Making sure your teen feels open enough to communicate can be a daunting task for parents, but it’s of utmost importance in maintaining a healthy parent-teen relationship, especially in dealing with bullying and avoiding crowds of bad actors.
But how do parents accomplish this without falling into the vice of helicopter parenting? In the third full-length episode of “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/parenting">Parenting</a>,” Dr. Jordan Peterson sits down with parents Sean and Jennifer to discuss the importance of knowing when and when not to step into the social lives of their two teens. 
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“Our daughter, when she was in fifth grade, was bullied by an LGBTQ club and friends at her school that tried to pressure her to join,” the mother, Jennifer, said. “We started noticing a change in her, and she eventually came to tell us that these students were bullying her.”
“As this is happening, our son, who’s in seventh grade… you start to see him hanging around with the wrong friend group,” the father, Sean, added. “He was starting to withdraw from us as a family… [He] turned to substance abuse at that time.”’
The parents explained how their relationship with their children, especially their son, is not as strong as they desire it to be. Jennifer pointed out their son has expressed a desire for “freedom.”
Dr. Peterson encouraged the parents to reasonably communicate with their son and have him develop a vision for the freedom he wants.
“Freedom and anarchy aren’t the same thing,” he said. “Freedom to do anything? That just makes you anxious. You want ordered freedom.”
Watch “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/parenting">Bullying + Peer Pressure</a>” on DailyWire+ to find out how Dr. Peterson advises Sean and Jennifer to deal with their teens’ social issues.

Jordan Peterson Parenting

How Communication Will Save Your Relationship With Your Teen

Bullying

DailyWire+

Dr. Jordan Peterson

Drugs

Parenting

Teenagers

The teenage years can present numerous challenges that parents must adapt to, and it’s vital for a child’s development that parents don’t give up on teaching them responsibility, even when they start talking back with an attitude. 
In the second full-length episode of “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/parenting">Parenting</a>,” Dr. Jordan Peterson sits down with parents Jamie and Casey to talk through ways they can foster responsibility with their 13-year-old son, who is prone to throwing tantrums when he’s told something he doesn’t like. 
“We&#8217;ve got two kids, a 13-year-old and a 5-year-old,” the father, Casey, said. “Our 13-year-old, of course, was the only child for seven years. During that time, we spoiled the heck out of him because I grew up with nothing. And Jamie grew up in a household where things were love.”
“We both ended up funneling our attention on our children into things for those two reasons,” Casey added. “As a result, our 13-year-old throws tantrums quite often, loud screaming tantrums when he doesn&#8217;t get his way. And we&#8217;re trying to figure out how to get him through this part of his life to become a responsible adult.”
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The parents asked Peterson how they can handle their teen’s behavior and push him in the right direction. 
“I think it helps when I talk to him like a human being,” Jamie said. “So if I ask him to do dishes or I say, ‘I really need you to help me with this, do you think you can do that?’ And he’ll say, ‘Yes.’”
Peterson then pointed to multiple questions parents can ask their children about contributing to household needs. 
“Well, he&#8217;s old enough to start thinking about that because he may never even notice that if he does pull his weight, he feels better about himself, and he&#8217;s more mature,” Peterson said. 
Watch “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/parenting">Teaching Responsibility</a>,” the latest episode of “Parenting,” on DailyWire+ to find out how Peterson advised that Casey and Jaimie, and parents like them, foster a relationship with their teenagers while also pushing them to become responsible adults.

Parenting, Teaching Responsibility

Taming Teenage Tantrums: A Guide To Teaching Responsibility

Children

Fathers

Mothers

A 15-year-old illegal immigrant in Aurora, Colorado, received probation and community service as part of a plea deal with prosecutors after he killed 24-year-old Kaitlyn Weaver last July by plowing a Jeep into the side of her vehicle.
After initially promising to pursue the maximum sentence of two years in a correctional facility for the illegal immigrant, Weaver&#8217;s father, John Weaver, said that the Arapahoe District Attorney&#8217;s Office changed course after different leadership took over a few months later, CBS News Colorado <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/colorado-prosecutor-offers-unlicensed-undocumented-teen-probation-deadly-crash/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
&#8220;The DA&#8217;s office said this would be a &#8216;no plea deal&#8217; case, so they were not going to offer anything; any concession,&#8221; Weaver said.
Kaitlyn, who worked at a drug rehab center in Aurora, was <a href="https://x.com/Bubblebathgirl/status/1922666291401265323" target="_blank" rel="noopener">driving home</a> and talking over speaker phone with her boyfriend when the illegal immigrant teenager slammed into the side of her car, driving around 90 mph in a residential area, according to authorities. Footage from a Ring doorbell camera captured the crash, showing the illegal immigrant&#8217;s jeep speeding down the road before the massive collision. Kaitlyn was &#8220;effectively killed instantly,&#8221; her father said. John Weaver and his wife Michelle made the decision to remove Kaitlyn from life support two days later.
The juvenile also had other minors in his vehicle when he crashed into the 24-year-old woman. The Jeep, which the teenager was driving illegally, was uninsured, and his mother said that he took it without her permission. The teen was charged with vehicular homicide.
Under the new Democratic District Attorney, Amy Padden, the illegal immigrant was offered two years of probation if he pleaded guilty, according to Weaver. Arapahoe County Assistant District Attorney Ryan Brackley said the plea deal was handled by an experienced prosecutor and was not influenced by the new district attorney. The deal was upheld by a judge after hearing from the Weaver family, Brackley added.
&#8220;Why the change? If he had taken a firearm and recklessly just shot it and killed someone, this would be a different case. They would be pushing it completely differently,&#8221; Weaver said. &#8220;There&#8217;s no deterrence.&#8221;
&#8220;Immigration and the criminal justice system and all these things landed together one day in Aurora, and now I sit here today without a daughter,&#8221; Weaver added.
Brackley defended the plea deal, saying that before any plea deal is negotiated prosecutors consider &#8220;the impact on the victims and the community,&#8221; &#8220;the characteristics of the defendant such as age, culpability, and level of remorse,&#8221; and the &#8220;goals of sentencing, including deterrence, rehabilitating the offender, treating similarly situated offenders equitably, and holding each offender accountable.&#8221;
&#8220;The negotiated sentence acknowledges the seriousness of this preventable tragedy,&#8221; the assistant district attorney stated.

Police officers

Illegal Immigrant Teen Gets Off Easy After Killing Colorado Woman In High-Speed Crash

Car Crash

Colorado

Crime

Death

illegal immigrant

Plea deal

I have spent a lot of time covering psychiatric drugs like SSRIs. The problem with these drugs is that they&#8217;re incredibly potent, potentially dangerous, and they effect the mind in ways that the doctors prescribing them don&#8217;t fully understand. And all of these problems are compounded by the fact that they are increasingly easy to obtain. In fact, as the problems with psychiatric medications become more evident, the barriers to access them only become lower. It seems that things should be working the opposite way. But that&#8217;s how it goes now. If you want to get a highly potent, dangerous, mind altering drug, you can. In fact, you probably don&#8217;t even have to leave your house.
This trend is becoming more and more common with an ever increasing array of drugs. They are very easy to get, there is very little oversight, and you don&#8217;t have to leave your house to obtain them. This is a major problem that will require all kinds of legislation to fix. But there are some steps we can, and must, take immediately to address the problem of fraudulent, life-altering drugs being handed out in large quantities to young people, basically on demand. One of those steps is to defund some of the largest distributors of these life-altering drugs, which is something that should&#8217;ve happened a long time ago.
If we can’t ban these people from operating outright, then at the very least, we should stop giving them money and tax breaks. What&#8217;s happening is a genuine crisis — and it&#8217;s not limited to SSRIs. It extends to a whole host of other drugs as well. And a new investigation by Live Action, the pro-life nonprofit, has just brought renewed urgency to this crisis, and how completely out-of-control the problem really is.
Here is part of an undercover investigation by Live Action, where they contacted various Planned Parenthood locations posing as a 16-year-old girl. And in these conversations, Live Action&#8217;s 16-year-old girl requests &#8220;gender-affirming care,&#8221; including cross-sex hormones. And Planned Parenthood responds by saying this is completely fine. They say they&#8217;ll do it virtually, over Zoom or something like that. And then they suggest that, if the girl goes to a clinic in-person, she doesn&#8217;t need to be accompanied by her mother in the examination room. Watch:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
BREAKING: New investigation from <a href="https://twitter.com/LiveAction?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@LiveAction</a> exposes Planned Parenthood for prescribing cross-sex hormones to MINORS using virtual appointments
Planned Parenthood needs to be investigated and defunded NOW.<a href="https://t.co/QsLTPIsQgj">pic.twitter.com/QsLTPIsQgj</a>
&mdash; Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) <a href="https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1920217291511288102?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 7, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
This footage is part of an extensive <a href="https://www.liveaction.org/news/new-report-case-defunding-planned-parenthood/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.liveaction.org/news/new-report-case-defunding-planned-parenthood/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1746900283197000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1UnEno3qo6_DScSrBrIbmc">investigation</a> by Live Action into Planned Parenthood. The full <a href="https://www.liveaction.org/case-for-defunding-planned-parenthood/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.liveaction.org/case-for-defunding-planned-parenthood/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1746900283197000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0BHIgVXNdhMvnIkjrauySg">report</a> was just released this week. To put things in context, Planned Parenthood is the leading abortion mill in the country. They commit roughly 40% of the abortion in this country, all by themselves. And they receive something like $700 million from taxpayers every year.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mws-ep-1593-member-exclusive?elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+Show+Episodes+Carousel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h3>
So what exactly is that money buying, aside from abortions and irreversible drugs for children? According to Live Action, citing various investigations, it&#8217;s allowing Planned Parenthood to traffic in human body parts, commit all kinds of health code and privacy violations, and engage in anti-white racism at all levels of its operation. The entire report is available online if you want to view it, and you should. I will simply highlight this one section in particular:
<blockquote>At least 40,000 patients went to Planned Parenthood for &#8216;gender affirming care&#8217; in 2023 alone, a number that has risen tenfold since 2017. The largest proportion, about 40 percent, were 18-to-22-year-olds.</blockquote>
According to Live Action, 45 out of Planned Parenthood&#8217;s 49 affiliated facilities provide this so-called &#8220;care,&#8221; and Planned Parenthood is now the second-largest provider of so-called &#8220;gender-affirming hormones&#8221; in the United States.
The report continues:
<blockquote>Planned Parenthood targets minors for gender-affirming care by disseminating pro-transgender ideology online and in schools. It has also stated that it would like to expand its gender-affirming care to a greater number of minors.</blockquote>
The report cites a video from Planned Parenthood, in which the organization claims that puberty blockers are, &#8220;like a stop sign&#8221; that pauses puberty without any potential side-effects. Planned Parenthood also provides sex education materials to elementary schools, according to this report, including, &#8220;information about puberty blockers and graphics of pubic hair art.&#8221;
In some cases, Live Action notes that Planned Parenthood was caught referring a 14-year-old undercover actor for &#8220;gender-affirming&#8221; treatments at another organization, so that he could hide his so-called &#8220;transition&#8221; from his parents. It goes on and on. Every page of this report is extremely difficult to read, and it&#8217;s all very damning. Even if you put all of the baby murder to the side — which you can&#8217;t, because that&#8217;s still obviously the most evil thing this organization does — but even if you did somehow forget about that, Planned Parenthood still remains one of the most evil organizations in the country. Their explicit goal is to permanently alter the lives of young people with surgeries and hormones, long before they&#8217;re able to consent to anything like this. And as the report outlines, half the time, they don&#8217;t even follow their own protocols, as limited as they are.
What&#8217;s left unanswered, in all of this, is why Planned Parenthood still receives hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding. Republicans control Congress and the White House. So why the hell are we still sending so much money to these butchers? To be clear, as Live Action&#8217;s report outlines, you probably don&#8217;t even need legislation to stop this funding. There are dozens of violations listed in this report, which documents Planned Parenthood&#8217;s issues with patient privacy, fraud, trafficking of fetal remains, and so on. All of these problems, by themselves, are grounds for an executive order shutting down the funding immediately. But that hasn&#8217;t happened yet. And Congress hasn&#8217;t done anything either. Nor have they done anything about the mass prescription of SSRIs.
To be clear, Planned Parenthood should be forcible shut down, by law. The whole organization should be banned and all of its executives and employees at every level of the company should be put on trial for crimes against humanity. There should be a Nuremberg for Planned Parenthood executives. But that is not likely to happen any time soon. There are a lot of things that should happen but won&#8217;t, and this is number one on that list. So defunding them is the bare minimum. It’s not even close to the full extent of what should be done to shut down these butchers and child abusers and bring them to justice. It&#8217;s just the most meager first step. It&#8217;s the step where we at least stop forcing Americans to fund these psychopaths. And yet we haven’t even done that. Republicans control the federal government and yet somehow we are still sending hundreds of millions of dollars to Planned Parenthood.
Why? What is the reason? What is the negative consequence of defunding them? The Left will be mad? The media will complain? The activists will shriek and sing protests songs in the street? That last thing is pretty painful, I admit. But is in any of that enough to override the great moral necessity of defunding an organization that kills and castrates children? Obviously not. Especially because the protesters will be shrieking anyway. The media will complain regardless. The Left will stay mad no matter what. They’re going to cry. We might as well give them something real to cry about.
That&#8217;s not to say the Republicans in Congress haven&#8217;t done anything at all. They&#8217;re technically showing up to work even though it&#8217;s not exactly ground-breaking stuff. But it&#8217;s well past time for elected Republican representatives, along with the White House, to take decisive action on the ghouls and butchers who call themselves healthcare providers. If we can defund NPR — and the White House says we can — then we can defund these abortionists too. And we can stop corporations from distributing psychoactive drugs like they&#8217;re candy, while we&#8217;re at it. This is what we voted for.

US-POLITICS-JUSTICE-RIGHTS-ABORTION

Disturbing Investigation Into Planned Parenthood Reveals Shocking New Details

Abortion

Congress

Gender

gender-affirming care

Libs of Tik Tok

Live Action

Matt Walsh

Opinion

Planned Parenthood

Pregnancy

Transgender

Women

There have been a lot of changes in the second Trump administration, as we all know. But there was one change from the very beginning that hasn&#8217;t gotten nearly as much attention as it should. It&#8217;s when Trump stood up during his inauguration speech and invoked the idea of Manifest Destiny, which is of course deeply rooted in the idea of American exceptionalism.
For the first time in many generations, a U.S. president felt no shame in proclaiming that America is the greatest nation on the planet. And crucially, Donald Trump didn&#8217;t make this proclamation as a platitude. He wasn&#8217;t seeking to get a quick sound bite out of it, by reminding people of history class when they heard terms like &#8220;Manifest Destiny&#8221; and American exceptionalism. Instead, Trump meant it, in a practical sense. We&#8217;re the best nation, he said. And therefore we can do what we want. We can impose tariffs and force everyone to the negotiating table. We can deport criminals and ignore corrupt judges who tell us otherwise. In a matter of weeks, we can eliminate bureaucracy, talk about acquiring Greenland, and become energy independent — which is no small thing when the entire continent of Europe teeters on the verge of a blackout.  We can do all of these things because, in very real terms, we are unique. Period. We have a fighting spirit that no other nation on the planet can match.
If you attended college in the last 50 years, you&#8217;ve probably been conditioned not to say things like this. You&#8217;re told it&#8217;s gaudy, or a relic of colonialism or something like that. But it happens to be true. And every day, we&#8217;re reminded it&#8217;s true. We can see, right out in the open, that other nations are inferior to our own. Look closely enough, and you&#8217;ll see that they&#8217;ll admit it. They are preoccupied with their own destruction.
Let&#8217;s start with the UK, which is allegedly one of our closest allies. A couple of weeks ago, you might remember, we <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg3G_P1jO_c" target="_blank" rel="noopener">talked about</a> the Netflix show &#8220;Adolescence,&#8221; and how it&#8217;s essentially taken over the entire country. 
&#8220;Adolescence&#8221; is a mini-series in which a white 13-year-old boy named Jamie stabs a girl to death after the girl rejects his advances. The &#8220;hook,&#8221; if you can call it that, is that the show blames online culture for the killer&#8217;s actions, at least to some extent. The victim had bullied the 13-year-old boy on Instagram, for example. He had been called an &#8220;incel&#8221; and so on. The point of the show is that &#8220;male rage&#8221; is fueled by online misogyny and bullying, and that children are liable to become murderers at any moment, even if they live in a loving, stable two-parent household. That&#8217;s the message the showrunners wanted to convey, even though it flies in the face of common sense and every data point we have. Beyond that, there wasn&#8217;t anything very interesting about the show. The cameraman is doing more interesting things than any of the actors, since everything is supposedly shot in one take.
So it was reasonable to assume that, after the initial hype died down over this mini-series, that the UK would move on pretty quickly. That&#8217;s the normal trajectory that shows like this tend to follow. And indeed, that&#8217;s what many in my audience said would happen. I received dozens of comments on my last monologue on &#8220;Adolescence&#8221;, where several people who live in Britain explained that, actually, the show isn&#8217;t that popular over there to begin with. Additionally, as we discussed, there was an infamous interview broadcast on the BBC, where the anchors grill a conservative politician about the fact that she hasn&#8217;t seen the show. They were stunned, for the entire interview, that she hadn&#8217;t watched it. And no matter how much the politician tried to explain to these anchors that the show isn&#8217;t real, they kept doubling down. When we played that footage two weeks ago, it seemed like it was safe to assume that the obsession over this show had officially jumped the shark. It seemed too absurd to continue. Everyone, even fans of the show, would certainly walk away slowly and find something else to fixate on.
But that hasn&#8217;t happened in the UK. Instead, &#8220;Adolescence&#8221; isn&#8217;t simply dominating political discussions anymore. Now the show is being used to justify new legislation that would dramatically curtail free speech rights in the country — almost as if that was the point of the show all along. In fact, the show&#8217;s creators just testified in parliament to demand this new legislation. Yes, the government held an entire hearing on a fictional television show, in which the show&#8217;s writer testified as an expert before the government&#8217;s &#8220;Women and Equalities Committee.&#8221; That is the very dire and hopeless state of the so-called United Kingdom at the moment.
We&#8217;ll start at the beginning of the hearing, when a member of parliament named Sarah Owen begins questioning Jack Thorne, who&#8217;s the creator and executive producer of &#8220;Adolescence.&#8221; And this member of parliament is very interested in knowing more about Jamie, and why he snapped and decided to kill a girl. But there&#8217;s a bit of a snag, because the politician clearly doesn&#8217;t understand what the creator of the show was getting at, which leads to this mildly amusing exchange. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="001 Discussing fake character" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SlPhT8p7xqU?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
There&#8217;s a couple of layers of embarrassment here. First of all, of course, they&#8217;re talking about a fake person as if he&#8217;s real. He&#8217;s saying it would take him &#8220;nine years&#8221; to unpack the brain of a fictional character named Jamie, who, because he doesn&#8217;t actually exist, does not therefore have a brain, or a history, or emotions. And for her part, the politician — who apparently chairs this committee in parliament — keeps pressing for more information about this fictional individual. She&#8217;s really determined to understand what makes him tick, even though he doesn&#8217;t exist. This went on for something like two hours, by the way. The hearing was full of moments like this.
As it went on, it became clear that Jack Thorne is especially concerned about &#8220;conspiracy theories,&#8221; as he calls them. And at one point in the hearing, Thorne elaborated on the term &#8220;conspiracy theories.&#8221; It turns out that — stop me if you&#8217;ve heard this one before — a conspiracy theory is something that&#8217;s completely true, but highly inconvenient for the political Left. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="003 conspiracy" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_pNtI0EQBpg?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
That&#8217;s his response, when he&#8217;s asked about the race-swap in &#8220;Adolescence.&#8221; He&#8217;s asked about a conservative politician who pointed out that, unlike what you see on Netflix, white kids from stable households are not stabbing many people in the UK. That&#8217;s the truth. It&#8217;s kids from broken homes, along with jihadists, who are doing most of the damage. And in response to that point, which is obviously true, Thorne states that the conservative politician must be &#8220;consuming&#8221; the wrong content online. The implication, of course, is that anyone who tells the truth about knife crime in the UK — and violent crime in general — should be censored. You&#8217;re required to think that it&#8217;s young white kids from loving two-parent households that are knifing everyone, and you&#8217;re supposed to ignore the literal jihadist with an Al Qaeda training manual in his backpack who murders young girls at a dance studio.
Again, this is the state of the UK — a country that we once had a lot in common with. But this is what they&#8217;re reduced to. I want to show one more clip from this hearing, because it just kept getting more and more comical as it went on. Eventually Jack Thorne left, and he was replaced by a bunch of self-described &#8220;experts&#8221; and government officials who — supposedly — would provide some hard evidence in support of more online censorship. 
But then, a funny thing happened. 
When they were asked for evidence that misogyny is on the rise in the UK, they didn&#8217;t have any data. They couldn&#8217;t point to any objective, verifiable information about all the young white men who are going out and killing women because of Andrew Tate or whatever. Instead — and I&#8217;m not making this up — the experts turned around and cited the show &#8220;Adolescence,&#8221; and the testimony from Jack Thorne. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="004 Experts cite show" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8KCdtC9tgIU?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&nbsp;
So they don&#8217;t have any data, actually. They just have the show &#8220;Adolescence,&#8221; and the testimony from its &#8220;executive producer.&#8221; According to the government expert, that qualifies as &#8220;evidence&#8221; in the UK. Time to pass a law eliminating free speech on the internet, I guess. But the point here is not to mock the UK, as entertaining as that would be. The point is that this kind of embarrassing spectacle is not very surprising for them. There aren’t very many people left in that country to speak out against it. There isn’t much of a &#8220;right wing&#8221; in the UK, or almost anywhere else in the western world outside of the United States.
And if you don&#8217;t believe that, look at the election that just <a href="https://barsoom.substack.com/p/post-mortem-for-the-canadian-election" target="_blank" rel="noopener">took place</a> in Canada. After ten years of destroying Canada&#8217;s economy and opening the borders to hordes of foreign nationals, the Liberal Party was just re-elected. Voters once again handed the Liberal Party control of government, even after the Liberals froze the bank accounts of peaceful protesters, arrested journalists in the street, trampled old ladies with horses, disarmed the entire population, and effectively banned independent journalists from posting their content on social media platforms. Canadians saw the government declare martial law over a bunch of truckers who didn&#8217;t want to be compelled to take an experimental shot, and they said, &#8220;we want more of that.&#8221; And also, of course, they want more taxes so that they can stop the weather from changing.
I&#8217;m not going to pretend to be an expert on the ins-and-outs of Canadian politics. If you&#8217;re interested in a more granular breakdown, there&#8217;s a Substack <a href="https://barsoom.substack.com/p/post-mortem-for-the-canadian-election" target="_blank" rel="noopener">article</a> from someone named John Carter that goes into some detail about what happened in this week&#8217;s election. Here&#8217;s how it begins.
<blockquote>Have you ever noticed how election results are regularly broken down geographically, as well by the demographic categories of age, sex, and – depending on the country – race, yet we almost never see the results separated into taxpayer vs tax-eater status? &#8230; It is absolutely no surprise that Ottawa voted solidly for the Liberal Party of Canada, whose base consists of three primary groups: migrants, public sector workers, and baby boomers, all of whom are regime client groups, and all of whom are tightly packed into the nation’s capital. Perhaps it’s that it’s tax season and I’m in a grumpy mood because I just got the bad news, but I can’t help but wonder about how electoral politics would change if only taxpayers were allowed to vote.</blockquote>
That&#8217;s a useful framework to look at what just happened in Canada, especially as you hear a lot of people blaming Donald Trump and tariffs and so on. In Canada, very few young people can afford homes. There aren&#8217;t many good jobs. The only really viable aspects of Canadian society are the public sector — which is sustained through taxes and borrowed money — and retirees. The public-sector employees are the ones who celebrated when truckers were beaten by the police in Ottawa a few years ago. They resent the working-class. Their only interest is seeing their pensions vest. Meanwhile, older Canadians have made their money, and they don&#8217;t seem to care about what happens to their country going forward.
Take a look at this chart, which is making the rounds:
<div id="attachment_914325" style="width: 692px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-914325" class="wp-image-914325 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/e5df823e-f7b0-4335-ad69-cdc16a1a914e_1240x1048-682x576.webp" alt="Abacus Data. Substack, John Carter." width="682" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/e5df823e-f7b0-4335-ad69-cdc16a1a914e_1240x1048-682x576.webp 682w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/e5df823e-f7b0-4335-ad69-cdc16a1a914e_1240x1048-300x254.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/e5df823e-f7b0-4335-ad69-cdc16a1a914e_1240x1048-768x649.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/e5df823e-f7b0-4335-ad69-cdc16a1a914e_1240x1048.webp 1240w" sizes="(max-width: 682px) 100vw, 682px" />Abacus Data. Substack, John Carter.</div>
It shows the &#8220;most important factors&#8221; in people&#8217;s votes, broken out by age. It&#8217;s from Abacus Data, which is a Canadian polling firm. Notice that, for most young people under the age of 44, &#8220;reducing the cost of living&#8221; is the top issue. But for Canadians over the age of 60, the top issue was &#8220;dealing with Donald Trump.&#8221;
In other words, Canadian seniors are not even pretending to be interested in the internal affairs of their own country. They&#8217;re not concerned about the fact that young people are overdosing at increasing rates, or that many of them are well into their 30s, sharing tiny apartments with roommates just to make ends meet. What they care about, instead, is &#8220;dealing with Donald Trump&#8221; — an elected official from a different country, who hasn&#8217;t caused a single ounce of the misery that Canada has been enduring for the past decade.
In this country, by contrast, older voters were mostly <a href="https://www.aarp.org/politics-society/government-elections/info-2024/election-analysis-older-voters.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">concerned</a> about the economy in the last election. In Michigan, for example, the AARP found that &#8220;24 percent of older voters cited the economy and jobs, and another 24 percent cited inflation, as top concerns.&#8221; So nearly half of these voters are interested in things that every American should be interested in — which is creating a stable and functioning economy so that people can buy homes and raise children.
But in Canada, as in the UK, the priorities are different. That&#8217;s why these countries are spending their time talking about Netflix shows, and electing globalists who promise to send mean tweets to Donald Trump or whatever.
It&#8217;s a sobering realization, but it&#8217;s true: These countries, which are supposed to be great allies who we have a lot in common with, do not have a functioning conservative movement at all. One that respects the sanctity of life from the moment of conception, one that values the importance of economic growth for everyone, and one that understands the distinction between fiction and reality. With every election that takes place in Canada, and every humiliating hearing on &#8220;Adolescence&#8221; that the UK is subjected to, the truth becomes clearer by the day. It&#8217;s time to admit it, because it&#8217;s unavoidable at this point: The future of conservatism, and thus of Western civilization, is in our hands — and our hands alone.

“Adolescence” Special Screening – Arrivals

UK Parliament Hosts Incredibly Embarrassing Hearing Over Netflix Show ‘Adolescence’

England

Great Britain

Migrants

Netflix

Stabbing

Woke Culture

Detransitioner Claire Abernathy hadn’t even made it to high school yet when her doctors encouraged her to undergo a double mastectomy. Despite <a href="https://www.iwf.org/2025/04/28/new-identity-crisis-documentary-mother-and-daughter-expose-medical-industrys-transgender-manipulation-and-lies/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">her concerns</a> about the procedure, her mother, Carrie, was told that affirming Claire’s gender identity was the only way to prevent her from killing herself.
Now, years later, both mother and daughter <a href="https://www.iwf.org/2025/04/28/new-identity-crisis-documentary-mother-and-daughter-expose-medical-industrys-transgender-manipulation-and-lies/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">opened up</a> to IW Features about how the medical system manipulated them into making permanent and irreversible decisions — the consequences of which they are still grappling with today.
The worst part? They’re not alone.
The Abernathy family is part of a growing segment of our population coming to terms with the damage done by gender ideologues. Hopefully, they will serve as inspiration for other families fighting not just gender confusion, but a manipulative industry that turns this confusion into profit.
The adolescent brain is a work in progress. We all know this to be true — after all, why else would we restrict young men and women from getting a tattoo until they’ve turned 18 or from purchasing alcohol until they’ve turned 21? It doesn’t matter how much a kid feels like an “old soul.” A young person’s prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for decision-making and impulse control, continues to <a href="https://hillcrestatc.com/teen-brain-development/">mature</a> well into their mid-20s.
Because teens go through this lengthy, often angsty developmental stage, they’re that much more susceptible to risk-taking behaviors and less capable of fully understanding long-term consequences. This is why <a href="https://www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/drunk-driving" target="_blank" rel="noopener">one in five</a> teen drivers involved in a fatal crash had some alcohol in their system — because teens are more likely to underestimate the effects of alcohol on their bodies and overestimate their ability to drive inebriated. Similarly, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1016/j.soscij.2016.08.004" target="_blank" rel="noopener">studies</a> show that as many as one-third of tattooed adolescents regret inking up their bodies. And unsurprisingly, <a href="https://www.mdedge.com/psychiatry/article/98697/dermatology/teenage-tattoos-are-most-often-regretted" target="_blank" rel="noopener">research</a> indicates that the younger a teen is when they get a tattoo, the more likely they are to regret it later.
So why aren’t America’s trusted, highly esteemed medical professionals drawing the same conclusions about so-called “gender-affirming” procedures? While comprehensive data on regret following medical interventions in gender-confused minors is still emerging, stories like Claire’s are proof that medicalization can and does have victims. At least if you cop some bad ink, you might be able to get it <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/snl-pete-davidson-spending-six-figures-remove-all-tattoos" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lasered off</a> later. But the permanence of gender-affirming procedures adds a sickening layer of complexity and potential for regret.
Teens might swear up and down they know what they want with their lives, like an unattainable dream job or goals to jet-set around the world childless and unbothered. But I’m willing to bet that teens can, and often will, change their minds. I know I did. If you asked 16-year-old Andrea if she wanted to get married and have children, she would have laughed in your face. And, if you asked her if she felt comfortable in her female body, she probably would have similarly scoffed.
Puberty is a really rough time for any young person. That’s not only something Claire expressed to me during her interview, but it’s a reality I have lived myself. I can recall the first conscious moment I felt insecure about my body: I was in elementary school, watching a movie starring young Lindsay Lohan, and I saw how her thighs didn’t touch when she sat down on a car seat.
<a href="https://depts.washington.edu/thmedia/view.cgi?page=fastfacts&amp;section=bodyimage">Studies</a> show that as many as 40% of nine and 10-year-old girls are already trying to lose weight, and as many as 70% of normal-weight teen girls <a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/many-normal-weight-teens-feel-fat/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">think</a> they’re overweight. Should parents of young girls who wrongfully believe they are fat indulge their child’s delusions and allow her to diet, or worse, get liposuction? If that sounds ridiculous, that’s because it is.
Yet, that’s exactly what the medical and entertainment industries are telling parents of gender-confused children that they must do.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Identity Crisis: Mother and Daughter Expose Medical Industry&#039;s Transgender Lies" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nj1OUvFZM4A?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
In my home state of California, $28,890,512 has been spent on youth “transgender” medical interventions, according to <a href="https://stoptheharmdatabase.com/state/california/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">StopTheHarm</a>. Ethically speaking, plastic surgeons are supposed to assess the physical and emotional maturity of teen patients before they go under the knife for cosmetic procedures. So why does nearly every story of detransition reveal that medical professionals rarely, if ever, address underlying psychological issues — Borderline Personality Disorder, ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder, etc. — in gender-confused youth ? And why is it that the only solution offered by most medical professionals is for these youth to have their healthy body parts modified?
And what can parents realistically do? Carrie’s experience reminds me of the old adage: Mother knows best. She knew something was off when the medical professionals rushed to transition her daughter, but was guilt-tripped and persuaded into proceeding with medicalization.
Looking back, Carrie said she realizes she should have trusted her parental intuition. Parents are often the first line of defense in protecting their child’s well-being. They should feel empowered to trust those instincts, especially when it comes to irreversible medical decisions. Carrie said it best when speaking with me: “You are the expert on your own child.”
Indeed, the Abernathy story is a timely reminder of the very real consequences of sidelining parental concerns and the dire importance of scrutinizing medical practices that clearly prioritize profit and ideology over patient well-being.
* * *
Andrea Mew is the managing editor of Independent Women Features. She is the producer of its new <a href="https://youtu.be/nj1OUvFZM4A" target="_blank" rel="noopener">documentary</a> “Identity Crisis: Mother and Daughter Expose Medical Industry&#8217;s Transgender Lies” and the author of the related breaking <a href="https://www.iwfeatures.com/documentary/detransitioner-and-mother-were-sold-the-lie-of-gender-transition-now-theyre-exposing-the-real-costs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">feature article</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Rear view of mother and daughter embracing sitting on bed

‘I Feel Robbed’: After A Double Mastectomy At 14, This Detransitioner Is Speaking Out

Gender Identity

gender ideology

Medical

transgender surgery

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. It is also a moment when many trans activists and aligned organizations have taken the opportunity to bring up studies and statistics about the high rate of sexual assault for those who identify as trans. These topics are inexorably linked — something I know firsthand, as both a sexual assault survivor and a detransitioner.
My desire to transition was largely due to being sexually assaulted when I was 14. I believed I could escape myself and my sex through medicalization. I know now that, in truth, I never changed sex. And undergoing hormones and surgery did not help my mental health or heal my torment. That required facing the trauma in therapy and doing the real work of recovery.
The trans community is right that sexual assault is a real and horrible reality for too many people who identify as trans. The same is true for those who detransition — we often have histories of sexual abuse. But what the trans activists are not honest about is the timing of the sexual assault and how it relates to trans identities themselves.
Like me, most of the people with trans identities I have interacted with (both online and offline) experienced sexual assault prior to their identifying as transgender, not because of it.
I remember talking with other members of the trans community online and in my doctor-recommended support group when I was a teen. We spoke about abusive or violent sexual encounters we had experienced. Many of us were extremely young when we experienced abuse, or were still forced to endure it while simultaneously trying to medicalize our bodies. Our relationships with ourselves were fragmented and in crisis, and our relationships with each other were an unhealthy bond forged by trauma. We all believed we wouldn’t be so burdened when we could finally transform into the opposite sex.
Sexual assault is a life-changing experience. Anyone who has experienced it knows what I mean. It takes away your power and your autonomy and makes your body feel unsafe. Activists try to sell transitioning as a cure to such vulnerable people. They insist that transitioning offers the victims of sexual assault the promise of greater control over their bodies. It allows the victims to change it into something they believe is less likely to be hurt. Transitioning is described by doctors and activists alike as a type of rebirth; many people try in vain to transition into a person who was never assaulted at all.
<div id="attachment_910733" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-910733" class="size-large wp-image-910733" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/MixCollage-22-Apr-2025-10-27-AM-4476-1024x576.jpg" alt="Credit: Prisha Mosely/Independent Women's Forum" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/MixCollage-22-Apr-2025-10-27-AM-4476-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/MixCollage-22-Apr-2025-10-27-AM-4476-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/MixCollage-22-Apr-2025-10-27-AM-4476-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/MixCollage-22-Apr-2025-10-27-AM-4476-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/MixCollage-22-Apr-2025-10-27-AM-4476-2048x1152.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Credit: Prisha Mosely/IWF</div>
It is cruel and unethical for a doctor to change the body of a sexual assault victim. Our bodies were never the problem. An identity crisis is not a medical condition. Trauma is not cured with hormones and surgeries, nor are future assaults prevented that way. Any doctor selling transition to someone reeling from the distress of a sexual assault is harming their patients. There are protocols and standards of care when it comes to victims. Evidence-based and ethical, trauma-informed care is the least the medical community can do for patients who were sexually abused. Instead, many doctors are taking the easy way out and making a profit off the distress and pain of the most vulnerable by selling “cures” that will never come to fruition.
The sexual assault I experienced changed my life when I was young, but transitioning destroyed my health and stole parts of my life away from me. If my doctors had not affirmed my self-hatred and my womanhood and instead listened to my pain and suffering because of my trauma and left my body alone, I would still be healthy. I am still a sexual assault victim, only now, I am missing pieces of myself. True, my breasts will never be touched again without my consent — but now I cannot ever give consent for them to be touched either, all because a doctor decided that the thoughts in my head meant that mutilating my body could heal me.
I have healed now from the terrible trauma of sexual assault, but the chemical and surgical changes my doctor made to my body are irreversible. No person who has been a victim of harm deserves more harm as a result, even if they are broken enough to ask for it. Doctors have a responsibility to say “no” instead of aiding their patients in self-harm. I hope that no doctor will ever be as cruel to another patient who identifies as trans as they were with me — or that lawmakers make it impossible for them to do so.
This Sexual Assault Awareness Month, I urge lawmakers, doctors, and the public to reexamine what’s behind the growing obsession with trans identity and permanently altering girls’ and boys’ healthy bodies. Take it from me: the abuse I suffered altered my life forever. Mutilating my body didn’t make it better, but only added additional trauma and hardship. Sexual assault survivors deserve so much more than that.
* * *
Prisha Mosley is an Independent Women ambassador and detransitioner. IW Features, the storytelling platform of Independent Women, featured Prisha’s story as part of its “Identity Crisis” docu-series, which highlights the irreversible harms of gender ideology. Prisha’s story, including her pregnancy journey, was documented in two parts, which can be found <a href="https://www.iwfeatures.com/documentary/mentally-ill-teen-betrayed-by-health-professionals-who-recommended-testosterone-and-top-surgery/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a> and <a href="https://www.iwfeatures.com/documentary/a-detransitioners-pregnancy-journey/">here</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Transgender person from behind, wearing pink and white striped sweatshirt, holds transgender flag

Sexual Abuse Forever Altered My Life. Mutilating My Body Didn’t Make It Better.

Gender Transition

Sexual Assault

What Is A Woman

Young boy jumping in mid-air

The ‘Experts’ Are Finally Admitting That ADHD Is A Scam

The 'Experts' Are Finally Admitting That ADHD Is A Scam

Boys

kids

Middle School

New York Times

MixCollage-14-Apr-2025-05-21-PM-3053

Matt Walsh Breaks Down The Deceptive Propaganda In ‘Adolescence’ Netflix Show

Movies

Murder

United Kingdom

Violent Crime

Imagine your teenage son goes upstairs to do homework — and just hours later, you discover he has taken his own life. For <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2025/02/25/teenage-boys-mental-health-suicide-sextortion-scams/78258882007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">too many families</a>, this nightmare is a grim reality, the result of a rapidly growing and devastating crime known as sextortion. 
Sextortion is a powerful form of exploitation where predators trick and coerce victims, often young boys, into sending explicit images online. The exploiters often pose as teen girls and reach out with flirtatious messages. This is no haphazard operation, research has found that thousands of Instagram accounts perpetrating sextortion were linked to <a href="https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/meta-takes-down-63k-instagram-accounts-5700-facebook-groups-1300-facebook-accounts-linked-1725744" target="_blank" rel="noopener">only 20-25 individuals</a> — in other words, this is often an organized criminal activity, something no teenager is prepared to go up against. They are trained and skilled at building trust quickly, shifting the conversation to sexual topics and eventually sending pictures or videos and requesting some in return.
In mere minutes, the blackmail begins. Predators threaten to expose the victim’s nude photos to their contacts or social media connections unless they pay a demanded sum — fueling fear, shame, and deterring them from seeking help. To heighten the pressure, some blackmailers may falsely accuse teens of criminal activity, warning that they could end up on sex offender registries.
For some, the shame and fear of being exposed are so overwhelming that they see no way out, leading to tragic actions like suicide within mere hours of being targeted.
Sextortion has been connected to dozens of deaths of teen boys by suicide in <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/sacramento/news/sextortion-a-growing-threat-preying-upon-our-nations-teens#:~:text=The%20sextortion%20involved%20at%20least,the%20activity%20to%20law%20enforcement." target="_blank" rel="noopener">recent</a> years. Tragically, these numbers are likely underreported as family members may not know the circumstance that led to a loved one’s death by suicide.
There are an average of 812 reports of sextortion <a href="https://www.thorn.org/research/library/financial-sextortion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">per week</a>, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
This crisis demands immediate attention and action.
For too long, online platforms have failed to prioritize safety. Take Snapchat, for example. New Mexico’s attorney general recently brought a lawsuit against Snapchat. According to a report from <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/new-mexico-attorney-general-says-internal-snap-documents-show-company-rcna173486" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NBC News</a>, documents from the lawsuit reveal “‘Snap employees were discussing 10,000 user reports of sextortion each month,’ which is most likely ‘a small fraction of this abuse.’”
“In addition, the suit alleges internal documents show that reports of grooming and sextortion made about specific users largely went unanswered or unaddressed,” according to NBC NEWS.
Meta’s Instagram appears to be the <a href="https://info.thorn.org/hubfs/Research/Thorn_TrendsInFinancialSextortion_June2024.pdf?sm_guid=NzcxOTIyfDc4MzA5NjAxfC0xfGNlc2VAbmNvc2UuY29tfDcyMDIwMTJ8fDB8MHwyMjU0MzA0NTd8MTEzMnwwfDB8fDc2NjM5Nnww0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">#1 platform for sextortion</a>. One key reason is the availability of follower lists, which predators can leverage against victims. While the platform has <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2024/04/new-tools-to-help-protect-against-sextortion-and-intimate-image-abuse/">taken steps</a> to identify and protect kids from sextortion, there’s still more they can do to prioritize the safety of minors.
According to <a href="https://www.thorn.org/research/library/financial-sextortion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a report</a> from Thorn titled “Trends in Financial Sextortion,” online payments are another avenue for exploitation. “The most common payment methods were Cash App and gift cards, followed by other easy-use payment apps such as PayPal and Venmo. The dominance of gift cards and Cash App has slightly increased over time relative to other payment services.”
With Cash App ranking as the <a href="https://info.thorn.org/hubfs/Research/Thorn_TrendsInFinancialSextortion_June2024.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">#1 payment method</a> for financial sextortion, there is valid concern over many of their default features like public profiles and limited identity verification. These vulnerabilities could expose younger users to predatory behavior.
It is time to require a higher standard of care from online platforms.
One vital step to combat sextortion and image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) is the “Take It Down Act,” a bipartisan bill sponsored by Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN). This legislation has already gained significant momentum, passing unanimously in the Senate. Now, it is time for the House to act and make this bill law.
The “Take It Down Act” is a bold step toward creating meaningful protections for sextortion victims and victims of nonconsensually-shared explicit content. It addresses the crisis in two key ways, first, by mandating quick removal of harmful content, and then by criminalizing image-based abuse. Under the &#8220;Take It Down Act,&#8221; social media platforms and websites would be legally required to remove explicit images within 48 hours of a survivor’s request. These platforms must also make efforts to prevent the images&#8217; reappearance, reducing the cycle of trauma for victims. This bill also makes it a federal crime to publish explicit images of a person without their consent, including AI-generated or “deepfake” content. This brings critical accountability to perpetrators who weaponize private imagery.
By passing this legislation, Congress can empower victims to regain control while ensuring that perpetrators face appropriate consequences for their actions.
For young boys targeted by sextortion, the bill’s immediate removal mandate could mean the difference between life and death, offering assurance that exposure is not inevitable and their situation is not hopeless.
If you are a parent or guardian, use this article as a reason to talk with your kids now about this threat online — before they ever find themselves in a dangerous situation. It’s natural to react with fear or anger if a child makes an unsafe choice, but we never know what difference maintaining an open dialogue can make.
Sextortion is a profoundly isolating crime — but no victim or family needs to face it alone. If explicit images have already been shared, resources are available. &#8220;Take It Down,&#8221; a free service from the National Center for Missing &amp; Exploited Children, helps remove nude, partially nude, or sexually explicit images taken before the age of 18. Visit <a href="https://takeitdown.ncmec.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">takeitdown.ncmec.org</a> for more information. The Cyber Civil Rights Initiative also offers critical support and resources for those affected. 
Congress can and must pass the “Take it Down Act,” helping to give every child the safety they deserve and ensuring no life is stolen by this devastating fraud.
* * *
Haley McNamara is the Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives and Programs at the <a href="http://www.endsexualexploitation.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Center on Sexual Exploitation</a>, the leading national non-partisan organization exposing the links between all forms of sexual exploitation such as child sexual abuse, prostitution, sex trafficking and the public health harms of pornography. On X: @NCOSE
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
* * *
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dozens-of-teen-boys-take-their-own-lives-as-online-sextortion-cases-spike?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Amanda+Prestigiacomo&amp;category=Original&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=Dozens+Of+Teen+Boys+Take+Their+Own+Lives+As+Online+Sextortion+Cases+Spike" target="_blank" rel="noopener">RELATED: Dozens Of Teen Boys Take Their Own Lives As Online Sextortion Cases Spike</a></h3>

Close up of hands of teen boy in white sweater texting on phone.

Sextortion Is A Rising Crisis Linked To Teen Suicide, Action Cannot Wait

Sextortion Is a Rising Crisis Linked to Teen Suicide, Action Cannot Wait

Instagram

Nigeria

Nudity

Sex Crimes

sexual content

Snapchat

Social Media

Suicide

Our children are bombarded by technology, certainly a natural progression of our tech-dependent society. But our educational institutions, with tech companies’ eager help, have enabled this growth – and dependency.
Surveys <a href="https://www.edweek.org/technology/what-the-massive-shift-to-1-to-1-computing-means-for-schools-in-charts/2022/05">indicate</a> that more than 90% of middle and high school students and more than 80% of elementary students have a school-issued learning device.
Michael Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-03-19/michael-bloomberg-kids-are-spending-too-much-class-time-on-laptops?utm_campaign=wp_the_technology_202&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=newsletter">pointed out</a> that children are spending too much time on laptops at school, citing that “social skills are deteriorating and test scores are near historic lows,” and called on schools to turn back to “using books and pens.”
Children’s near ubiquitous use of screens at school is worth reconsidering, in light of the dismal <a href="https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nation’s Report Card</a> finding that students are losing ground in reading and are not improving in math. While screens in schools may not be the only reason children are failing, they also don’t appear to be helping.
This is one reason why there’s a growing movement of school districts and states taking steps to restrict students’ cell phone use in classrooms. A 2023 <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/02/health/phones-allowed-school-children-wellness/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> found that “97% of 11- to 17-year-olds use their phones during school time.”
Teachers see the impact of cell phone use in their classrooms. According to a Pew Research Center <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/06/12/72-percent-of-us-high-school-teachers-say-cellphone-distraction-is-a-major-problem-in-the-classroom/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">survey</a> conducted in fall 2023, 72% of U.S. high school teachers consider cell phone distraction a major problem in their classrooms. Middle school teachers (33%) and elementary school teachers (6%) also share concerns about student distraction due to cell phones.
Phones are not only distracting to children (and let’s admit it, they are for adults too), children are especially vulnerable to addictive technology and powerful algorithms that feed <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tech-and-tv-study-shows-excessive-screen-time-explicit-content-changing-the-teenage-brain" target="_blank" rel="noopener">harmful content</a> to them. Children can also be groomed by predators and exposed to sexually explicit and graphically violent content on social media platforms. Personal tech can also be weaponized in schools – creating and magnifying bullying situations against classmates and teachers.
For all of these reasons and more, children should not have smartphone access during the school day.
I am encouraged that school districts and elected leaders across the U.S. have been working to restrict cell phones in classrooms. The issue is even <a href="https://apnews.com/article/school-cell-phone-bans-states-e6d1fe8ddfde33f086d5cd2a19f4c148" target="_blank" rel="noopener">uniting Republicans and Democrats</a>. Los Angeles Unified School District banned them, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has unveiled a plan to ban them, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker wants to restrict them, to name a few. Across the pond, Denmark has banned phones in schools and there are calls for the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/05/ban-mobile-phones-schools-europe-children" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rest of the EU</a> to do the same.
The Parents Television and Media Council’s whitepaper, <a href="https://www.parentstv.org/resources/PDF/Studies/240723-REPORT-School-Phone-Policies.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Smartphones in the Classroom: What States are Doing to Confront These Digital Distractions</a> (July 2024) revealed that 28 U.S. states made efforts to eliminate or restrict cell phones in classrooms. That number is certainly larger now.
For this to work though, it will take parents uniting against these digital distractions, as many parents want to be able to reach their child instantaneously if there’s an emergency. While this is a valid concern, most schools already encourage parents to call the school office should they need to reach their child.
There are enough anecdotes alone to know that freeing children from cell phones in school is wise. School administrators have seen children and teens increasingly interact with each other.
A Study.com <a href="https://teachinglicense.study.com/featured-insights/mobile-bans-increase-engagement-and-learning-time.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">survey</a> found that “76% of teachers working in schools with strict cell phone policies believe that cell phone bans increase student engagement,” and “70% believe [the bans] enhance student safety.”
“Students were actually paying attention to his lessons,” <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-03-24/yondr-pouches-enforce-school-cell-phone-bans" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> a high school dean of students about one teacher’s feedback after the Los Angeles Unified School District’s cell phone ban began.
If our children are to succeed in school, it’s time to reduce screen time – and cell phone use – during the school day.
* * *
Melissa Henson is the Vice President of the <a href="http://www.parentstv.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Parents Television and Media Council</a>, a nonpartisan education organization advocating responsible entertainment. On X: @ThePTC.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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