**This is Part 2 of a 2 part series. You can read Part 1 here.**
I know this is a lot of information to digest. I also know the internet has a way of exasperating things, and that we, especially parents, easily enter the realm of paranoia.
I realize our 24-hour news cycle paints the world as an ugly, awful place, that I just painted the world as an awful ugly place. And it just isn’t true.
We really are blessed with medical treatments, technological advancements and opportunities unknown in the history of the world. There are compassionate and kind deeds happening all around us because of good, good people. I have traveled our nation and have seen this for myself!
Nonetheless, these insidious evils are real. And they are growing at a rapid rate, faster than most of us understand. So what is the disconnect? Why is this happening? I believe this oft repeated adage to be the answer: Evil thrives when good men do nothing.
And that’s what we’ve been doing. We’re comfortable, we’re preoccupied, we’re in disbelief, or even denial.
We need to be educated about the threats to our kids
But we can change that. Might I suggest first, read the following three articles;
1) This is uncomfortable and a little graphic, but we need to be informed. The only reason I read this is because one friend on social media was brave enough to share it, though I wish everyone would read it: I’m a 37-Year-Old Mom & I Spent Seven Days Online as an 11-Year-Old Girl. Here’s What I Learned.
2) This piece is another shot to the gut. It’s about a mom who discovered that her six-year-old son was being molested by one of her female college age babysitters. Female. College age. The information will keep you awake tonight, but she gives great tips on how to teach our kids not to be victims: How to imagine the unimaginable
3) This article is the most difficult: it’s graphic in its description of sex trafficking and what is happening to these babies. But he draws the connection between our overtly sexual culture, how porn further fuels consumer demand, and how children are falling prey. It’s important to understand: The Essence of Evil: Sex with Children Has Become Big Business in America
Read these articles. Digest their material. Data-bank the statistics. Discuss them with your spouse, your children, friends, relatives and neighbors. Disseminate; on social media, to your friends, mom groups, your child’s school.
Find out what your kid is learning in school
Parents, find out what your child’s school is teaching in sex ed. You have every right to see it. Monica Cline is a former Planned Parenthood-trained Title IX sex educator who now runs It Takes A Family. She is one the nation’s leading experts on what your children are learning in school and how to fight it.
Here’s a glimpse at what is happening in schools:
-Some states are pushing Comprehensive Sexuality Education that teaches 9 year olds about picking their gender and five-year-old’s about masturbation and abortion. (Not an exaggeration, you can read the curriculum here.)
-A Canadian company produced a YouTube series called “Sex-Ed for School” where a classroom full of 9-12 year old boys and girls discuss masturbation, jiggling genitals, playing with one’s boobs and a transgender man explains to the children,“…I really only talk[s] about kind of what’s in my pants if people are getting in there.” You can watch these films in their full glory here.
Find out where your money is going and what you are supporting with it
–Netflix previously streamed an Argentinian film that includes a scene of a nine-year-old girl masturbating.
-Netflix recently premiered a show, “AJ & the Queen” about a 10 year old girl who follows a drag queen around the country, exposed to sexual situations, including being called a “top”. (Slang for a man who takes the active role in anal intercourse with another man)…..That’s a real life little girl, being called a sexually graphic slang, by an actual adult man, filmed for the entertainment of adults. Or is it for kids, I’m not sure which is worse.
-Several Hollywood directors, producers and actors have been accused and/or convicted of sexual assault, some with children. Why are we watching their work and giving them our money?
-There have been two Tedx talks recently about how pedophilia is an “unchangeable sexual orientation” that people are born with. Seriously – watch them for yourself, here and here.
-Put your phone down and spend time with your kids. Kids need strong parental relationships to build their confidence, so when your 16-year-old gets a text from a boy at school, or your 11-year-old is asked by an online sex predator to “send me a picture of in between your legs”, she’ll have the gumption to tell the pervert “$#@! off.”
– Call on your elected officials and police departments to make the battle against sex trafficking a top priority. Ask them what you can do to help.
-Start a coalition in your town. Lead when no one else will.
-If you know your porn use is a problem but are having trouble kicking the addictive habit, there is help:
– Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Helpline
Action items
We need to be doers. This is not a third world problem, a politician problem, or a law enforcement problem. It’s not a school problem or even a parent problem, it’s a we problem; and we all must act.
Here are some ideas to get you started:
-Follow, support, donate, fund raise for Operation Underground Railroad and Agape International Missions.
-Complete O.U.R.’s 1 hour training on sex trafficking here.
–Sign-up to be an O.U.R. volunteer, and you could become a local ambassador in your area.
-Write your city, county, and state representatives. I recently wrote my local officials about sex trafficking and was assured it’s not a problem. A few clicks on Google and I had articles showing otherwise.
-Start a letter writing campaign with your friends. Write your local news/media outlets and demand they cover this rarely mentioned topic.
–Thorn is another great organization started by Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore, trying to educate and save children from being trafficked.
-There are books to read with your children about these topics. I currently use “God Made All of Me” and “Good Pictures Bad Pictures”.
–Bark is an award winning online safety monitor for all your devices. (They were the ones holding the sting operation in the above article I discussed.)
-Follow these activists for blunt, no sugar-coated commentary on what’s really happening with our young people; Officer Gomez, Collin Kartchner, Jonathan Van Maren.
