of gadgets to make popcorn at home, the only necessary equipment is a pot and lid — along with <a href="https://cookieandkate.com/perfect-stovetop-popcorn-recipe/">some technique</a>. Just a little coconut oil, salt, and a stove can make the perfect crunchy snack. 
Fruit leathers. The MAHA (and non-rolled) version of fruit roll-ups, fruit leathers aren’t a new addition to the snack market, but they are getting a new life as “fruit jerky” or “fruit bars.” Brands like <a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/Thatsit/page/F393F13E-E396-4B7A-9F38-826077B88CC1?lp_asin=B0D1VWMVL7&amp;ref_=ast_bln&amp;store_ref=bl_ast_dp_brandlogo_sto&amp;bl_grd_status=override">That’s It</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/SOLELY/page/8F3DF9A9-65C1-4137-B180-9A42DD5BBFBC?lp_asin=B07DR5XK42&amp;ref_=ast_bln&amp;store_ref=bl_ast_dp_brandlogo_sto">Solely</a>, which tout an organic label, have given a facelift to the dried fruit snacks, but the classic versions are still around at supermarkets too. With only whole fruit ingredients, these are also a safe option for nut-free classrooms. 
Fresh fruit. On the note of fruit, there’s nothing more classic than an apple in the classroom. Just because marketing has sold us on pre-packaged snacks and variety packs doesn’t mean that a banana, clementine, or apple need to be off the menu. They’re easy to pair with some nuts on the side or a scoop of nut butter (or sunflower seed butter) in a small container for added healthy fats and protein. 
Beef sticks. If protein is your goal, nothing beats the beef stick craze. From classic full-sized <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Chomps-Grass-Fed-Finished-Original-10-Pack/dp/B07D3NS8NW/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2D3G2IQD4GH4T&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.HA6g2Pg5iEnNZYrxk5uosejCHaM_FBv4SnE5dEHnYyXmsEs5A4ztbs3aXqPJJO0VNzJK9OREScjly5_juDzJU8Q5MJit4jBm5HrlYLYNmITN8T809eSJjGNeM6LsB0wiBphXoWrlrk6DHZPAf6WfTMRONiBhdVbEhUtqQnt4LUxa-H3S29fbALs4upON3UsRZfW1BKHdQax87DrIxg1fGd74O1n0_q9wUZyVs18Ob6dMyr96ZV2MeirESR6i_4iWOR6wDyzh91UuGNXMv5nMWejGyMMXBxQmfNK7gx11OPI.OK-f-1LCO_5arT60Qir_u1Pc7bXJTERccEy_AasPjzU&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=chomps%2Bbeef%2Bsticks&amp;qid=1786416598&amp;s=grocery&amp;sprefix=chomps%2Cgrocery%2C292&amp;sr=1-1&amp;th=1">Chomps</a> to <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Archer-Jerky-Mini-Beef-Sticks/dp/B0BP3PS7SJ/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=2D3G2IQD4GH4T&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.HA6g2Pg5iEnNZYrxk5uosejCHaM_FBv4SnE5dEHnYyXmsEs5A4ztbs3aXqPJJO0VNzJK9OREScjly5_juDzJU8Q5MJit4jBm5HrlYLYNmITN8T809eSJjGNeM6LsB0wiBphXoWrlrk6DHZPAf6WfTMRONiBhdVbEhUtqQnt4LUxa-H3S29fbALs4upON3UsRZfW1BKHdQax87DrIxg1fGd74O1n0_q9wUZyVs18Ob6dMyr96ZV2MeirESR6i_4iWOR6wDyzh91UuGNXMv5nMWejGyMMXBxQmfNK7gx11OPI.OK-f-1LCO_5arT60Qir_u1Pc7bXJTERccEy_AasPjzU&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=chomps%2Bbeef%2Bsticks&amp;qid=1786416598&amp;s=grocery&amp;sprefix=chomps%2Cgrocery%2C292&amp;sr=1-2-spons&amp;sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&amp;th=1">mini Archers</a> to <a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/Paleovalley/page/FC8E7CC0-EC03-43BF-B93A-DF68A93F508B">Paleo Valley’s</a> range of venison, beef, and chicken, there are plenty of brands selling grass-fed options that are a new twist on beef jerky-style snacks. And for nut-free schools, this is a perfect high-protein win. Just be sure to check the flavor or ingredients for anything too spicy for little ones!
Veggies. Add some sliced-up veggies to the snack rotation. Prepping a medley of carrots, cucumbers, and cauliflower at the beginning of the week is an easy way to add in an extra serving of nutrients to each day. And if your child prefers veggies with a side of dip, then hummus can add some protein or a healthier ranch such as <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Primal-Kitchen-Avocado-Dressing-Marinade/dp/B07FDP6MF2/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2COKEGCF5HK2I&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.QV6UdK-NYEeSyglXL-UyCuphZ-V_KZ-JxpufdPrt9jSi5sHqMT_iE3IiByVYoYDTwlzW7C5yKyUdlhDQfHlX46yOQtuE73aav_5cGadenujFQJb3crSiITCQ1mn0hR8JxoP4LV4-80uGfaz-Pn9Qdr0Ky7ah0csutslYD3ujrEwnSHfoYU6fTuIlabsYFNHQHxFqjLUGvkkp6MSIByqqhQNqTkkLUo58zZsN4qVXSuv6BXVy3abqcD4Z7CzGqOXxSeUKaPcqmNhT26BwFC3vaj2GmKmNczQWgC9fbIvXL1s.64greIE45MCUksOKSsMXaLUqo1hv5OOcsjWv2jX4KTw&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=primal+kitchen+ranch&amp;qid=1786417464&amp;sprefix=primal+kitchen+%2Caps%2C197&amp;sr=8-1">Primal Kitchen’s dressing</a> can add a zip of flavor. Just send along a small side container for the dip.
The truth is that real food and healthy snacks are, by their nature, simple. And when it comes to America’s next generation, whole foods and simple foods are nothing but the best fuel for growing minds.
***
Jordan Jantz is the assistant editor at IW Features as well as a freelance writer, editor, and website designer.
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

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Eight Easy MAHA Back-To-School Snacks Your Kids Will Love

Food

Health

MAHA

After backlash to her egg-freezing stunt this week, New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez went after conservative men.
In a rambling video following her social media post in which she showed herself freezing her eggs, the 36-year-old unmarried leftist pivoted from personal fertility updates to an all-out assault on Right-wing men, accusing them of creating a culture that devalues women and pressures them into dynamic-skewed relationships.
Instead of sticking to biological facts or policy solutions, Ocasio-Cortez spent most of her post cooking up a sweeping, evidence-free indictment of conservative dating dynamics and male behavior.
Ocasio-Cortez invented a bizarre conspiracy, claiming conservative culture doesn&#8217;t just encourage early marriage, but secretly pressures young women to marry men much older than them because Right-wingers &#8220;aren&#8217;t pressuring men to be ready&#8221; at young ages.
&#8220;I do think there&#8217;s a certain amount of anxiety or stress that can come with feeling like you are in a race against biology that men simply don&#8217;t have to engage in,&#8221; she said. &#8220;In straight relationships, who are women supposed to be having babies with? So naturally, they want you to then not only have kids young but implicit in that have kids young with someone much older than you. Because the piece that they aren&#8217;t talking about, they aren&#8217;t pressuring men to be ready to have a baby as young as the way that they are pressuring women to have a baby when they&#8217;re young.&#8221;
The congresswoman flatly declared that Right-wing culture does &#8220;nothing to make sure that men &#8230; respect and value women,&#8221; ascribing uniform, toxic behavior to tens of millions of American men without a single shred of proof.
&#8220;For all of these Right-wing people, who are harping about women having to and needing to have families at a young age — and again, if that&#8217;s your choice, that&#8217;s amazing — but they are doing nothing to make sure that men in their culture respect and value women,&#8221; Ocasio-Cortez added. &#8220;In fact, many of their biggest examples are of men who treat women horribly.&#8221;
Of course, Ocasio-Cortez conveniently refused to name a single figure, leaving her accusations vague, unsubstantiated, and impossible to refute.
She insisted that how male conservative politicians speak about women translates directly into broader societal harm and toxic dating conditions, declaring that women are taking notice because &#8220;that stuff doesn&#8217;t stay there.&#8221;
Capping off her tirade against conservative men, Ocasio-Cortez skipped any real evidence and opted for a dramatic moral warning: &#8220;God don&#8217;t like ugly.&#8221;
Rather than addressing genuine discussions around family formation or fertility timelines, she chose to reduce a deeply personal medical choice into a partisan culture-war attack against conservative men. All she left behind was hot takes, strawmen, and zero actual evidence.

House Backs Trump Iran War Budget Despite Midterm Election Fears

AOC Cooks Up Right-Wing Dating Conspiracy After Egg-Freezing Backlash

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

babies

Conservative Men

Dating

Relationships

Women

Conservatives love to talk about what’s wrong with my generation: why college kids are marching in support of terrorists, why they have so many genders, and why so many of them are impossibly woke. I’m sure there are plenty of reasons. But as a 13-year-old myself, I’m here to tell you that social media is the problem.
Social media platforms have always had some sway over what adults think politically, but now that kids are getting on them at younger and younger ages, kids are getting radicalized sooner.
We can spend hours arguing about whether kids should be on social media, but the reality is that most of them already are — and have been for some time. The result is that most people in my middle school can’t tell you anything about President Donald Trump or Republicans other than the fact that they’re supposedly evil.
Of course, my classmates have never read articles about this; they just watch short videos on various social media platforms and assume everything they hear is true. These videos twist words, tell lies, and change the narrative because it’s progressives telling the stories, and conservative videos aren&#8217;t on the algorithm.
The day after Charlie Kirk was shot, almost all of my grade had watched his murder on video multiple times. It was all anyone was talking about. But instead of making everyone feel sick, like it should have, it simply turned into a meme. Kids kept singing the viral Charlie Kirk song, not because they were honoring him but because they saw it online and thought it was funny. I asked some of my friends if they knew what Charlie stood for, and I wasn’t surprised that they had no idea. They probably still don’t know today.
Social media had not given them Charlie&#8217;s whole story, only the end. Watching social media turn his death into a meme shows how addictive social media is, and how thoroughly it brainwashes young minds.
It also shows that conservatives aren’t trying to reach kids my age. The internet is full of left-wing ideas, so it is not surprising that so many kids are growing up to have extreme views. Conservative adults worry that college kids are being brainwashed, but by the time these kids reach college, it may already be too late. When they get on social media at younger ages, they also get brainwashed earlier.
Middle schoolers today are already being propagandized from every angle: We go to school, where hyper-partisan teachers tell us we live on stolen land, and then we come home and watch videos about how terrible and evil conservatives are. Right now it’s college kids who are marching in the streets, but in the years to come, it will be my generation, and then the kids behind me who are barely in middle school.
We see a rainbow and think of Pride, and we see coed bathrooms and think it&#8217;s normal because conservatives aren’t making online content aimed at kids. People my age don’t see the other side, and they don’t have conservative voices to inspire them. Conservatives like to talk about the future, but it’s time they started reaching out to the kids who will be that future before it is too late. I wish I could say that rational thinking as we get older is enough to win over my generation, but the reality is the battle is already being fought, one swipe at a time. And right now, conservatives are losing.
But all hope is not lost. I have a front-row seat to what social media is doing to your kids, and it&#8217;s time for you to take a stand and keep them off social media platforms. They may push back, but I’m proof that they can live a completely normal and happy middle school life without it — or even a phone!
We should be learning our values from our family, our history, and our pastors, not letting influencers tell us how to live our lives and view our country. If your kids don&#8217;t have social media, keep it that way. If they’re already doomscrolling, get them to stop before it’s too late. And if you’re my age and happen to be reading this: I hope you put down your phone, go touch grass, and realize that America’s grass will always be greener.
***
A.H. Bell is a middle school student living a perfectly normal, happy life despite not having a cell phone.
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

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I’m A Middle Schooler. Here’s The Biggest Threat To My Generation.

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It happened in a split second. I was sitting near the edge of my parents&#8217; pool, watching my daughter and chatting with a friend when I turned to talk — just for a moment.
&#8220;Did Abby just go under?&#8221; my friend interrupted my sentence. 
My heart dropped. My daughter&#8217;s head was bobbing just below the surface. I jumped in, pulled her out, and held her shaking body against mine while a terrifying could have pinged through my mind.
&#8220;It&#8217;s okay, Ericka, it was only a second,&#8221; my friend told me. It didn&#8217;t help. In that instant, I viscerally understood how any parent, no matter how vigilant, could lose a child to drowning.
I was lucky. Christi Brown was not. Her three-year-old son, Judah, had already taken traditional swim lessons and was wearing a puddle jumper at the pool. He took it off to dry, but jumped back in the pool without it — thinking he was safe because he was used to a flotation device. She found him underwater minutes later, and Judah died that day.
&#8220;All they taught him at the age of three was to be confident in the water, without teaching him competence in it,&#8221; Brown told me of her son’s past swimming lessons. 
That distinction — confidence versus competence — is the whole argument for why every parent of a young child should seriously consider infant survival swim lessons. These lessons are easily identified on social media by striking videos of young children being tossed into the water, where they immediately roll onto their backs and float, a technique designed to help them survive an accidental fall into a pool. 
The videos can be shocking to watch. Despite their controversial nature, I believe it’s worth the cost to potentially save your child’s life. 
Recently, influencer Emilie Kiser lost her three-year-old son, Trigg, to a drowning accident, which has caused many moms to reconsider safety measures. But Kiser isn’t alone; there are drowning incidents reported every week in this country, especially in the summer months. 
Drowning is the leading cause of death for children ages one to four, and <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/73/wr/mm7320e1.htm">the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report</a> that drowning rates in that age group jumped roughly 28% in 2021 and 2022 compared with 2019. 
It doesn&#8217;t look like the movies. Kids don&#8217;t thrash and yell; they just quietly go under in a silent tragedy. 
&#8220;It&#8217;s remarkably undramatic in nature, and most of the time it&#8217;s not recognized by people who are watching swimmers,&#8221; ER physician Dr. Scott Youngquist <a href="https://healthcare.utah.edu/the-scope/all/2024/07/what-does-drowning-look">said</a>. 
Survival swimming lessons train children as young as six months to float unassisted and swim to safety if they fall in unexpectedly. 
I spoke with <a href="https://pediaswim.com/">Pediaswim founder Joy McGinty</a>, one of the method&#8217;s best-known practitioners, and she doesn&#8217;t mince words about the flotation devices most parents rely on instead. A puddle jumper, she says, is &#8220;like cocaine — because it can kill&#8221; a child by giving him false confidence.
 &#8220;With a huge percentage of kids that drown, if you ask a parent what is the last picture they have of their kid alive, they&#8217;re in a puddle jumper,&#8221; she said. Someone took it off, and the child jumped back in without it. That is precisely what happened to Judah.
I know the skepticism firsthand — because I hesitated too. My son started traditional lessons at age one; two years and three different swim schools later, he still couldn&#8217;t have saved himself if he fell in.
<a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/swimming-lessons-save-lives-what-parents-should-know-201806151630">Harvard health expert</a> Dr. Claire McCarthy, M.D., has noted that children under five simply aren&#8217;t cognitively or physically ready to learn conventional swimming. Survival swimming exists precisely because of that gap.
Critics raise real questions, and parents deserve to hear them squarely. Some object to the brief distress babies show in early sessions, calling it traumatic. Others point out that infants under one most often drown in bathtubs — a risk survival swimming doesn&#8217;t address. 
Dr. Clay Jones has argued <a href="https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/summer-is-here-and-infant-swimming-programs-are-still-unproven/">in Science-Based Medicine</a> that the marketing oversells the method and that it&#8217;s wrong to place &#8220;the onus of drowning prevention on an infant.&#8221; Concerns about so-called &#8220;dry drowning&#8221; circulate too, though <a href="https://www.redcross.org/take-a-class/resources/articles/dry-or-delayed-secondary-drowning?srsltid=AfmBOorxuEdfQzgMCyaJ_5AGEZoDszHwZI268cyLwkUStRZSdlUtZaTT">the Red Cross has pushed back</a> on sensationalized reporting that it says has needlessly terrified parents.
These are fair points to weigh, not reasons to dismiss the method outright. No one — least of all instructors like McGinty — claims survival swimming replaces supervision. It&#8217;s a last line of defense, not a substitute for watching your kids. 
&#8220;You don&#8217;t want your kid to have to use this skill,&#8221; my sister Shelby Gil, who left a nursing career to become a certified instructor, told me, &#8220;but you can know that they will have skills to save their own life if they need to.&#8221;
Unfortunately, the lessons aren&#8217;t cheap or convenient. They can run $75 to $300 a week, and instructors are somewhat scarce outside places such as Florida where pools stay open year-round. I drove 25 minutes each way, five days a week, for six weeks of ten-minute sessions.
Nonprofits like <a href="https://judahbrownproject.org/">the Judah Brown Project</a> (created in honor of the Judah in this story), McGinty&#8217;s Gift of Swimming, and <a href="https://www.hopefloats.foundation/">Hope Floats</a> now offer scholarships precisely because families keep learning about this option only after tragedy strikes nearby — a pattern that repeats itself, town by town, drowning by drowning.
When I finally enrolled my daughter, I braced for tears. Instead, she came to enjoy her lessons and her teacher. On the last day, her instructor had us dress her in boots, a jacket, and gloves — because real emergencies don&#8217;t happen in swimsuits — and she jumped in fully clothed. She floated, and I felt safer knowing she’ll always know how to do that now. 
&#8220;Don&#8217;t be us,” said Judah’s mom, Cristi. “We don&#8217;t want you to live the rest of your life without your child.&#8221; 
It’s not about guilt or shame. It’s a warning worth heeding and an investment worth making.
***
Ericka Andersen is the author of “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Freely-Sober-Rethinking-Alcohol-Through/dp/1514013363/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Freely Sober: Rethinking Alcohol Through the Lens of Faith</a>” (InterVarsity Press, 2026)
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

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The Pool Safety Myth That Could Cost A Child’s Life

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Senate Democrats unanimously opposed legislation Wednesday requiring pornography websites to verify users&#8217; ages before allowing access to explicit content, drawing criticism from conservatives who accused the party of siding with the pornography industry over protecting children online.
The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee voted 15-13 along party lines to advance Sen. Mike Lee&#8217;s (R-UT) Shielding Children&#8217;s Retinas from Egregious Exposure on the Net (<a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/737">SCREEN</a>) Act. But the bill failed to advance because the committee lacked the quorum required for official action. Four Republicans were not physically present for the vote and were “ayes” by proxy, but proxy votes don&#8217;t count toward quorum. Four Democrats were similarly absent and were “noes” by proxy.
The Democratic committee members include: Ranking Member Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Ed Markey (D-MA), Gary Peters (D-MI), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), John Fetterman (D-PA), Andy Kim (D-NJ), and Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE).
The SCREEN Act would require commercial pornography websites to implement age verification technology designed to prevent minors from accessing sexually explicit material. The legislation would authorize the Federal Trade Commission to enforce the requirements and prohibit websites or third-party verification providers from retaining or selling personal information collected during the verification process.
Conservative organizations blasted the Democrats for unanimously opposing the bill.
&#8220;The porn industry is preying on America&#8217;s children for profit, and now it is doing it with the support of Democrat lawmakers,&#8221; American Principles Project President Terry Schilling told The Daily Wire. &#8220;The 13 Senate Democrats who voted against the SCREEN Act today made it perfectly clear: they would rather stand with Big Porn than American parents and children.&#8221;
&#8220;We will not back down until families across America are protected from the porn industry and the lawmakers who defend it,&#8221; Schilling continued. &#8220;The Democrats have a choice. They can join the effort to protect kids online, or they can face the political consequences of standing with the porn companies. Today, 13 of them chose poorly.&#8221;
The American Principles Project, joined by Heritage Action, Family Policy Alliance, American Compass, the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and several other organizations, urged lawmakers to pass the legislation ahead of the vote.
The coalition argued that online pornography has become increasingly accessible to children, citing research showing that 54% of children age 13 and younger and 80% of teenagers between 12 and 17 have been exposed to sexually explicit content. The groups said the average age of first exposure is now just 12.
Supporters also pointed to growing public support for age-verification requirements. According to the coalition, <a href="https://action.freespeechcoalition.com/age-verification-resources/state-avs-laws/">27 states</a> have enacted age verification laws for pornography websites since 2022, many with bipartisan support, while the Supreme Court last year upheld Texas&#8217;s age verification law in <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2024/23-1122">Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton</a>, finding that governments have broad authority to protect children from sexually explicit material.
The advocacy groups argued that a federal standard is now needed because state laws create a patchwork system that leaves children in states without such laws unprotected.
The SCREEN Act would allow websites to choose among multiple age-verification methods and would not specifically require government-issued identification. Websites could instead contract with third-party verification companies or develop their own systems, provided they meet the bill&#8217;s standards.
Opponents, however, have argued that mandatory age verification raises significant privacy and free speech concerns. The Electronic Frontier Foundation <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/07/screen-act-threatens-privacy-far-beyond-adult-websites">warned</a> that the legislation would require adults to surrender their anonymity before accessing lawful online speech and argued that digital age verification creates risks that do not exist when showing identification in person.
Critics have also argued that the bill&#8217;s definition of covered websites could extend beyond traditional pornography sites to include platforms that host any sexually explicit material, potentially affecting social media sites and streaming platforms.
The SCREEN Act was considered alongside several broader online child safety proposals, including the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which advanced out of committee Wednesday on a unanimous vote. Unlike the SCREEN Act, KOSA received bipartisan support in committee and could move to the Senate floor.

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Heroic Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers on duty arresting illegal immigrants stumbled upon a 2-year-old wandering the streets in nothing but a dirty diaper and stopped what they were doing to rescue him, The Daily Wire has learned.
On July 13, ICE officers conducting a &#8220;routine enforcement operation&#8221; outside Nashville in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, an area with a large population of illegal immigrants, were stopped in their tracks when they saw a small child who was wandering alone in the road in a heavily soiled diaper and was almost struck by a passing vehicle, the agency said. It appeared that the young child had been roaming the streets for several hours without any adult supervision.
The ICE officers, some of whom are fathers, quickly took the child into safety.
Officer Michael Joyce, who is part of an ICE Nashville Fugitive Operations Team, said the young boy was standing in the middle of the parking lot when he arrived. The brave officer blocked traffic while his team called local police and located the child&#8217;s mother, who was asleep in a nearby apartment with the door wide-open.
She appeared to be unaware that her son had wandered off.
“Our officers are trained to respond to emergencies and protect the public, no matter the circumstances,” ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations New Orleans acting Field Office Director Scott Ladwig, whose office oversees operations in Tennessee, said in a statement.
“We’re grateful that our team was able to act quickly and help ensure this child’s safety,&#8221; Ladwig said. &#8220;Supporting our communities and working alongside local law enforcement is a responsibility we take seriously.&#8221;
The Murfreesboro Police Department returned the little boy to his mother, who told officers that it was the first time her child left their home alone, ICE said. No criminal charges were filed against the mother.
Officials also notified the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services.

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EXCLUSIVE: Heroic ICE Officers Rescue 2-Year-Old Roaming The Streets Alone

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The murder trial of Lindsay Clancy has become one of the most hotly debated criminal cases in the country, raising difficult questions about standard practices for treating mental health issues, postpartum care, and personal accountability.
Clancy admitted to strangling her three young children — 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 8-month-old Callan — inside the family&#8217;s home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, in January 2023 after her then-husband left to pick up takeout food and medication. Prosecutors say Clancy then attempted suicide by jumping from a second-story window after cutting both her wrists. All three children died, and Clancy was left paralyzed from the waist down.
There has been a movement of supporters online that say Clancy suffered from a severe psychiatric illness after having her third child, and that repeated medication changes only worsened her mental health, culminating in an unimaginable tragedy. They note that the mother of three was seeking help before the killings and should receive treatment instead of life behind bars.
Others argue that Clancy must be held accountable for the deaths of three innocent children. They also point to prosecutors&#8217; allegations that Clancy&#8217;s actions showed planning and awareness.
Clancy has pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, arguing she was legally insane due to postpartum mental illness. She faces life behind bars.
<h3>Here are five things you need to know about the case:</h3>
1. Clancy was prescribed a long list of psychiatric medications before the killings.
One of the biggest points of contention is Clancy&#8217;s psychiatric treatment in the months leading up to the deaths. Court records and medical reports indicate she was prescribed or took numerous medications, including Zoloft, Ativan, Benadryl, trazodone, Prozac, Ambien, Remeron, Klonopin, Seroquel, Valium, and amitriptyline, with doctors changing or adjusting medications over time as her symptoms persisted.
Several of the psychiatric medications listed potential side effects including agitation, insomnia, suicidal thoughts, confusion, and, in rare cases, hallucinations or psychotic symptoms. According to court filings, Clancy&#8217;s medication regimen changed multiple times during the fall and winter of 2022 before the killings in January 2023. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1149143 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2287616821-861x576.jpg" alt="" width="861" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2287616821-861x576.jpg 861w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2287616821-300x201.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2287616821-768x514.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2287616821.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 861px) 100vw, 861px" />
David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
2. Clancy spent time in intensive psychiatric treatment shortly before the killings.
Weeks before the killings, Clancy voluntarily entered a partial hospitalization program at McLean Hospital for mothers experiencing postpartum mental health issues.
According to court records, she left the program early to celebrate her daughter Cora&#8217;s fifth birthday at home. Clinicians declined to involuntarily commit her after determining she did not exhibit signs of postpartum psychosis and was stable enough to return home.
3. Prosecutors say the evidence points to planning, as opposed to a sudden psychotic break.
Prosecutors argue Clancy carefully orchestrated the timing of the killings. They allege she asked her then-husband, Patrick, to pick up takeout food and medication from separate locations, giving herself more time alone with the children than usual before he returned home.
Investigators also say each child was strangled with an exercise band, suggesting the killings occurred one after another rather than during a sudden, uncontrollable outburst. Prosecutors are arguing that Clancy&#8217;s actions demonstrate planning and awareness.
4. Patrick Clancy has publicly forgiven his ex-wife.
In the days after the killings, Patrick Clancy released a statement asking the public to forgive his then-wife rather than hate her. &#8220;I want to ask all of you that you find it deep within yourselves to forgive Lindsay, as I have,&#8221; he said. He described her as a loving mother whose illness had &#8220;broken&#8221; her.
<div id="attachment_1149189" style="width: 854px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1149189" class="wp-image-1149189 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2287616864-844x576.jpg" alt="Patrick Clancy on the stand. The Lindsay Clancy murder trial is held at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth on July 29, 2026. " width="844" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2287616864-844x576.jpg 844w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2287616864-300x205.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2287616864-768x524.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2287616864.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 844px) 100vw, 844px" />David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images</div>
During pretrial hearings, Patrick Clancy appeared in court in support of Lindsay, and his attorneys said he believes she was suffering from a devastating mental illness rather than acting out of malice.
During the trial, Patrick testified that he never believed his wife wanted to harm their children and described the dramatic decline of her mental health in the months before the killings. He also recounted repeatedly seeking medical care for her and trusting the recommendations of her doctors, testimony that became a central part of the defense&#8217;s claim that Clancy was suffering from a severe mental illness.
The couple were married at the time of the killings, but have since divorced, and Patrick Clancy is reportedly remarried.
5. Her suicide attempt remains one of the most disputed parts of the case.
After the children were killed, Clancy jumped from a second-story window, leaving her paralyzed from the waist down.
Her defense says the jump reflected overwhelming guilt and a genuine suicide attempt by a woman experiencing a catastrophic psychiatric collapse.
Prosecutors are expected to argue that her jump was evidence of consciousness of guilt after she realized what she had done.
<div id="attachment_1149193" style="width: 851px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1149193" class="wp-image-1149193 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2287616927-841x576.jpg" alt="Lindsay Clancy attends her murder trial at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth on July 29, 2026." width="841" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2287616927-841x576.jpg 841w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2287616927-300x205.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2287616927-768x526.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2287616927.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 841px) 100vw, 841px" />David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images</div>
A verdict is expected to be rendered later this month or in September.

Patrick Clancy describes ex-wife’s mental health struggles leading up to children’s deaths in her murder trial

Lindsay Clancy Strangled Her Three Children. Why Some People Want Her Set Free.

Lindsay Clancy Strangled Her Three Children. Why Some People Want Her To Walk Free.

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When I was 36 weeks pregnant with my third child and too exhausted to argue, my husband packed his GoPro for our family vacation and documented the whole thing. He recorded the ride down, the condo antics, and the cuteness of our kids splashing in the surf. He recorded mini golf and a boardwalk ice cream stop; he interviewed the kids and family members who came along. He then edited it all, added music, and made us look like one of those influencer families. I love having the memories, but it was a lot of work for everyone.
Those videos still exist somewhere on YouTube and have approximately 100 views total if we&#8217;re lucky. Half of those are from family members. If you would ask my children tomorrow if they wanted to become influencers, they would say, &#8220;Yes! Please!&#8221; But just because they want something, that doesn&#8217;t make it good for them.
In &#8220;Like, Follow, Subscribe,&#8221; the buzzy new book about the potential harm of influencers showcasing their kids online 24/7, author Fortesa Latifi highlights families across the internet who record their kids and share their lives for clicks. Some, like the LaBrants, are well-known. Others are only familiar to hardcore YouTube fans.
The children Latifi interviewed almost all have mixed feelings about growing up under the watchful eye of the internet. They say they didn&#8217;t love it but in many cases felt guilted into it because of the income and opportunities that could only come from sharing their entire lives online.
I’ll start with the extremes because Latifi does: Ruby Franke, of the channel 8 Passengers, was arrested on child abuse charges. But even the influencers doing everything right still might be doing something a little wrong. 
One influencer identified only by the pseudonym Sam said she once bribed her kids, offering them $500 to dance on camera while promoting a product, which would earn the family $40,000. The kids said no. Sam said she then had to &#8220;manipulate and guilt trip the kids.&#8221;
&#8220;This is our business. This is what we do,&#8221; she told them. &#8220;This is our family job. If we owned a farm, you would all be out milking cows. No questions asked … so get in line and let&#8217;s do this.&#8221;
Sam admitted that she watched her &#8220;moral filter&#8221; go out the window as the money began pouring in. She also noted that the longer she stays involved, the easier it is to justify. &#8220;The deeper you get into it, the more you numb out from it,&#8221; she told Latifi. &#8220;There&#8217;s no room for misgivings. There&#8217;s no room for a conscience.&#8221;
At least Sam is honest about the lasting damage she&#8217;s likely inflicting on the entire family, even if she&#8217;s not brave enough to own it by using her real name. Other influencers featured in the book had even less shame and more justifications.
There&#8217;s the unfortunate fact that negative content gets more clicks, and then more money. A video titled &#8220;Our First Pet Died&#8221; featuring a thumbnail of an adorable one of the LaBrant children sobbing has racked up 34 million views, as the author notes. This turned out to be clickbait — because it&#8217;s not the family dog that died, but rather the goldfish.
It gets way worse than that. Family Fun Pack filmed reactions to their children&#8217;s grandmother&#8217;s funeral and earned just under 2 million views.
Another influencer named Jordan Cheyenne faced backlash after accidentally uploading a video of herself coaching her son to cry after finding out his dog was fatally ill. &#8220;No, Mom, I&#8217;m seriously crying,&#8221; he can be heard saying, and Cheyenne instructs him to look sadder and, above all, focus on the camera. &#8220;Come closer for the video … let them see your mouth,&#8221; she can be heard saying.
Some kids are happy to go along with what their YouTuber parents are doing, but what choice do they have, and what alternative do they know? Many have been on camera for the world since they were in utero. These influencers often justify their kids&#8217; inclusion by pointing out that they don&#8217;t complain. But some of them actually do complain.
The book is filled with shocking anecdotes that make a strong case for throwing all influencer parent iPhones into the ocean, but the author somehow also manages to fixate on conservatives. She positively quotes progressive journalist Taylor Lorenz&#8217;s book, &#8220;Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet.&#8221; For all the negative things Latifi could say about the LaBrants, one of her chief complaints is that they are &#8220;almost impossibly&#8221; blond with blue eyes and that they &#8220;love Jesus&#8221; and choose to include that in their videos.
Latifi takes the most offense to tradwife mommy bloggers, as many liberals tend to do. &#8220;While perhaps it&#8217;s not a feminist act to create paid labor out of unpaid labor, it is an act of agency within the confines of the patriarchy. It&#8217;s why so many mom influencers and family vloggers are Mormon,” she writes. (What is she even talking about?)
&#8220;The trad wife performs an imitation of the past because the present is so uncertain,&#8221; Latifi goes on. &#8220;She drapes herself in prairie dresses and flowing aprons, smiles into the camera that captures her every move even as she insists she&#8217;s not working at all.&#8221;
She concludes that these influencers are wrongly promising &#8220;there is meaning and beauty to be found in motherhood.&#8221; There is, of course, meaning and beauty in motherhood, but — she&#8217;s right — not by oversharing for clicks on YouTube.
By the final chapters, that anti-conservative streak stops being subtext and becomes the whole argument, veering so far from the subject of family vlogging that it ends up saying more about the author&#8217;s politics than about kids on camera.
&#8220;As I&#8217;m writing this, Donald Trump is president for the second time, and the experience of American motherhood has never been more threatened,&#8221; she writes. &#8220;Pregnant women are dying from being denied access to abortions. They&#8217;re bleeding out in hospital parking lots and crossing state lines to access care.&#8221;
None of that has much to do with whether a nine-year-old should be coached to cry on camera about a dying dog or whether a toddler should grow up dancing for diaper brands. Those questions don&#8217;t need a chapter on the current occupant of the White House. They need what every parent already has: a phone in one hand, and the willingness to put it down.
***
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

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The Ugly Truth Hiding Behind Picture Perfect Family Influencers

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When I talk publicly about how raising my baby is beautiful, not oppressive, feminists get mad. We never said that! they claim. To that I can only ask, Have you read second-wave feminist literature? Second-wave feminists did, in fact, call motherhood oppressive.
And ever since the &#8217;60s, the media&#8217;s advertising for the role hasn&#8217;t been particularly good. Culture followed the feminists&#8217; lead by portraying motherhood in an unfavorable light — both in obvious and more subtle ways. The prevailing messages always seem to reiterate the same point: Having children will ruin your life and strip you of your freedom forever.
It&#8217;s just as evident in today&#8217;s media as it was decades ago. While on maternity leave, I started watching three different shows. Each one introduced a pregnancy storyline, and in every case, the female lead chose to abort her baby. For one, it wasn&#8217;t the right time. For another, it would ruin her career. For the third, she wouldn&#8217;t be able to attend her dream school.
The state of modern television is just one of the many examples of the oppressive messaging that still permeates the media. Motherhood is portrayed as such a terrible fate that it is presented as better to terminate the life of your baby than to become a mother. As a new mom, holding my sleeping baby, I turned off each of those shows. The juxtaposition between what the media was telling me and what I was actually experiencing was striking.
Motherhood has far exceeded my already high expectations. Looking at my son&#8217;s face, I couldn&#8217;t find the oppression. It unlocked a million new horizons — new highs and even new lows — but most importantly, it brought a precious new human being into my life, one I have the privilege of raising and calling my own. There is no &#8220;sentence&#8221; more beautiful than that.
So, from my nursery rocking chair, I recorded a simple video on social media saying so.
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Since then, women have made their own videos highlighting moments from their lives as mothers using my video’s audio, while another corner of the internet has taken personal offense. Many feminists responded with videos declaring, &#8220;We never said that.&#8221; That&#8217;s odd because I didn&#8217;t even use the word feminist. But perhaps they recognized that the language I criticized did, in fact, stem from their movement.
&#8220;They&#8221; did, in fact, say that.
It wasn&#8217;t difficult to dive into feminist literature from the 1960s and 1970s and find numerous direct quotes from influential figures saying that motherhood is oppressive. Shulamith Firestone wrote in her 1970 book &#8220;The Dialectic of Sex,&#8221; &#8220;The heart of a woman&#8217;s oppression is her childbearing and childrearing roles.&#8221;
Other notable examples include quotes from prominent feminist writers equating fetuses to parasites and describing domestic life as &#8220;comfortable concentration camps.&#8221; The list goes on and on, so much so that I made an entire video outlining my findings.
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Perhaps one takeaway from the current outrage is that many people are no longer reading the rhetoric of their movement&#8217;s icons from decades ago. Or perhaps they want to distance themselves from their more radical predecessors and present a more peaceful picture of what their movement represents.
Probably not, but one can hope. Considering that the modern feminist movement still celebrates what I view as one of the most heinous practices in the United States, I doubt it. It always comes back to abortion.
For a movement to justify such an act, motherhood must still be portrayed, directly or indirectly, as oppression. Only if motherhood is seen as a fate worse than death does the argument for ending an unborn child&#8217;s life become coherent (though still deeply flawed). They may not say it as bluntly anymore, but I believe the core tenets from sexual revolution authors to modern-day influencers remain the same.
As for me, I&#8217;ll stick with another message for the masses: Motherhood is the most important role I will ever have, and it is not oppression. Motherhood is simply the best.
***
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

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The Cultural Lie That Turned Motherhood Into A Burden

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Something has shifted in American pediatrics. After the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended in 2023 that doctors offer weight-loss medication to children as young as 12, prescriptions of GLP-1 drugs such as Wegovy and Saxenda for <a href="https://www.wsj.com/health/wellness/when-diets-dont-work-parents-turn-to-wegovy-for-elementary-school-kids-35aa9c05">kids jumped sharply</a> almost overnight, and they have climbed every month since. Clinical trials are now underway to push these drugs to children younger than 12. We are, in effect, deciding that the cure for a childhood spent eating processed foods and addicted to screens is a weekly injection that reengineers a developing brain&#8217;s hunger signals. Have we fallen so far off the cliff that we must inject our kids to lead them down a healthy path? This is not a solution.
There are some adults with serious metabolic conditions for whom these medications can be a genuine tool. But we have to address our cultural disease at the roots. “Let food be thy medicine” could never ring truer than it does at this pivotal juncture. 
Clearly, in this instance, GLP-1 drugs are a Band-Aid stretched over a wound not yet cleaned up. They suppress appetite; they do not teach a child what to eat and how to move. They lower a number on a scale; they do not change a home or a school cafeteria. The moment a child stops taking them, the weight tends to return because the underlying habits never change, and all of the issues will be exacerbated. Are we truly willing to commit a generation of kids to lifelong pharmaceutical dependence when basic, wholesome meals and daily outside play is usually all that’s needed?
The food put in front of children is the real scandal. Roughly 70% of the calories American children eat now come from ultra-processed foods, the engineered snacks and drinks designed in laboratories to override the body&#8217;s natural sense of fullness. We have built an environment that makes children sick and then act surprised when they are. 
The MAHA Commission&#8217;s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/MAHA-Report-The-White-House.pdf">report</a> last year, &#8220;Make Our Children Healthy Again,&#8221; named this plainly, pointing to poor diet, environmental toxins, physical inactivity, and the over-medicalization of childhood as the roots of a genuine crisis in chronic disease. It’s good to have a clear prognosis on the dire state of things, but the real shift needs to start at dinner tables and in schools. We need to bring back simple, time-tested wisdom and real foods from God’s green earth.
The good news is that the solution is not complicated, and it does not require a prescription. It requires basic foods. Start with protein at every meal, especially a real breakfast, the kind that steadies a child through a school morning instead of delivering the sugar spike and crash of a toaster pastry. Fill the plate with vegetables until they become ordinary rather than a negotiation. Get kids moving their bodies every day, not as punishment, but as play, the way childhood is supposed to be. And cut the processed foods and refined sugars that are doing the damage.
None of this is exotic. It is exactly how previous generations of healthy children were raised before their nutrition was outsourced to vending machines, cafeterias that offer mac and cheese or pizza, and drive-throughs.
We’ve been working with women and their families for the last 15 years, and our latest book, &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0736994610/?bestFormat=true&amp;k=7%20skills%20to%20lasting%20health%20by%20trim%20healthy%20mama&amp;ref_=nb_sb_ss_w_scx-ent-bk-ww_k0_1_8_di&amp;crid=11YSVR5IE2B7Y&amp;sprefix=7%20skills">The 7 Skills to Lasting Health</a>,&#8221; provides all of these tools in a simple, accessible way. We’d be happy to make it available as a curriculum for schools nationwide. But, if you don’t know where to start, this is an easy on-ramp.
This is not merely a matter of personal health. A nation whose children are growing up sicker, weaker, and more medicated than their parents is a nation weakening at its foundation. When military recruiters struggle to find young people fit to serve and when the cost to treat the epidemic of chronic disease consumes an ever-larger share of our economy, the health of our children stops being a private concern and becomes a question of national strength.
We may be celebrating 250 years of America, but a country cannot lead the world while its next generation is too unwell to carry it forward. We have a clear choice in front of us. We can keep treating the symptoms, normalizing injections for children addicted to their screens and hoping the bill never comes due. Or we can do the harder, better thing and address this at its root, one breakfast, one home-cooked dinner, one afternoon outside at a time.
The drugs will always be there for the few who truly need them for breakthrough. But for the millions who simply need real food and a healthier life, reaching for the syringe first is a failure. Our children are our future. They deserve more than a bandage. They deserve to be made well.
***
Pearl Barrett and Serene Allison are New York Times bestselling authors and the founders of Trim Healthy Mama.
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

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The Childhood ‘Solution’ That Should Terrify Every Parent

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