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Ep 19 :: Protecting Our Kids with Technology
31 Plays4 days ago
Today Megan tackles the enormous subject of how to protect our kids in this technological world. It's a whole new frontier and the landscape will never look the same. This episode is not meant for young ears.
Resources:
Jonathan Haidt's Anxious Generation
The Rise of AI sermon by Austin Hamrick
The Dangers of AI - Share with Care
Tin Can Phone
Wait Til 8th Movement
Joshua Broome
Mason Cain with Unchained
Connect with Megan:
Instagram or Facebook
Listen to Diggin In on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Amazon Music
For more go to: MySeedsOfHope.com
Music:
The Success by Keys of Moon
Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Diggin' In
00:00:01
Speaker
Hi friends, welcome to Diggin' In. I'm your host, Megan. This is a place where we discuss the things that really matter in life. We cut through the surface to dive deeper. So pull up a chair because here we're Diggin' In.
00:00:17
Speaker
All right. Welcome
Challenges of Parenting in the Digital Age
00:00:19
Speaker
back to Digging In. It's Friday, so that means it's time for another episode, and we are rounding out the month of May with how to mother well in parenting and protecting our kids online. a huge topic that I could not possibly begin to really even scratch the surface on is what it felt like when I was doing the research for this, but um I took a lot of notes, so I'm going to be doing a lot of reading today. um and like I said, it's just such a huge topic and there's so many different facets of it. I'm going to do my best to stay focused and kind of really um talk about the things that I have personally seen and and even been impacted by. And I
Personal Tech Experiences and Protective Parenting
00:01:01
Speaker
didn't write this down, but I certainly can just share with you brief, like, um, my first exposure to things online and things of that nature, um, before getting into all of it. But, uh, it is a huge topic. Like I said, I'm going to share a ton of resources at the end of this. And if there's something that I missed, please do not hesitate to reach out because again, it is a lot to cover. um You know, you say online or technology and and then put it in the same sentence as children or kids. And I think immediately that kind of probably set some things off in certain people's mind. I know it does for myself. I'm very protective when it comes to um technology use and especially using it as a pacifier. um It's just something that i don't I just have really strong conviction of um from the get-go with Noah and then you know with my
00:01:59
Speaker
uh, nephew and my niece being protective over them. And then just kids that I know and my friend's kids and, and wanting to mother well and, and do things well and for the glory of God. So
Balancing Protection and Experience for Kids
00:02:10
Speaker
I, once again, as i share often, do not do this well all the time. And I would venture to say, and again, we can pull Noah, but yeah, I would venture to say that I probably fail more than I succeed in this arena. um Mostly, i think when I say fail, I think that I parent often from a place of fear because of the things that I've either experienced, been exposed to, things of that nature.
00:02:40
Speaker
And therefore, I love my kid and I want to protect him i don't want and him. I don't want him to ever experience the things that I did. And so therefore, I'm trying my best to protect him. Now, ah you know, one of the things that is kind of a catch-22 of that is that you can't protect them from everything. And um, just like us as adults, um, our children need to have experiences too, where they, make their own mistakes. And so the whole idea being that they're doing that while they're in the safety and the covering of your home, um, as they grow up. And so the whole idea being that we raise them up in the way that they should go, just like it says in Proverbs. And, uh, when they are old, uh, the speaking of the word of the Lord will not depart from them. They'll come back to it. They'll go back to their original love. Um, and so just again, wanting to do that, well, wanting to do my part in that. And again, not always succeeding in that. Um, but I truly do. i want to do my best. So,
Early Technology and Its Impact
00:03:43
Speaker
All that having been said, as i was thinking about this episode and just kind of um preparing for it, i i didn't write this down, like I said, but i it's probably important that you know kind of my interaction with online and just kind of where we're coming from once again. Turned 40 this year, so that kind of gives you a time frame as far as technology goes, you know. um Cell phones. Like I remember the first cell phone that my mom had was like it was attached to the car.
00:04:14
Speaker
and it thought like we thought it was so cool that we could make phone calls from the vehicle. And when I say we could make phone calls, we never did because they were so expensive. It was like. at You know, hindsight always being it's like, what was even the point of it? Now, i know it was for work for her. i don't even know how much she actually used it at first. But anyway, that was the ah the cell phone, if you will, the mobile phone. It wasn't even really – we didn't call it a cell phone. It was a mobile phone. And I was talking to Adam about this a while ago, and he was saying that his dad, the first one that his, his I guess his dad had, or maybe he was just talking about it from like a knowing that it existed perspective, but was like the briefcase phone. It was like a bat phone, you know, like you took it in a bag.
00:04:58
Speaker
So again,
Struggles with Tech Addiction
00:04:59
Speaker
just wild to think about now, you know, we all have these devices in our hands and our pockets and they follow us around and we we put pretty little covers on them and we baby them like they're our children. um not Not a healthy thing. But anyway, the technology has come so, so far.
00:05:18
Speaker
And so um with as far as like technology use in our household, we did we had Nintendo. like i remember my parents had that before they had me. like That was something that they purchased. And they had Duck Hunt and they had Golf. And then when I got older, when I say older, it was probably, you know, late elementary to early middle school, we got a Sega Genesis. And I remember Sonic the Hedgehog. That's all we had. um I think Mario is another one that people would play on Sega, but...
00:05:50
Speaker
It was Sonic the Hedgehog for us. So that's what we had. And it was in a room with this big, huge, bulky TV. And I definitely struggled with being addicted to that thing. And we had a pool growing up, for goodness sake. Like, why would I not want to be outside and be active? We had a basketball goal. You know, like there were plenty. I had bikes. We had a great neighborhood for riding other than the fact that it was extremely hilly. Um, that got tiring very quickly, but I had the freedom to go and explore. um I remember there was a girl down the street from me and we, we like used to spend time in her woods behind her house and we would like make these nature paths and stuff.
00:06:26
Speaker
But all that to say, when the technology got introduced, it was easy to, to default to that. And I didn't venture out quite as much. And, um, this all comes back around, as I move on, um, with some of the research that did write down. But suffice it to say, i didn't go out and have real tactile, in-person real life experiences as much when that was an option. You know, obviously if it, if it's not an option, then you don't know it's there, then you're going to do all the other things. Um, and so that was kind of like early, like I said, uh, elementary to middle school.
00:07:04
Speaker
And then when I was in middle school, i think it was late middle school perhaps, my sister and I both got a laptop and we had those. And I didn't use it a ton, i don't think. I don't even remember why we got them in particular. Well, back up just a little bit. We had a desktop computer that was huge. You know, the monitor was like just It was huge. It was this big thing that sat on our dining room table because we ate in our eat-in kitchen instead of our dining room. And then it was that huge CPU unit that got so hot and was so loud with the fans in it and everything that would sit on the ground. Um, and that was kind of like our community, you know, communal computer. And there were like, there were a couple, we played solitaire a lot on it. Um, and so there were a few, a few games, but that really wasn't what we used it for. You know, like I remember writing a paper in high school and, um, there was the Britannica, you know, encyclopedia and you had all that information on there, but I remember doing this paper in particular in high school And I will never forget. It was like 10 o'clock at night and all of a sudden the computer crashed and I lost my mind because I didn't save it. And it wasn't like, you know, like all these computer programs nowadays, for the most part, they just automatically save along the way. And so that's not an issue. Whereas when I was doing my paper, you had to save it on a floppy disk to have, you know, access to it and to be able to, you know, go back and get And so didn't save it. The computer crashed. I don't know. I don't know what happened. I don't know if I kicked the cord and came out of the wall. Who knows? But I could not get back to my work and I had to start all over again. And it was like probably sophomore year in high school. I just remember had to have citations like it was a huge deal.
00:08:55
Speaker
Anywho. So things have come quite a ah long way. As far as that laptop goes, that became something that was extremely detrimental to me. So
Tech's Role in Desensitization and Relationships
00:09:06
Speaker
I'm not sure if you'll remember Napster or not, but that was like the first online, you know, music downloading platform, at least that I was aware of. I'm sure if you were a tech person that maybe there was something before that, but that was it. And so it was for the most part, you know, you would search for a file that was like the best file versus, you know,
00:09:28
Speaker
like a corrupted file or one that was like very clearly someone holding a speaker up to like the radio, you know, like there's better versions of songs and you would sometimes you have to like download three versions and then pick the best one and delete the other ones. Well, at first it was just music, but then it did morph into video. And so for me, that was the first time I was exposed to video pornography. When I was younger, i was at a friend's house and she had an older brother and he had Playboy magazines that he kept like um next to his bed and in the bathroom, in his own bathroom. And it wasn't even like he was hiding them, which was really strange. Like now looking back and that for me was probably sixth grade. grade, I believe, maybe seventh grade, but it was somewhere around in there, early middle school. And i remember like looking through this stuff with my girlfriend that I was at, you know, was her house. And I remember just like the feeling of like, I remember when we first cracked it open, it was like, oh my goodness, we threw it and ran, you know, it was like, what is that? And then she was
00:10:34
Speaker
my girlfriend, she knew, i guess, because her brother had this. And so we flipped through it and it was just, I remember this feeling in my gut of like, oh, you like I just felt ill, you know, like looking at those images and mind you, like this is before giving my life to Christ, like looking at those images, i already knew that there was something inherently not good about looking at that. Like there was something in the pit of my soul that was telling me this is not good. Um, but we looked at it and we, you know, on more than one occasion, for sure. Like I definitely went over there a lot when I was, um, in middle school and we were good friends.
00:11:17
Speaker
So that was like first introduction to paper pornography is what I'll call it. But then online for pornography came from Napster. And so I had that laptop and I was able to have it in my room with no restrictions and And so I was exposed to a lot at a very young age. And so I think for me, that is one of the biggest reasons that I have such a very strong feeling about this kind of stuff. And yes, perhaps can get a little bit crazy with it because it's, it's very serious to me. Um, and so as far as today goes and what I want to share and go through, it all kind of, for me at least boils down to one word and that is desensitization. So, you know, whatever you may be believe as far as the powers that be or the why, or who's creating this, who started it, where did this come from? Like, those are theological conversations for sure. Philosophical conversations, if you will. But Um, ultimately i think that it is like technology in general is, is designed to desensitize us. It's to, create a fraction in relationship. You know, when there's a technology, I mean, think about when you're having coffee with a friend or you're out, you're with someone and they pull out their phone in the presence of you, especially if you're in the middle of a conversation and they pull out their phone, like,
00:12:37
Speaker
it it creates a fracture. Like it creates distance in that relationship. it's It's hurtful. You know, it's kind of like, and you may not recognize that ah in that kind of way in the moment, but in the back of your mind, that that's communicating to you that this device, whatever's on this device is more important than than myself, you know, or,
00:12:57
Speaker
or or It's more important than you to me if I'm the one picking up my device. And so it just kind of breaks down these um ideas and thoughts that, you know, maybe we're we think we're more important. You know, that's what it communicates as well. Like I'm more important than you that I need to get on this device and check it or look at it or whatever.
00:13:20
Speaker
And so it um in the in the realm of decent desensitization, it also has normalized a lot of stuff that was never normal. You know, I mean, I was joking. oh I'm not joking. I'm very serious. I'm like, Noah, you're going have a 90s summer like we're going to do things without technology, although we are going to watch some really good 90s movies. We're gonna, you know, just like do things that are away from technology as much as possible. We're going to read three books together this summer. He is not pumped about it, but that's okay. um
00:13:54
Speaker
We'll get through it. ah But, you know, like just get out more and explore more. So anyway, normalization of inappropriate themes and images, obviously that kind of thing. And again, it breaks down, it desensitizes us, um you know, so like,
00:14:09
Speaker
I'll never forget our pastor before we moved to the this, you know, where we are now. He had talked about how like a lands in um catalog, like sitting on top of the stacked magazines was a distraction, you know, at the very least a distraction because it like with a what with a sorry, should say what was on the cover of the magazine. like a woman in a one-piece bathing suit, like you would consider that very modest and not, you know, salacious in any kind of way perhaps. But even that is desensitizing ah us. Like if you think about it, it's covering up things that shouldn't be seen, but it's a very tight version of covering things up. um And so it can just be, if it's something that is a struggle for someone already, then it can be something that is triggering, if you will.
00:15:02
Speaker
So anyway, um so normalizing um inappropriate speech, I know that that has become very much a thing, especially in the Christian um realm and the Christian community, if you will. I notice it all the time. you know Friends of mine, believers, some that I would consider very strong believers and the things that come from out of our mouths at times. It's just like, who do we claim? you know um And it's just become this like acceptable thing that we, you know it's okay. um I'm going to hopefully read one of the books that I'm proposing for Noah and I to read this summer is called Respectable Sins. And it goes through like things that we in the church kind of
00:15:48
Speaker
We give a ranking to sin and in God's eyes, we all know that there is no ranking. It is um sin is sin. It is what creates separation between us and the Lord. um But we can tend to, well, this sin is gluttony. Like I'm going have another Oreo. Okay.
00:16:06
Speaker
Like that's not as bad as like shooting someone, right? Well, yeah, obviously we would think so. There are certainly different consequences, that's for sure. But anyway, um I digress. As usual, folks, welcome to the streaming thoughts of this crazy brain over here.
00:16:22
Speaker
um Okay, I'm going to try and stick to my notes. But... I already talked about video gaming and how um in our house, you know, like when it went from Nintendo and Duck Hunt and, you know, Nintendo that had Duck Hunt and Golf to Sega with Mario and ah Sonic the Hedgehog to nowadays the the video games, you know, talk about technology use, the video games, there's Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty, which I have not, I've seen some screen captures, but I have not personally seen those games being played. I've seen, um,
00:16:54
Speaker
just like little quick video clips of some of the things that are going on in that. But what I've heard from both of those games are that there's extremely vivid imagery. And again, it just goes back to that desensit desensitization.
00:17:11
Speaker
The vivid imagery being, you know, obviously violence like guns and blood splatter and things of that nature. Apparently there are prostitutes that are scantily clad and walking around in those things. And then there's drug use and things of that nature. So obviously nothing really redeeming.
00:17:29
Speaker
At all in those types of games. And yet, they're totally normalized for I mean, not just like teenagers, young adults, like, for kids, like kids, kids, I remember kids in Noah's elementary school that were playing some of those things. And it was just appalling because again, I had already heard about what those games.
00:17:46
Speaker
types of games are about. So um something that I was thinking about when I was doing this research was, you know, thinking about school shooters and oftentimes, and I didn't dive into this, but it would be interesting to see the correlation of like video game usage and isolation or isolationism, if you will, and um school shootings, like what kind of, or or or mass shootings, you know, whatever. um But the connection there,
00:18:14
Speaker
off the top of my head, I can think of, like I remember with Columbine, that was one of the things was they were very much into just like hours and hours spent on video gaming.
00:18:26
Speaker
The, you know, ah feel like this could be a hot topic, but the Charlie Kirk assassination, the person who is being accused of his murder was into some really disgusting, depraved activity um online through, you know, um What are they like communication tools? I guess it would be considered social um social media, but and then he they would play video games like he and his partner lover, if you will, whatever.
00:19:00
Speaker
So just um I think it points to a depravity. It points to a a vacuum, a lostness, a a hole in in our heart, whatever it is that we're trying to fill with something other than Jesus. And so...
00:19:17
Speaker
Again, all these things are desensitizing us to the things that we now consider like normal. I mean, I think about just flipping on the news and the imagery that comes up on the news, like that kind of stuff never would have happened when we flipped on, you know, primetime news back when I was a kid. Yeah.
00:19:36
Speaker
especially in the evening, you know, they would have like later evening, um late night, not talk shows, but late night newscasts. And those would, they they would share more in those than they would in the earlier broadcasts because they were sensitive to the fact that televisions were on in homes where children were present. And that is all out the door now because you get all kinds of advertisements and just,
00:20:00
Speaker
yeah, disgusting things. But, um, okay. So i was talking about school shooters and video gaming's the connection there and just the progression of video gaming in general and technology in general. So now we have these VR goggles where you can literally be completely immersed. Um,
00:20:21
Speaker
into an entirely different and alternate reality in seconds by putting these things on. I did it one time at a friend's house. It was, we were working on a project together um and he was an early adopter of all things technology, worked for technology company. And he's like, put these on. And I'm like, I don't know. There's something about it that's just like weird to me. And he's like, no, no, no, it's not weird.
00:20:43
Speaker
Put them on. ah Where do you want to go? Just pick somewhere in the, he's like, you can go here you can go here. I'm like, okay, I chose a desert. So he put the goggles on and I was immediately in a desert. Now, obviously i knew I was standing in a, in a room inside and I knew that there were four walls but he was showing me before I put these on like this corner there was like tape on the ground like this corner so that you don't go into you know like bumping into all the computers and whatnot and this was like keeping you from going through the window and like that is crazy there was a point where it was like standing like on the edge of a cliff and looking over and I mean obviously once again i'm
00:21:24
Speaker
I know that I'm standing in a room, but it really felt like you're on the edge of that cliff. So again, for for me, I see the theme of desensitization to like reality and having real life experiences. And then it's like, yeah, it can be cool. Like, oh okay. I may may never go to the Maldives. Let's go to the Maldives in this VR experience. But I don't know. Even that, I feel like i don't think that we're supposed to experience that in in in virtual reality. It's not real. um
00:21:58
Speaker
I don't know. That's such a struggle. That'd be a fun conversation to have. But anyway. All that to say, the VR goggles are extremely like um lifelike and vivid imagery. And you know they've come so far. That was, gosh, probably like six years ago or so. And I remember when I had them on like the edges of the um like your visual, like the peripheral, you couldn't really look side to side with your eyeballs. You were kind of like the focus was straight ahead. And that was the clearest image. But as it went out from your like into peripheral vision, it got a little blurry. but nowadays i hear apparently that's gotten a whole lot better. So, oh man.
00:22:38
Speaker
But what I'm really going to camp out on today, specifically when it comes to technology is exposure. Um,
Statistics on Children's Tech Exposure
00:22:44
Speaker
there's so many reasons with technology that there's a lot to be concerned with. Um, you know, i already discussed it leads to isolation. Um, there's the whole social contagion factor, um,
00:22:56
Speaker
And then going down the road of suicidality and all kinds of other things. um I'm sure you've heard reports of the, you know, ai models or whatever convincing these people to commit suicide. i mean, it happened to two young people, like teenagers. It's absolutely mortifying. I can't even imagine. But they've developed relationships with this online community.
00:23:22
Speaker
non-human entity who then convinced them to end their life. And I remember with the the young man in particular, his dad was testifying before Congress and um he shared that, you know, he was, the young man was having doubts and he was even saying, you know, like, well, I don't want to do this to my parents or I don't want them to think that it was them that made me do this. And The AI was convincing him to just like, don't, don't ever think it like, ah you know, just do it. Don't be cowardly. Just go ahead and do it. So a lot, a lot of issues with technology and so many reasons to be concerned. But I just want to read some statistics here in the realm of like exposure and just think like pornography. That's the kind of the route that we're going to take talking about this today.
00:24:12
Speaker
um Okay, so this was from a 2023 Common Sense Media article. 15% of teens said that they first saw online pornography at the age of 10 or younger.
00:24:29
Speaker
And I'm going to try and stick to just reading these statistics. But if you think about that, 10 or younger, what is that like? Fifth grade? Fourth grade? No. Fifth or sixth grade? Somewhere around in there. um Or younger. So these kids don't have any kind of concept about sexuality at that point unless they've been exposed to it. And I've already talked about this before. And it's something for sure to go do you know a deeper dive into. down the road. But um when you expose a child to anything of a sexual nature under the age of 12, and this, that that research was years and years ago. So I wonder what, you know, what it is now, but exposing a child to, so ah to anything of a sexual nature under the age of 12. So think drag queen story hour, and those types of things. Oh, it's just girls or boys dancing around in girls' clothing. no big deal. No, it's ah it's always explicitly sexual nature. But exposing children 12 and under, their brains receive it as trauma. So we're actively traumatizing generations of kids by exposing them. And I put ah ah family life, you know, I'm trying to remember what they called it when I was in school, but
00:25:48
Speaker
you know, the birds and the bees, exposing kids to that before the age of 12, they're receiving it as trauma. Like, it's just, it's inappropriate, you know, like, I don't think we should ever be talking about that stuff in school. Personally, i think that that's education that needs to happen at home. The kicker is, and I've had conversations with quite a few of you that I know that will be listening to this, um who are not educating at home out of fear. And that, again, is something that we can come back to, you know, I've really been praying about Lord,
00:26:17
Speaker
you know, what direction do you want me to go with all of this? And that is one that I definitely, you know, when we homeschooled for fourth grade in our county, that is the year that they, you know, really go into all the details. And so I knew um that was never when I wanted to educate my son about all of that. But Again, going back to the research, when you learn something new, your brain creates a category, and that is what your brain considers like the gospel. that That is the truth. And anything that you learn from that point forward, your brain is naturally going to measure it, weigh it against what you already know about that topic. And so if they learn something inaccurate, if we, if I, we're And I always use the example of tomatoes for whatever reason. And this is appropriate. It's spring and gardening season. But if I teach you negative information or not negative, if I teach you inaccurate information about tomatoes and you don't know anything about tomatoes, your brain is going to receive all that information that I just told you.
00:27:19
Speaker
as truth. And it's going to hold that standard. So then when you go and you read something else or you talk to someone else who's trying to give you information about um tomatoes, you can be like, well, but Megan said, blah blah, blah. Or, but what I, that's not true because this is actually true. Even though the information that you gained first was not correct, your brain still naturally does that. And so if we're not educating at home, and I'll just say this and then move on,
00:27:48
Speaker
Sorry, Rosie is trying to greet someone at my door, I guess. um If we're not educating at home, then they're going to be educated by the world. And unfortunately, that education that's happening at home has to start sooner rather than later because they're being exposed earlier and earlier. And this ties back to the statistics and then I'm just going to keep going. But um, online pornography exposure at 10 years old or younger, those kids are not going to look for that type of material. It is predatory. It comes after you. You can't go onto YouTube. You can't go on Instagram or Facebook or any of it without having inappropriate things come after you.
00:28:32
Speaker
Okay, moving on. So again, back to that 2023 Common Sense Media article, 63% of teens said that they accidentally were exposed to pornography. So again, like I just said, they were not seeking it out. 63%. 73% of teens responded, teen respondents to have watched pornography online.
00:28:55
Speaker
seventy three percent That's crazy. So to boil that down, that's roughly, ah oh gosh, statistics are not great. Three out of four, like 75%, three out of four people aged, sorry, kids aged 13 to 17 have watched pornography online. Then from a Newsweek study 2024, 7% of all U.S. adults who consume porn ah say that they are addicted.
00:29:25
Speaker
So nearly one in 10 Americans admits to being addicted to to porn. So that's one in 10.
00:29:32
Speaker
admits. And that's a big thing when these surveys, you know, it's supposed to be anonymous and people will typically be more willing to answer the question honestly, because it's anonymous, but they still, i mean, it's just human nature. Not everyone ah answers honestly, but that is of those who answered honestly, one in 10 admits to being addicted to porn. And that was not specific gender specific.
00:29:56
Speaker
um So ah i just wrote down like if you're standing in line at you know Chipotle or whatever and there's 10 people in line, that means at least one person standing in line is admittedly addicted to pornography. It's just it's wild when you put it into real tangible terms like that. So then there was a 2025 article in the independent and it stated that researchers say online child sexual exploitation is quote, an urgent public health issue that is escalating.
00:30:26
Speaker
So again, this was a year ago that this was the the article was written and it said that it was an urgent public health issue that is escalating. And I, am it's only continuing to rise. um That article also said that online child grooming cases rose by 89% six years child. Um,
00:30:46
Speaker
with seven thousand sexual communications with a child um
00:30:53
Speaker
Oh, sorry. 7,000 sexual communication with a child offenses recorded by police in the last year. 7,000 that were recorded by police. So that's not all of them. That's just a fraction of them. um So the bottom line, online platforms do not protect our children.
00:31:13
Speaker
Period. Hard stop. End of story. They don't. And, you know, one of the um resources that hopefully I'll remember to go back and include here, it actually was a movie that came out quite a while ago now. um Oh, man, and I'm totally going blank on it. social Social Dilemma, I think it was.
00:31:33
Speaker
Something in that film that was revealed was that all the tech giants do not allow their own children to use their products. Like they had, obviously they had, um, what's his face Zuckerberg. They had, i think it was Jack Dorsey at the time. Um, the guy from Google, I can't remember who else, but then there was, um, ah Pinterest, a guy from Pinterest face. I already said Facebook, um, Instagram. That was the other one. Um, and all of them said that their kids are not allowed to use their own products. Um, that goes for, uh, Steve jobs with like creating the iPod, iPad, all that good stuff.
00:32:12
Speaker
None of it. He don't, he didn't allow his kids to use any of it. So that right there, at least for me, tells you everything that you need to know. If if the the people who are creating these products aren't even allowing their own children to use them, then why in the world would we we personally use them and why in the world we allow our children to use them? It's just absolutely...
00:32:34
Speaker
crazy to me. um But their sole purpose is to drive more user engagement. And so, you know, I've seen these recent email or not emails, um commercials from, I don't know if it's meta or what saying, you know, like get an Instagram account for your teen and we have all these different measures to protect them and whatnot. I'm sure that they have done some things, but the the fact of the matter is, and especially with kids these days now, they can figure out anything, how to get around it, and all of that. But at the end of the day, it doesn't filter out everything. And especially, I mean, even with advertising, I'm constantly, when I'm on there, I'm like report as pornography just because there's so much. It's just so much. I can't handle it. It's it's too much. I don't like it. It makes me ick. It gives me the ick.
00:33:22
Speaker
um Okay. So last summer i did a book study. with Jonathan Haidt's book, Anxious Generation. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. It's been a couple of years now that ago that it came out, but it is, it was by far and away, oop sorry, my little, um,
00:33:40
Speaker
charger dropped there but this book was just so good I mean it's a thick one if you're if I'm showing you here it is it's thick but there's just so much great information and I would say i remember looking at this it's like the back almost the back quarter of the book is all references to the statistics and the the science and you know all of that that It's just a very well-researched book. So it's called The Anxious Generation, How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. And it goes into so much detail and then so much. I mean, it was just incredible. So I highly recommend that.
00:34:18
Speaker
um yeah I'm sure there's an audio version if you're not a huge like sit down and read but i I sometimes I'll start listening to audio versions of books and then I go and buy the version anyway and I'll listen along and highlight um or I'll listen and then I'll make a note to go back and like skim through figure out where it was to make a highlight or an underline or whatever um because a book like this especially so many great references to go back to um maybe I'll read this one with Noah He's not going to go for that, I don't think. But OK, so in this book, he um he I mean, there's so many again, so many statistics. But one of the things that he really harped on and brought to light was just that the usage of tech as it goes up face to face interaction naturally goes down. And he talks extensively about what he calls the great rewiring, which is part of the subtitle. um He reverse refers to devices as experience blockers. And I just love that because it's so true. Once again, as I was talking about the very beginning, if there's a piece of technology, naturally, there's an option there. If there's not the option, then it's removed. And so...
00:35:29
Speaker
A lot of the time as humans, we're lazy often. um It's part of the fall. um But that we're going to default to these experience blockers. And again, we can be in the presence of one another and still be on devices and, um you know, just in inhibiting true actual human connection. Um, and then he goes into talking about like, um, you know, how oftentimes the statistics do show that girls are more often affected, um than boys. That's not to say that boys are not affected, but girls are more often affected specifically with social media. um just, and, and I mean, even not with social media, you know, like, um, think about your camera. Now there's all these, you know,
00:36:18
Speaker
different apps that you can get. i remember I was with some girlfriends a few years ago and it was like, oh, we're going to put this into the filter. And I'm like, what? And it was an app that you download and you put your your pictures into this filter and it like softened everything. So it gave like a glow on your face. This little zit right here that I got right now. Yep. It would probably get rid of that. The lines on my forehead that have shown how much life I've had and and my expressive face and all the fun and laughter, my squinty crows, ah all of it. It just smooths it all out. It gets rid of any like p blemishes and whatnot, straightens your teeth. And I mean, it was wild. So think about that for a girl, a young girl whose brain is not fully developed.
00:37:01
Speaker
is now filtering these images, trying to make herself look better, um and then putting it out on the for the world to to judge and either like or not like, and then all the comments. um And it is it's not good. It's just, it's not good out there. um i know there have been a couple of young ladies in my, just in my, yeah you know, i don't even want to say social circle, but just ah around me, you know, by church or you know, whatever it is. um And their poor faces are like burning off. And I was like wondering about this a few years ago because I had noticed like, you know, online there's all these videos with these young girls doing these get ready with me videos and whatnot. And they're using hyaluronic acid and retinol and like all these things on their skin that's still developing. It's just, it's so bad. And so their faces are so inflamed from all these ointments and these peels and the
00:38:00
Speaker
all the things. And so it's just all this stuff that's perpetuating this image, like this, um you know, this obsession with self-image, which is not, I mean, and I know it's not healthy healthy for me. um and it it wasn't for me as a young girl either before all of this. I truly, I mean, I talked to girlfriends about this a lot, especially girls that have young girls, um daughters. I just, I can't imagine growing up now with social media. It would, I can't even think about what my life would have been like. I know it wouldn't have been good. So, yeah.
00:38:39
Speaker
So let's see. What else did I have here? um oh I just wrote down some of the saddest things that I have seen on the internet. I remember, i don't know if it was last year or what, but saw this video of this little girl. i think she was somewhere between six and eight years old.
00:38:54
Speaker
And she had on these fake nails. Think JonBenet and Ramsey. like that's That was the vibes that she was giving off. And her mom is very clearly her mom videoing her because she's talking to her in the video. And she's holding her little plastic Starbucks cup um of some sugar-laden hormone-disrupting drink. And she's tapping her nails on it. And she's like, what do you have there? And she was like, um they messed up my order. And she's talking like this with a lispy type, you know wispy S's and, you know,
00:39:29
Speaker
They messed up my order and they need to fix it because this is unacceptable. And again, I'm telling you, she's like somewhere between six and eight years old. She's in elementary school. And where is she picking that up?
00:39:40
Speaker
She's definitely not doing it on her own. She's obviously emulating things that she's seen. And it's just so sad because, again, we're desensitizing drugs. young girls to nor what what should be a normal childhood. um And it's not doing that. ah Excuse me. So I just had that here as a side note, but um going back to the book, Jonathan Haidt, or Haidt, excuse me, he also discusses a tune attunement and which is what we do when we make eye to eye contact. um And especially when you're bonding with your child, like think, you know, you're nursing or bottle feeding, whichever, um or you're just playing and you're, you're smiling and they're making faces back at you and they're just studying you intently. Well, think about what happens when you're sitting there scrolling your phone while you're nursing or you're scrolling your phone while they're playing with blocks or, you know, it's completely removing that attunement. And
Tech's Impact on Child Development and Faith
00:40:41
Speaker
what happens there is that it's it's bond it's releasing the bonding hormones and it's. creating that relationship there And so by introducing devices, introducing what he called, you know, the experience blockers, we're creating a break in that attunement. And so it's, again, desensitizing to a true relationship building. um At the end of the day, why do we give these things to our kids? you know He goes into a lot a lot of that. And I know, at least for myself and for what I've seen, it is selfishness. like We want it to pacify our kids so that we can get something done, so that we can eat a meal. you know Again, one of the saddest things that I will see is going out to a restaurant, which we don't do frequently. But when we do, inevitably, you'll see kids
00:41:31
Speaker
so Not even kids, the entire family sitting around a table, mom and dad are on their phones and each kid is on a device. And oftentimes they're on a device and they have headphones on. So they're completely zoned out. There's no conversation happening. it's It's clear mom and dad just came from work and got these kids and they're here having dinner. And no one's connecting. They haven't connected all day. And they're all sitting there on their devices and not connecting. And so again, it goes back to that attunement, which is attachment, which is relationship building. And it is void of that. It's just heartbreaking. Um, and ultimately we're crippling our kids because they're not having to learn to be content or patient or wait for something. It's all that instant gratification. It's dopamine hit after dopamine hit after dopamine hit. We're literally helping to addict our kids to a drug and that drug is technology. Um, so why does all this matter? You know, i mean, there's, there are a lot of reasons, but ultimately why does it matter? Well, it affects the Imago Dei.
00:42:35
Speaker
In Genesis 127, we are all created in the image of God. Whether we accept we claim Christ or not, the fact of the matter is we are all created in the image of God. And therefore, what we do with our bat our bodies matter. And taking all of this into account, we are degrading the Imago Dei by not, you know, going back to that attunement, like not just simply acknowledging the human across from us, That's created in the image of God. um You know, obviously there's, there's so many obvious reasons with pornography that it is completely and utterly destroying and disintegrating the Imago Dei.
00:43:13
Speaker
Allie Beth Stuckey said recently that porn commodifies sex. It glorifies violence. It fosters addiction and it can lead to marital destruction. It's a loophole in anti-trafficking laws and it's fundamentally evil And can ruin lives. And I mean, I think she was being generous there. It's fundamentally evil and will ruin lives. It just will.
00:43:34
Speaker
You know, we could go into that deeper and maybe when Adam comes on in June, we can talk about some of that stuff and like just the actual, you know, scientific speaking, how that's destroying the Imago Dei quite literally, again, desensitizing all of that kind of stuff. Yeah.
00:43:55
Speaker
But yeah, I thought that that was a really good um way of stating all of that. But in both Matthew 18 and in Luke 17, Jesus gives a pretty grave warning to us. And I was just thinking about this in context of like our kids and raising our kids well. And I'll just read the Luke 17 2 version. It says, it would be better to be thrown into the sea with a millstone hung around your neck than to cause one of these little ones to fall into sin. And so I just like very simply, if I know that what I have and somebody used this analogy, I can't claim it, but I've used it quite a bit since I heard it.
00:44:32
Speaker
If I handing a a child, a smartphone is like pulling, you know, pulling the pin on a hand grenade and just handing it to them and saying, best of luck.
00:44:42
Speaker
It's that dangerous. um And so i take that very seriously. And so when we're talking about parenting well, mothering well, protecting our kids online, you just simply can't unless you're not.
00:45:00
Speaker
You're not allowing them to have it. And I am just as guilty of this as well. Yeah. In the book, The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt does talk about not until 14, smartphone until after 14. And i mean, he suggests waiting until after high school if you can. but And I mean, you can. i think it's all a matter of what we're willing to fight for. But his whole point is that um you know going through puberty and all that good stuff is... A flip phone's great. You can communicate. You can get in touch with people.
00:45:32
Speaker
That's all you need. Social media has no place in a developing child during you know the developing making years of childhood. It's just there's way more harm that will ever come from it than good. There's just simply put, there really isn't any...
00:45:50
Speaker
there's the the The harm so far outweighs the potential for good that it's just not even worth flirting with. um So again, just going back to that Luke 17 verse, um it's pretty serious. If i you know cause one of these little ones to stumble, my son or whomever else, then God says, this is Jesus actually speaking, says that it's better to have a millstone hung around my neck and be thrown into the depths of the sea. That's pretty bad.
00:46:18
Speaker
So I think that we should all take this very serious, very seriously. um So God has work for us while we await his return.
Encouragement for Real-Life Connection
00:46:27
Speaker
And so I just think that technology can be used as a good tool. But ultimately, i think that, again, the harm outweighs the potential benefits in so many ways. um And what matters to God most and what we're doing our great commission, what we're supposed to be doing as we await his return.
00:46:47
Speaker
Um, what matters to him most should matter to us most. And that's souls, um, and affecting souls for Christ. And so, you know, I've seen t-shirts and hats and all bumper stickers, all the things make heaven crowded a lot recently. And I, I just love that. And we can't do that if we aren't building relationship with people, relationships with people and speaking truth into their lives and not in a way of condemning. And I, I truly hope that you know, my heart is, um, I am not sitting here in a self-righteous way. I am you know, I think about that verse from, that Paul says where he's, you know, the chief among centers. Like I, I am right here preaching to the choir, you know, like I'm preaching myself here. Like,
00:47:35
Speaker
I got to practice what I preach as well. And um if I'm so lost in technology, and I'm not spending time building relationships with people, then I have no authority to speak into their life. And I don't do that from a you know, look at this speck in your eye, even though I've got a log sticking out of my own, that verse so often is used in ah in a wrong context. The whole idea of it is that we are acknowledging, yes, I know that I have sin in my own life, but brother, sister in Christ, would you allow me to help you see the speck in yours that you can't see while I open the door for conversation of you helping me recognize the log that I can't see that's in my own eye? Um, so it's just, it's a, it's a humility and a heart posture. It's not to keep us from, not, I always say not calling out, but calling up each other in Christ to, um, become more like him. That's what we're supposed to be doing. That's iron sharpening iron. That's, that is living in the Christian life and living in community, which is vital. So if you are listening to this and you are not plugged into a Bible-believing community, which means you are seeing human beings in person regularly, you cannot do church online as a um you know as as your sole source of
00:48:58
Speaker
being fed. It's just not possible because newsflash friend, you are the church. We are the church. People are the church. Yes, church little c is a building that we meet in but you are the bride of Christ. We are a part of the church. And so you can't do church online. You got to be plugged in in person. Um, so I, I just believe that right now we are at a completely pivotal moment in time and with the rise of AI, um, think things will simply just never be the same. They won't. Um, and I don't know what that looks like and i don't want to induce fear and anxiety because, you know, I think it's first Peter, it's definitely in Peter somewhere, first or second Peter. um he,
00:49:46
Speaker
the scripture says we are given up a ah mind, as goodness gracious, tongue twist much or tongue tie much. um We are not given a spirit of fear, but a one of power and of sound mind.
00:50:01
Speaker
And so I am not wanting to induce fear by any means, but to have a true reality check. You know, um I think it's good that we are dealing in the reality of things. um And so it's good to acknowledge that and be a, be aware, but not living in fear. Um, so I just wanted to encourage you with some things here at the end of just different things that you can do. there,
Strategies for Limiting Tech Use at Home
00:50:27
Speaker
there are so many resources out there. If there's something that you are specifically interested in learning more about, certainly reach out. I, if I don't have a resource, I'll help you find one. as I was stating earlier, really trying to pray about what the Lord would want me. And I didn't finish that thought. So sorry about that. We'll fly back to that for just a second. um
00:50:48
Speaker
We homeschooled fourth grade. That was during the pandemic. And so I did, um you know, sex education at home with Noah and i developed my own curriculum, if you will, because I could not find anything that I personally didn't liked from start to finish. And so I used several different things and kind of put them together into one, you know, curriculum, if you will. And I've let a couple of different friends borrow it, um, just so they can see, you know, what it was, but I really would love to put that together in a more, you know, like a resource that I could provide, um, that is simplified. Cause I think,
00:51:31
Speaker
we complicate things way too much and, um, just keeping things simple. And a lot of what it was, was talking about, again, the Imago Dei, like we are created in the image of God and how to, respect our bodies and, um, show respect to others' bodies as well. And, you know, that's one thing they didn't even talk about with pornography. Like that is, those people are also image bearers of Christ or image bearers of God. And they, um They're being exploited, even if they're going into it willingly. And we, if we're consuming that, if we are a part of that, um we are contributing to the destruction of that image bearer. And so it's just, again, goes back to that Luke 17 verse, really, really serious.
00:52:22
Speaker
um Okay, so a couple of resources before I go here. um Like I said, if there's something that I've missed or there's something specific that you would like me to help find resources on, I'm happy to do that.
00:52:36
Speaker
Uh, okay. So there's movements like wait till eighth, which was, um, just a, an online community movement. You can go and find it wait till eighth. And it's talking about waiting till eighth grade to give, uh, your child a phone. Um, and there are lots of different, you know, there's several different companies. I won't say lots. There's several different companies out there that have different options that aren't like an iPhone or a, you know, completely unlocked Android device. Um,
00:53:03
Speaker
you can give them a phone that's not an iPhone. I encourage you to give them a phone that's not an iPhone. Or if you're going to do that, like what we've done with Noah's to the best of our ability, completely locked it down, um deleted all apps. And there are filters, there are time limits, there's all that kind of stuff. And still there are ways to get around it. so Um, but anyway, wait till eighth is great. Um, you can go on and, and you're, the whole idea is to like create this community of like-minded people so you can have one for your school. And so it's the whole idea in this is building again, a creating a community of people that are like-minded, And parents banding together to to say, like, I'm not going I'm going to wait until eighth grade to get my kid a phone, which then leads me to and I was just talking with a girlfriend about this today. um The tin can phone. Yeah.
00:54:02
Speaker
It's literally a landline phone. um I think that it runs off the internet. I don't know. I should have looked into this more before I did it. But basically, you can do two different versions of it. There's one where you only can talk to other people who have 10 can. And so it's it's a phone. It's not literally a 10 can with a string. It is a phone.
00:54:21
Speaker
And you call phone numbers and you have a phone number with it. But think about like your childhood growing up likely. I mean, I don't know how old you are, but likely there was a phone in the house that had a cord and it was probably attached to the wall.
00:54:35
Speaker
And then we all graduated to the cordless phone, which, you know, got lost in between the sofa cushions and was never charged and... All that kind of thing. But the tin can phone is great because kids can still communicate with their friends and talk on the phone, which is wonderful. I love it too, because it's not this texting with emojis and whatnot. They're using words to articulate their feelings and have conversations. So important. So important. um And I would go deeper into that, but I'm already 54 minutes into this, so I am going to keep rolling. But so important that they learn how to do that. They go ride their bike to a friend's house and and ring the doorbell. Don't have mom text so-and-so's mom to see if they can come out and play. No, they need the exercise, literally the physical exercise of getting on their bike or walking over And then they also need to experience the exercise of the uncomfortability that it will be for the first couple of times of knocking on the door or ringing the doorbell and then waiting for somebody to answer and then asking, can so-and-so so play? And if the answer is no, okay, no big deal. Yeah. You try yourself right back on home. um
00:55:44
Speaker
So there's just there's so many different things. But anyway, tin can. My friend that I was talking to earlier, she said they've absolutely loved it. There's two versions, as I was saying earlier, tin can where you can only talk to other people who have tin can or you can do. the like expanded version where you approve the contacts. And so if someone doesn't have tin can, you can still call their phone number and the kids can communicate, which I just absolutely love. I wish that were around when Noah was a little bit younger. um And then i encourage you, and so does Jonathan Haidt in this book, to talk to your school.
00:56:19
Speaker
help set up school free zone or sorry, school free zones, hilarious phone free school zones. um You know, it just, it's not helpful. And it's funny recently, i have been seeing more and more articles coming out that are supporting what we already knew. Funny how that happens about the fact that we already knew that technology was not but helping people having a laptop and every single kid's hand that they take home, that they have in class, that they're using constantly has not helped in educational and the educational capacity. It has I don't want to say only i try to not use absolute language, although I feel miserably, i do it a lot. um But it it has
00:57:05
Speaker
it is I keep wanting to say only it has ah hurt so much more than it has potentially helped, as I said earlier. Um, and so they're talking about and getting rid of them again, which praise Jesus, please, Lord, get rid, like not to mention the amount of money that was spent on these things. Anyway, I digress. Talk to your school about helping set up a phone free zone. Um,
00:57:33
Speaker
So I encourage you, and we did this during the school year. Now that we've gotten into the summer, we're gonna have to reevaluate and and see what it looks like. But setting up tech-free times at your home, um you know, i know there are times when you need the technology to communicate and everything. But when everyone gets home, having some time where...
00:57:52
Speaker
TV is off. Phones are put away. iPads are put away. Nothing. That's why when Noah's wanting to get on something, I'm like, if it has electronics or if it has electricity running to it or it needs electricity to charge or to work,
00:58:08
Speaker
the answer is no. So if it needs electricity, the answer is no or battery, whatever. But like, just put it away and have some time to connect eye to eye contact, do some attunement, go outside, go for a family walk. You could go, you know, go to the park for a little bit and it doesn't have to be huge. Just smart. start small.
00:58:31
Speaker
um play a game, read a book together. You know, if they're younger, you can read a book aloud with them and they can build Legos while you're reading, you know, like whatever, if somebody, you know, some kids need to move totally understandable. Or if they're at the age where they're older and they're reading something, you can both read separately. You're still together and you're having time together without technology. um There's just so much that goes to the rewiring of your brain and and the the book really does break that down um immensely. It's very, very helpful. There's another, there are a couple books that I'm wanting to read this summer. We'll see how far I get. But Anyway, ah couple other resources and then I'm going to let you go. i will link, obviously, Jonathan Haidt's book so that you can get that. um
00:59:19
Speaker
it Again, can't recommend it enough. um So there's a gal that I started following. I and honestly don't know how I got in touch with her, but it's her handle is Echo Unafraid. um And she goes by Echo. i don't know if that's her real name, but she has done a lot of research and she was the one who opened my eyes to Roblox. That's one that I know that um it's very Minecraft-esque in the sense like visually speaking, but it is a very, ah unregulated, ah scary place for kids. um You know, it can seem very innocent, but I'm not going to get into it right now. She has a highlight on her Instagram. If you go to her page, I'll link it in the show notes. Echo Unafraid.
01:00:08
Speaker
And she has a highlight. It's, I think it's just says Roblox ah among ah many other highlights that she goes through and just unpacks ah things, but it helps you understand, you know, one of the things that was eyeopening for me with the Roblox stuff is that kids are being groomed in these things.
01:00:24
Speaker
like play rooms or whatever they're called, where you go in and you can like play these different games. There's also some really extremely disturbing games. There's ones with pornography in them, like brick looking figures experiencing sexual ah interactions. It's, it's so appalling. um So anyway, she's great. Lots of great resources there.
01:00:48
Speaker
Um, there's one and I forgot to look him up, uh, unchained maybe he's great. And so is Joshua broom. will link both of them.
01:00:58
Speaker
going to try and make a note real quick and chained. If that's not the guy's name or handle, I'll figure it out and I'll link it. Um, and then Joshua broom, um, I met Joshua at the um Life or Death Con last year, not this past year, the year before. It was the first one. And he was a speaker there, and he is a former pornography actor. And he just, I mean, came to know the Lord, and he is on a mission to help people, you know,
01:01:31
Speaker
get out of that industry, A, and then B, also break free of pornography addiction. So those are two really great sources as well. There
Protecting Children from AI and Online Dangers
01:01:42
Speaker
was a sermon at our church by Austin Hamrick, The Rise of ai I'll link that sermon in the show notes. It was really helpful in just unpacking some of the capabilities of AI, among other things.
01:01:57
Speaker
um He used our ah head pastor, his his dad, Gary Hamrick, As an example, and he had the IT t or technology team at church make a couple of different videos using Pastor Gary. And it was crazy how realistic and lifelike it seemed. But it was all AI generated, like in different languages. And then one of the running jokes at our church is Pastor Gary is not a fan of cats. And so it had a clip of him saying, I love cats and everyone should, every American home should have a cat in it or something like that. It was something so silly and bizarre and totally out of left field that Pastor Gary would never actually say Um, but it seemed super duper real. So that was a really good sermon. I will link that. Um, and then there's also an AI video or a video about AI that I share often. And it, for me, i
01:02:49
Speaker
i don't share noaah on or my social media um because a lot can be done with it. um And so i'll link this video, but basically it shows how within minutes people who know what they're doing can take – you know, an image of your child, the voice of your child and manipulate it into things to like extort money from you, make it seem like they're in trouble or, um you know, set them up, not to mention putting their, their, their image on or their, their, their face on naked images and things of that nature. And so as we know, once it's on the internet, it's there for life. And you really,
01:03:34
Speaker
I mean, praise the Lord, they're working on these take it down laws, um which are great, but there are still ways that stuff is out there. It's always there on the internet. So...
01:03:48
Speaker
that was a lot. I can't believe it's been over an hour, but I should have known there's just so much to unpack. And I still, I feel like i didn't even scratch the surface, but in all of this, I truly do pray that, um, God would be glorified and magnified and just that something would be unlocked in your mind. when it comes to protecting our kids online and with technology and providing or not providing, um, those capabilities in order to,
01:04:19
Speaker
protect their innocence. You know, I mean, we're, none of us are innocent. We're born into sin. So that that's ah a common misnomer, if you will, but the innocence of childhood, they should be bored. Being bored is a good thing.
01:04:33
Speaker
And actually that was one of the things too, that I forgot to write down was like, we are robbing our children of experiencing creativity, which is actually making them less intelligent and and robbing them of what giftings God has given them that they're not even able to discover at this point because they they just don't even know. They're so numbed out. And I was talking with a friend of mine um a lot last year about this and just how you see so many kids these days that are just numb. They're numb to life because they've just been
01:05:07
Speaker
pacified with technology um and not, you know, unlocked and unleashed into this wild world to run around with bare feet, fall down, break their leg, break their arm, break things, heal and be stronger for it. You know, it truly is. And and and again, i this book.
01:05:28
Speaker
He talks about all of that in there, and it is pretty cool. There are a couple of images of the beginning when he's talking about... I just went past it. But he's talking about the playgrounds, like then versus now. This is on page 77.
01:05:43
Speaker
and it's talking about discover mode and the need for risky play. And it has a picture of a It says an overly dangerous playground in Dallas, Texas. You're unknown. But you can kind of see in the image, it looks like it's probably in the early 80s just by what the kids are wearing and stuff. But I mean, these kids They're literally going up basically what you would see a ladder on the side of a house or like a painter or a roofer or something like that. It's like a ladder that's attached to these big, huge, tall, tall poles.
01:06:16
Speaker
And heaven only knows how the one kid got in the middle of it. But anyway, and it's got to be at least, I don't know, that kid 15 feet off the ground. I mean, it's crazy, but it's good for him.
01:06:28
Speaker
It's good for him. They'll break something or maybe not. Maybe they'll just sprain something. But and and not on rubber. It's over like mulch. Maybe mulch is probably like concrete. Anyway, all this to say.
01:06:44
Speaker
Risky discovery play is a good thing. And if we're constantly pacifying our kids with technology, they'll never experience real life. And then when they grow up and are adults, they'll just be really old kids that never learned to make their way in life. So let's band together and,
01:07:05
Speaker
support one another in fighting for our kids to experience a real childhood and help them develop in a way that is glorifying God. so as always, may God be glorified in all that I say and do for sure. um i pray that he has been brought glory and just magnified in this. I truly desire for him to be um the pursuit of all of our hearts. And so I just pray that over you now. Thank you for listening thus far. And ah like i said, if I forgot something, didn't make it into the show notes, feel free to ping me and ask and I will share it. Hope you have a good one and we'll see you next time.