Voices for Voices®

How Voices For Voices Plans To Protect Kids From Harmful EdTech And Polarizing Content | Episode 401

Founder of Voices for Voices®, Justin Alan Hayes Season 4 Episode 401

How Voices For Voices Plans To Protect Kids From Harmful EdTech And Polarizing Content | Episode 401

The milestone feels big—400+ episodes and listeners in 100+ countries—but what we talk about today is bigger: protecting kids from the worst parts of the digital world sneaking into classrooms. We open with gratitude and momentum, then get straight to the point: if a device is handed to a first grader by a school, it should teach, not sell. Loud “kid” shows that push comparison, consumption, and unrealistic challenges don’t belong on school-issued tablets. Neither do car and truck commercials. We outline a practical, no-excuses plan any district can implement: whitelist only truly educational content, block entertainment platforms by default, remove all ads, audit apps monthly, and empower an accountable role to oversee student digital safety.

Safety isn’t only on screens. We share a recent near-miss: a student confronted by a shirtless, masked driver in an unmarked bus who claimed to be a substitute. The student refused. No district-wide alert went out. That is a system failure. If we can mass-text for weather, we can notify families about attempted lures and reinforce “verify before you board.” We connect this urgency to a hard-won policy success: the Take It Down law—now federal—requiring platforms to remove AI-manipulated explicit images of minors within 48 hours and enabling prosecution of offenders. It’s proof that advocacy works, but it should inspire prevention first, not cleanup later.

Across it all, we keep the same north star: culture over politics and human dignity over engagement metrics. Our call is simple and specific. Parents: ask your districts which platforms are approved, how videos are vetted, whether ads are disabled, and what the incident alert protocol is. Educators and administrators: reallocate from prestige projects to student safety and content governance. If no one gives you a microphone, make one—show up, speak up, and set boundaries that protect attention, curiosity, and joy. If this resonates, subscribe, share the episode with a school leader, and leave a review with one action your district should take this month. Let’s make American children safe again—starting with what we put on their screens.

Chapter Markers

0:00 Global Milestones And Gratitude;

6:30 Accessibility Over Platforms;

12:00 Culture First, Politics Minimal;

17:30 Uniting Voices Across Aisles;

23:00 From Youth Uncertainty To Purpose;

28:30 The School Device Problem

36:00 Why Loud “Kid” Content Isn’t For Kids;

44:00 Ads Aimed At Adults On Kids’ Screens;

50:30 Demand For District Oversight;

57:00 Safety Breakdown: The Fake Bus Incident;

1:03:00 Be The Change In Your District;

1:09:00 Big Tech, Harm, And “Take It Down”;

1:15:00 A Federal Win And Its Limits;

1:20:00 Action Steps And Closing Call

#VoicesForVoices #EdTechSafety #ProtectKidsOnline #DigitalWellbeing #HarmfulContentAwareness #ChildProtectionInTech #SafeLearningEnvironment #MediaLiteracyForKids #ParentalGuidanceInTech #PolarizingContentImpact #OnlineSafetyEducation #HealthyTechUsage #YouthAdvocacyInEdTech #EmpoweringParentsAndKids #NavigatingDigitalRisks #justiceforsurvivors #VoicesforVoices #VoicesforVoicesPodcast #JustinAlanHayes #JustinHayes #help3billion #TikTok #Instagram #truth #Jesusaire #VoiceForChange #HealingTogether #VoicesForVoices401

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Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices:

Hey everyone, it's Justin here with Voices for Voices. Thank you so much for joining us on this show. Uh today uh we are over 400 episodes total, and we are still in calendar year 2025. Uh it's just been an incredible year. Uh through a lot of adversity, which is everybody, everybody goes through a lot of adversity every single year. Um still a little bit under the weather with uh with some congestion, um, but everything's uh a-okay over here. So uh aside from the congestion and my voice, uh, we are good to go. Uh, we're just uh so grateful for uh Denmark, uh, which is the latest country that is uh is joining Voices for Voices, uh TV show and podcast that has embraced us. Um and so again, we are over 100 countries, over 1,000 cities across the world, including Greenland, Antarctica, uh, North Korea, South Korea, Denmark, Italy, uh, United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico, United States, uh, Tasmania, uh, so we got uh North America, South America, Africa, Asia, Oceania, Europe, uh, everywhere. It's just uh it's just a good time to be with Voices for Voices. Uh, we have uh quite a lot of activity that is going on in the positive, and we are taking that momentum as we finish out the uh the calendar year of 2025, and as we uh get ready to turn a page to go uh and get started in calendar 2026. So thank you for all that you've done, Four Voices for Voices. Thank you for sharing, for subscribing, for giving us a thumbs up, liking, commenting. Uh, thank you for your your purchases, your donations, uh, and just being uh just being yourself and listening and watching, uh, being a big part, not only of this show, because this is our this is our flagship uh production, I guess you can call it. And uh, and then I would call like our uh TikTok lives uh lower on on that totem pole. Um, but a lot of times uh we're able to get information out a little bit quicker on those TikTok lives. Um but we are careful about making a balance of what and when we share on uh TikTok lives and what and when we share here on our show. Uh that's again over 400 episodes. It's been around for over two years. It is amazing. We blew out of the water our um our goal of 300 total episodes by the end of calendar 2025. We've blown that out of the water as we're over 400 total episodes, and that is you know, we're breaking goals with the no budget model, and for those that know anything about the no budget model, is when there's a no budget model, there's no budget, and and so it is uh all hands on deck all day, every day, and it's because of people like you and organizations like you that keep us going, keep voices for voices, uh wanting to continue, wanting to continue helping others. We have that huge goal of helping uh three billion people at least over the course of my lifetime and beyond, whether that's something small, whether it's just uh you know, kind word, whether it is opening a door for somebody, or it is something much bigger. We do have big goals again, three billion people, that's a lot of people. Uh, but I know we can do it uh because we're able to uh take a goal of 300 and smash that goal this year and go over 400. Uh, we're we're still you know chatting about what what 2026 looks like. Um, and I don't think we're gonna give any predictions because it doesn't do anybody any good because if we hit it, then that's great. And we say, yay, we hit it, like we did this year. And if we don't, then it's like, oh, see, just like every other organization. And we are. There's a lot of things that are similar between our organization and others, and there's a lot of things that aren't. I'd say the drive, the intensity, uh in our organization outweighs many, many organizations. Um, you know, we are the the hottest show, uh, hottest TV show and podcast, whether you're watching or listening, no matter what uh streaming service, what uh what uh what podcast app you're you're using, uh if you're watching on Rumble or YouTube on our uh Voices for Voices channel, it doesn't matter. You're getting the same same message. And if you're like me, you you use multiple throughout the course of the year. Uh, and we've seen that, and that's great. Uh, and that's why we are making Voices for Voices as accessible as possible. That's why we have that broad swath. That's why when you see a uh social media post with all the links, it's because there's not one uh one particular link, one particular uh app that we we favor more than uh another, uh because the people that listen on Apple and iVooo and iHeart and Spotify, or they watch, or you watch on uh YouTube or Rumble, uh, it doesn't matter because if you're uh the numbers the number. So if you're getting episode 401, it doesn't matter where you're getting episode 401 at. It's the same. And and so that's why we we include those on almost all our posts. I I would say our ex posts, um, because the limited characters and uh again running that zero or that uh no budget model, uh, we're not verified. So uh we have limited characters that we we have to uh to utilize. So we have to be very cognizant of that as we uh make those posts, but still have enough information uh for those followers. And uh it just it's just so so so incredible. I feel like every time we do a show like this, uh we're doing a show in a stadium of like 50,000 of you, sometimes a hundred thousand. Um that's that's how the love and support and how we're being embraced by uh cultures all over the world where we can have disagreements on political areas, but on human and culture areas, uh you know it the culture, if you don't live in the United States, everybody's culture gets the same respect from us. Um, and and and so that's sometimes is a little hard to hear. Um, but it it really is the truth because we're all individuals, we're all human beings. Um, we know there's a lot of AI, and we know there's a little lot of you know, those robot dogs and all kinds of robots uh out there. And and so while that is the the case, there's a heck of a lot of humans out there as well. And that's what we are referring to when we we talk about culture and you hear the words folklore and uh myths, M Y T H S, like with mythical creatures around the world. Uh it it really is uh just uh how we're reaching people is is incredible. Uh there's there's a lot of ways we're reaching people where the analytics that we're looking at uh doesn't capture all of that. Because as we know, with our you know, our devices, uh we have privacy options on there. And so if there's privacy options that are turned off yet they're watching and listening, we're not gonna get we're not gonna get the numbers. We're not gonna see those numbers translate to our analytic dashboard. We're just not uh for individuals and organizations that have private servers, um, and so they're you know they're not going through Spectrum or Verizon. Uh they may live in a a little bit of a remote area, uh, you know, maybe a mountainous area uh and and you know, Spectrum and others. Um and I'm not given a plug for Spectrum uh at all. So uh I'm not saying you have to get Spectrum, I'm not saying you have to get Verizon, I'm just using them as uh examples that there's there's certain parts of the world that are getting their uh they're getting their information from you know from uh maybe a uh a satellite uh you know like uh Elon Musk and and his uh and his organization that provides you know literally can be anywhere in the world and and get access to uh internet and data and shows and podcasts. And and so all all the individuals, that's how we're that's how we're reaching remote areas like Antarctica, like Greenland, uh, like areas that may have been closed off um in the past. Uh and and again, we're we're about culture and less about politics. Yes, there's sometimes where politics does creep in, and we try to keep that to a minimum, but we're also about unifying and bringing people together instead of dividing. Uh, so you we have both sides of the aisle covered, right? So we uh we have BJ uh who is running for governor of Oregon uh next year. So we have a couple episodes with with her that uh we uh we uh we interviewed and are we're open to uh other candidates uh for office. Uh I think we're gonna get more here in 2026 as more and more people actually start paying attention instead of just not you know, just pretend voices for voices isn't there. Uh, but they're finding out that like the there's this organization, the show who is a nonprofit, by the way, uh running again a zero budget uh goal blasting um organization. Uh and that's us, voices for voices. Kind of can see the shirt, it gets kind of wrinkled, and so it's alright, it happens. Uh and so that's us. And and so I think in 2026, we're open to uh bringing in people, no matter where they're at, on the political spectrum. If if that's something that they're interested in, um, you know, they can reach out. So that you know, we have we had BJ who's on uh you know one side of the aisle, we have Senator Ted Cruz who's on another side. Uh and and again, that that link is being a human being. And so there's there's more there's more things that unite us than divide us, and you've heard that before, and that's not just a saying, that's we're we fully believe that that uh there is. Yeah, there's there's you know hot button issues that come up and you know are polarizing uh you know here in the United States and you know other other parts of the world. Um, but in general, I I would say we're we're very similar. Uh so that's my take on that. Uh again, I I have this um um I'm I'm just still blown away by the numbers we have. Even our TikTok lives, we're starting to get some great feedback, some starting to get rid of some of the the garbage that's out there, the comments that are garbage that people are just you know making poor choices and and and the comments they leave. And some some comments just it doesn't matter. It the there's just no no no place for them, no matter what show it is. So whether it's ours or somebody else's, uh, you know, we we can uh we can agree to disagree, we can have that discussion when people are just leaving just very uh very I want to say here disgusting. Some of them are they're very disgusting, and some of them are uh you know looking to divide and we're looking to unite, and that's what we've done. And I'd say through everything that we've been through here in 2025, and even before, without even without knowing a little bit more about what we wanted to do as an organization. Uh we're we're starting to be molded and and formed in a way that I don't think's ever been done before with us with with voices for voices. I don't I don't I don't know. I don't I don't know if it has been done. Maybe it has. But with this new uh, you know, we're going into 26, we're in the you know, the second term of what some may say is a polarizing president in the United States. Um but we've had presidents all over, all over the side of, you know, on the left and on the right and in the center. And uh again, there's more of the brings us together. And some reason people uh some people want to just see polarizing and hear polarizing content. Sometimes ours will be a little bit polarizing, but we don't intend for that. We we have intentions of unifying and again, voices for voices. Uh it doesn't say voices on the left or voices on the right, it doesn't say voices making this much money or voices making that much money, or voices living in this area of the world, or it it's voices for voices, it's universal, and that's why the acquisition that we made with uh mythical creatures around the world uh lined up so so beautifully because it's all around the world, mythical creatures all around the world, and we're talking about voices for voices. We don't say, like I said, voices living here, voices living there, but it's voices for voices. So some people are able to verbalize their voice and their story. Um, some uh aren't uh some play music, some play a sport, and that's the way they express themselves. Uh some may be an actor, an actress, uh, and some may do uh sign language, some play music. I think I mentioned that. Um and that's what it's all about. It's about sharing each other's voices to inspire others. Because I'll tell you what, uh you know, I'm the age 44 right now, but you know, when I was 18 and 17 and 16, I didn't know what I wanted to do. Um, I don't maybe some people do, but I I didn't know what I wanted to do. And uh the the landscape that it is now versus when I was 18, 17, 16, and I was kind of going through, you know, that the phase of like, okay, what do I want to do? Do I want to go and enter the military? Do I want to try college, even though my grades weren't that great? Um I act. Me, I embraced his twice, so I wasn't um I wanna say I wasn't, you know, one of the cool kids. Um I I was kind of just uh you know, a little bit alone on uh on an island, what it felt like. And I just look back at that those times for me had absolutely nothing to do with my family. I'm not it it was what was available at the kind of the world or in the United States level as far as content. I mean, we had a TV, uh we watch, I I don't even remember even having like specific time uh through the early years that I could actually watch TV. And here we have family here that's uh you know have devices uh not to their own, but you know, they're using them, and and that's an area that I have a little bit of a little bit of uh uh some pushback uh with uh with schools. That's not really well I guess schools is part of part of it. Um, you know, the public school or I think private schools work a little bit similar. I could be wrong. Uh so I'm just gonna look at it from the public school side where okay I get it, the world's more digital, and and so some of the teaching is through digital means. And I don't I'm not gonna give a plug for any company, any laptop company. Because I think it's I think it's across the board. I don't think there's just excuse me, my nose is this itching. Okay. Sorry about that. Uh hopefully you're listening. If you're listening, it's but you're not gonna see having that, you know, that itch in my nose, and but um yeah, so I don't think it matters what what company, what organization is providing the uh tablets, the the the laptops, that that, but what whatever the um sorry, I get sometimes when I have this ring light or this, yeah, uh kind of gets my my eyes watering. Um so again, I'm all over the place. So uh again, uh I think we have more that were to we're more things that are uh together and than than are not. So uh what I was saying with you know having these laptops with you know kids in grade school, uh we know that um we know that the brain forms from the back to the front, with the front being kind of that rationalization part, the frontal lobe. Um and uh with that, sorry I'm for you listening on my eyes are giving me a one of these uh there we go, kind of these allergy type of deals where it just decides at any given moment I'm just gonna start watering. Um so with these so there's this digital teaching where there's there's a lot of content, whether it's digital or not, and and so schools are using both. They're using digital and you know, kind of how I was taught for the most part, where we might have a movie every once in a while, we might have uh you know case studies, you know, a little bit later on and in college and university, and more in high school, uh primary school, and secondary, and and so what I'm trying to get at in this long roundabout way is so we have these notebooks, we have these things sort of putting them in first grader's hands. Okay, putting them in first graders' hands. What do you think the maturity level of a first grader is? If anybody's ever had a first grader, um, I don't remember being in first grade, but my brain evolved in the same manner as a lot of ours. And so we're putting these devices in front of these kids during school, after school, and there's great programming. This isn't this this isn't to go off on uh you know all the programming. There's a lot of educational program that is great, it is uh it's teaching teaching kids uh areas that um you know math, reading, uh comprehension, and then there's others, and so the first thing I'm gonna go off on is YouTube, and I know our show's on YouTube, um, but a first grader should not be, even with some of these shows, should not be watching YouTube, and I know I'm gonna make YouTube upset. Uh I'm not saying YouTube is a good, I'm just saying for a first grader to have access to YouTube, kind of even in that, like for kids, you know, we uh not all the content that says it's for kids is really for kids, especially a first grader. Uh for me, it's interesting because you know, I look at it from a you know a parent standpoint, and it could just be me, it could be part of my autism and the loud sounds and lights and and things. But it seems like an awful lot of the content is it sounds to me like a car salesman commercial of come buy this, come by our dealership, and it's almost like they're screaming and yelling, and there's this echo as if they're in the Taj Mahal, uh, you know, and in these structures where the voices just echo and they're so loud, and there's these challenges that are in most cases, the challenges they have, they're unrealistic to the average person, to the average child, to the average family. I'm just saying, I'm just keeping it real. And I don't think that kids growing up, especially in first grade, should have access to this content. So I think there should be more restrictions on the content that are first graders, and certainly it should be, you know, YouTube and others can make they can claim that it's age appropriate, and you know, they can they can I don't it it doesn't matter to me. It it it does not appear age appropriate. Um it's loud, again, it's loud, it's intense. You have people you have children that are, you know, either have been or you know, somebody like me, I was 37 or so when I was diagnosed with you know the low spectrum autism. And so for me in first grade, I wouldn't have known that I had autism, but it would have kind of got it would kind of rub me a certain way, and I would have just expected that that's just how life is supposed to be, and that these challenges, like when you know, hey, we're gonna go to the store and buy every single princess doll, every single this, every single that, and then we're gonna open them up, and then we're gonna, it's I get it, it's fun, it's something it's exciting, but I don't think it should be offered on school school-given laptops or or tablets. I I don't think it that there needs to be more restrictions. I don't know where that comes from. Uh again, I'm not trying to batmout you YouTube because our show's on on YouTube and that's fantastic, and we're so grateful for for YouTube to put our show on YouTube, but we don't we don't try to put things and shows out for children. Um and I wouldn't want our show to be in a first grader's lap, literally, where you know, parent walks away and the child has access to shows that are not appropriate for them. So I think there needs to be more restrictions. I'm not saying we need all kinds of uh oversight and all, but I think we do for you know our children, our most vulnerable our children. That's where they're they're they're they're being molded at such a young age. And what we know about blue light and how it's addicting, and how it leads to sometimes, you know, behavior modification, uh, you know, being upset, and you know, one more minute, five more minutes, let me just finish this show, let me finish this. And and they're not, and the children aren't choosing to um play as much with their uh with their their their toys or building things, and and it and it really it kind of bothers me if you can't tell. Uh so I would like to see I would like to see read more restrictions, like it just shouldn't even be available. Um I'm not sorry, YouTube should just not be available on a first grader's laptop. I don't care across the board, full stop, YouTube at any level. I don't care how much vetting is done, YouTube should not be available or any other uh any other platform like that. Uh, you know, if it's we're going through and we're doing okay, we have seven oranges and we have three apples, uh how much how many how much fruit do we have? And then, okay, and then the counting, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. We say, well, we have we have ten individual fruits. We have seven oranges and three apples, and then we can get into fractions, and like that's what I picture and have pictured for children that have these devices that um literally they're molding them. It's they're you know, gonna turn them again, right, into comparison and judging what people have, what they don't have, and like, oh, well, this family went here, and they did all these things that cost all kind of money without knowing, or even maybe knowing that usually the kids won't know, but the parents uh should know. And if they don't, well, I'm telling you right now, they're being paid by these companies, so they're getting things for free. So it's kind of like product placement in a movie or TV show where there is a certain um soda that is sitting on the table while the conversation is going on between two people, and so that soda company paid money to have that soda in that particular scene for so many seconds or minutes, and that is an advertising expense. Same thing. You have these families on these trips, and they're going and they're raiding this room and going, okay, well, here's a suite, and here's a an uh a one-bedroom, uh, here's you know, all these different things uh that they're they're looking at. Uh, and so it makes children think like, oh, well, when when and if we go on vacation, we should be able to stay at this one because this family did, and they they were on my netbook or my my uh my tablet. And I really think there's already enough comparison and enough judging and judgment out in the world, uh, as we've seen with the mental illness and mental health that's gone, that's you know, just coming out all over the place, you know, the last 20 years or so, where it's coming to the forefront. Do we want to have that for another 20 years? Because that's what we're basically doing. We're basically saying, okay, if you're 20 and older or so, uh, you know, we can let's talk about it. And uh, well, for some people, it's too late. And that's where our show we talk about real issues. For some people, it's too late to wait till somebody's 20 years old, 18 years old, after they've been given a tablet, a laptop since first grade with content like this, and that doesn't even count the family's content that goes on to the TV, where all they have to all the child has to do is you know scroll over to you know if the uh you know the avatar or you know, the like okay, it's a picture of uh you know this favorite animal or this picture or whatever it is, and says, okay, here's the family one, uh, or like the adult one, and then here's the child one. All the child has to do is move the uh move the cursor over to the adult one, and it it becomes adult content, and even the child content is again going back to the tablet argument of they're seeing the same thing times 10. Uh and so I think we need we need to we need to rethink, and I'm not this you know reconstructionist person, I'm just saying let's just have common sense, let's just say, okay, do we want uh again a first grader who ends up in like sixth grade or fifth grade be judging so much more than what they already do? Like if they're not on a if they're on a sports team, you know, that puts them up here, they're a cheerleader, they're they're all these things, and if they're not, then it's just like they're just a regular person, and like me, I just get overlooked because I was good at sports, and then all of a sudden I wasn't, and I had acne, and then I had the mental health thing, my mental illness going on, and um, and then I you know overdosed and took 32 corn and call pills, and and I wasn't even 20 years old when that happened, and I didn't even have a tablet in front of me showing me the judge this way and that way. All I had was like, well, I'm just being competitive, and so my friends are taking this, so I'm gonna do that. Um, and I wasn't right, and my friends at the time weren't right. Um, but that's but it happened, and I didn't have a tablet, and so I just automatically think, like, okay, these kids, I mean, I'm already starting to see it with with with our child, uh, you know, watching, especially over break, you know, where they're you know out of school for a day or a week or two weeks, and uh, you know, it's easy just to be like, hey, yeah, uh do this. So let's let's do this together. And and they say, hey, I'm watching the show. And again, this is the show that I'm talking to you about that claims to be teaching the children, right? Because I that's what we're supposed to be doing in school, right? We're supposed to be teaching the children, we're not supposed to be teaching them to judge and and and to be uh yeah, like, oh, I don't like her because of this, or I don't like him. That stuff's already gonna happen full stop, but you're giving these tablets and and and laptops to these children, and you're not you're not vetting that content when it's on a YouTube or another platform. Like that's it's seriously that that needs to be a number one priority. And if it is, you know, a school system, school district that says, well, this is just how the world or how the United States or how the state of Ohio or wherever we live, it's just how we do it. Well, maybe be a little bit different. Why be like every other school? Why not do something and be a different and better? Like you want to have a different and better product when you want to go to the world to sell something. Why don't you have a different and better approach that says we value children so much that we're taking this standard protocol from these organizations that are just making money so hand over fist, and we're gonna go and we're gonna. That every single product, every single show, and we might start out with one show, and then we go to two shows, then we go to maybe ten, but at least we know that those ten or those two or that one show is not gonna be about the judging and not about separating people and say, oh, look at this, like this person and that person, on top of uh, you know, the the volume, you know, being so loud and the echo. I mean, it bothers me as an and as an adult and as a parent when I hear it, it okay, so that's part of my autism. I get it. But like, it should not be presented to first graders. It should not be presented to first graders. That's only the first thing. And I know I went on a went on a little bit of a rant, but it's because I feel so passionate about this and our organization. That's why I did, that's why I'm doing the show the way we're doing the show. So that's the first thing. So we need to vet these shows. And if it takes hiring somebody new, a different, you know, we can say, oh, we don't have the money, we don't have the tax money, we don't have this. Well, guess what? Do you want to worry about paying somebody 60, 70,000, 80, 100,000 a year to actually get to actually make a generation in a geographic area have a better chance at behavior and behavior modification? Or are we just saying, well, sorry, you know, we don't, you know, you present it this way to parents, and I guarantee you they would vote for a person, an extra role, or moving somebody over that just handing these, you know, these devices out, and that's all they're doing. They're doing that and then they're fixing them, and but the the content, it's it's there. Uh so that's the first thing that I have an issue with. And I think most parents do too. Um, and I know with my mental health, we all first of all, we all have mental health. We already know this, we go over it all the time, but we all have it, okay. Those of us that have mental illnesses or a mental illness that either has been diagnosed or it hasn't been diagnosed, you are taking a program or a show, and you're putting it on steroids times like a gazillion. Because that's what's making the impression in the mind of that person that may or may not know that they have a mental illness. Because those are the things that you think about. You take somebody like me, and I uh growing up and uh just just being myself, again, this has nothing to do with my family or just me as a human being. If I had these devices in front of me, oh my gosh, you think about being reclusive and being secluded, goodness gracious, I was trying, I was finding time to hang out in my room, and I didn't have a phone, uh, a digital device. I didn't I had like a CD player, uh, and I could put like one CD in at a time, and maybe there were 15 songs on there, and so I mean that's like what I had, so that's how I know music played a and still does play a big role for me. Um but I look at man if I had that tablet from literal literally coming out of kindergarten and having that and having shows like if it's not teaching a specific thing, it's a specific area, like I like I mentioned earlier with with the math. It's like okay, how many here's a table, and here are here are how many different fruits are there? Okay, well, okay, that okay, those look like oranges, and you have them all mixed in, okay. How many, how many different kinds of fruit? Okay, I see three different fruits. What are they? We got apple, oranges, and pears. Okay, how many of the apples, oranges, and pears? Okay, that is a show that is education that should be in front of our children. So that should be a show, and it should be shows like that, and not screaming and yelling and having these contests that all people think of, because that's what I think of when I see them. I'm like, all I see is advertising, advertising, advertising, uh individuals, families. People think that like the families that are together on these shows are actual families, some of them may be, uh, but these are the shows, these are like the reality shows. So you're taking like maybe a dad from this family, a mom from this family, uh, you know, a child from this family, and you know, that and and they have that makeup of like so when they do their shows, you know, they're able to do certain things, like maybe it's an athletic thing, maybe it's uh a building thing. Um maybe it's I don't know, but what I do know is these kids, there's they're getting the impression, and if I'm getting the impression as a 44-year-old adult and parent, I know darn well that these children are that don't even have the frontal lobe of their brain uh developed. Because my frontal, I I mean it's developed, but I I have mental illness, and that's that's okay. So you're taking people with and without mental illness or mental illness is, and it's like the spot that's to be rational to say, okay, I know that this family might not be the real family, it's just taking a dad, a mom, and you know, children and that. Uh, so that's the first thing. The second thing is the things are doing, like everybody doesn't, all families, and even if you're not in a you know, no matter what type of family you're you're in, or have a guardian, or with your grandma and your grandpa, or aunt and uncle, it shouldn't be expected every time you go to a store you buy something because you saw it on so many videos that well, so-and-so, you know, they got to buy something. And so then that comparison at first grade, first grade, not second, not third, not fourth, not fifth, not sixth, not seventh, not eighth, not ninth. That is high school. Okay, and if you're just gonna take school districts and just roll over and then say, well, this is what everybody else is doing, well, you're not you're not a value add school district, and so that's why our show and our organization ruffles feathers, is because we bring up topics like this. This is a very important topic, very important show. And it's why we're we're going over it. I haven't even gotten to that second part. I try to get to that second part, but I I haven't yet. So that's the first, okay? That's the first thing that needs to be done. We need to hire somebody or somebody's every school district, every school, however, however, it needs to be, and they need to go through each and everything, and with these big, you know, multinational companies, and they need that's the kind of content they need. And if an organization's unwilling to do that, sorry, I don't want your product. If it's only supports one way, well, I'll go the highway then. I don't want to go that one way because I don't want responsibility for a thousand kids in my school district or more or less to grow up believing that. You know, I can't help from you know from a family perspective, but from a school perspective, I can. So whether that's an informational technology person, I don't know. You people are getting paid big money at these school districts to make these decisions, so make it happen. I'm not the only parent that feels this way, I'm just one that's actually has a platform to be able to share. And so I'm demanding that school districts do this in the school district that I live in, and my family lives in, in all school districts, because it's not just my child that we care about. We care about all voices for voices, every single child, every single adult, every single adolescent, every single senior citizen. It doesn't matter. We care about voices, all voices, and I don't want to see the rates of suicide and uh all these other, you know, probably get downgraded for saying that word, but it's truly happening again. These children might not make it to age 20. Okay about it. Do we want is that what we want? I've already made a decision. That's not what I want for my my child and the and the children that they surround themselves with in the school district. I've already had to come out and share, and I guess I'll share it on here because I think it might have been a TikTok live or maybe it was a show. So we have, you know, we have uh active shooter training and you know, for you know, these these events that again they're happening, they're not just happening in gated communities, they're happening everywhere, and it is a day gone shame. And did you ever wonder or think that devices and programming and games and different things could be leading to that? Is this a precursor? I don't know. Something to think about. But we do these active shooter, we do do these uh, you know, we're all connected, where uh okay, you know, we're gonna send a newsletter home and let uh let you know Johnny and uh Johnny and Sarah's uh mom and dad and whoever their guardians are. Uh we're gonna let them know that we're you know we're doing these things, we're preparing for the hopeful non-none-event to happen. Uh and so we, you know, we'll you know, we have this texting system, we'll let everybody know, and then there'll be the uh a spot, and you'll be able to you know reconvene with your child or you who who you're guardian to, but we don't have that same system, or we just won't use it when and this has been a couple months, this is that this happened, and it this is in the school district that I live in, my child lives in, and if it happened here, it can happen anywhere. High schooler, I'm not gonna give it any other high schoolers waiting for the bus, okay? Out at the waiting at the bus stop. Must have been the only person at the bus stop. So they're there waiting for the bus on a school day. Their school day. Hadn't been told anything about a substitute bus driver or anything like that, all that stuff, sometimes, right? Sometimes we don't find out until like the day of that, like, oh, I'm not feeling well, I'm sick, or I need to I need to you know help a loved one. And so there's gonna be times where we're gonna have substitute bus drivers, teachers, anybody to come that to help out. And so this bus came to this high schoolers, it doesn't even matter if they're in high school, came to this child's bus stop with no name, no city on the side of the bus, comes, stops, opens the doors, not wearing any shirt, and is wearing a surgical mask, and the child's there, and the person that is driving says, Oh, I'm the substitute bus driver for today, just you know, climb climb on in. Luckily, that child through good parenting, I tried to get we're trying to get the uh one of the parents on on the show, and I understand because it's it's it's very sensitive, but it was posted in a uh in a in a uh chat room. It was actually somebody that doesn't even live in this area, that used to live in the area, uh, that notified me about this. And this child had enough wherewithal to say, something's not right here, and said, sorry, you know, I'll I'll I'll I'll have you know my parent drive. I don't know what actually the the exact conversation was, but they didn't get on the bus. And thank the Lord that they did not get on that bus. Because 15 minutes later, the real bus came with the real bus driver and recognized other children on the bus and the bus driver and got on that bus, went to school, the parent told the bus driver, bus driver said they would tell somebody at the garage, bus garage uh what happened. We don't know that they did, or at least I don't know. And then the parent went to the police department uh who has told me that they don't have enough people for cyber stalking, and you know, when those things happen. So we're just supposed to let those happen because we just don't have you know enough people. So that's that's neither here nor there. But the same police department took down the police report, and there was no email, no text uh school district-wide about this incident. And you would think that trafficking, human trafficking, hmm. Somebody without their shirt on, with tattoos, and a surgical mask with no city or a school district on on the side of the bus? Hmm. So where where are where are the priorities of our are you know the people at the top at these school districts? And I'm talking about my school district where my my child goes. Why was there no why was there no text message? Why was there nothing alerting? Because if that child didn't get on, there may have been others that did get on and they disappear. Maybe I don't know. I don't know what the numbers were, I had no clue. And luckily, that child had the wherewithal and they they saw something that didn't line up. And again, thank the Lord they did not get on that bus. So there's things like this that are going on. We're putting our children in these situations, and luckily that child had the wherewithal and didn't get on that bus. Uh, but what if another child or other children did? Just like what happens when a child since first grade, since the age of, you know, six, maybe seven, uh has access to a digital device, a laptop, a tablet, and the programming on there says, hey, yeah, like this is this is how life operates. Because some of these shows they talk to strangers. So that starts to erode stranger danger. And I want my child growing up and going, you know what? I don't I don't recognize the person, I'm just going back to the house. Um uh somebody's at the door, let you know, let the mom, let dad, or let them get the door. Because their children are are everybody is a prized possession, but I can't think of anybody in anybody's family that is more prized than a child and their mind and what they see and what they hear and how they develop. And then you put them in with other children that are at various levels, and the judging starts sooner, the arguments, uh, the behavior. I and so I'm I'm demanding. That our school district, I'm not going to say the exact one for obvious reasons, but everybody knows the school district that I live in. I'm demanding that these tablets, just the way you audit at the end of each year, like, okay, well, we handed out, you know, a thousand tablets that and and here are the names, and and we audit. Do we have a thousand? And do they match up? And just the way we do that, we should do the same thing with the shows and the content that is on these devices. If they're not teaching, the whole show needs to be teaching. The whole show. If not, then it doesn't, it doesn't pass that criteria and it doesn't go on those those devices. And it's not even an option. If you put it as an option, somebody's gonna click that. If it's not an option, it's like they say with the 401k, if somebody has uh you know retirement money that's put away before they even see it when they get their paycheck, then they're not gonna spend it because they're not seeing it. But if you put it in their paycheck and say, hey, yeah, take it to the bank or take it and send it in, it's gone so fast. Uh and so we're doing the same thing. So we're putting content in children's in their orbit, and they are uh they're the ones making the decisions like which one do they click, and and if they're watching, and then it's like, sorry, I can't help out because I'm watching this show, and it I get it, I get it. We all use to a certain degree digital devices. The older we get, the you know, the say like the safeguard should go have the opportunity to go down. But if you're in if if my child's going to school and they're given a device and they're being taught, and their friends are being taught, and they're given the option to pick these shows, I can't tell a difference between what's on, you know, there are some things that are pretty obvious where I can say, oh, okay, this is perfectly fine. But there's others that I hear and I see on these devices that are just the same I see on our streaming service on our TV. And that's just being that's just being honest about what's happening in life. And then secondly, advertising. So I think of you know, services that, you know, there's a regular, which is free, and then there's a you know, which has commercials, and they might be 30 minutes, 30 seconds, or 60 seconds, or 90 seconds after so many minutes or plate of the show. So not only do we have the show situation, right? We have an advertise another advertising thing going on on these devices. We're putting car commercials in front of children. That's not that's not by accident. It's not by accident. Think of a child that's born in hospital or anywhere. I'm just saying our are you know that they're born in a hospital, the diapers they get, you know, there's a certain like supply of like you know, wipes and that that usually goes home with with a family, you know, and uh and whatever brand that is, the brands, like the brands of the diapers and the and the wipes and that, they're they're sending their products to these hospitals in the hopes that when the parent needs a refill, that they go, Oh, we got these at the hospital, and we got you know a sample size, it's not a sample amount, so we're just gonna get the same amount in the same brand. And then you think of how many years uh the you know disposable diapers are, it's a lot of money. Just like when you put a car commercial in front of a first-time buyer, the more they see, the more they get ingrained, the more they hear. And so they're first graders that have these that have these devices, and I know for a fact, and so we're I'm I'm I'm going over to that second thing, okay? Sorry to talk about the first thing. The second part of this conversation is that in these particular shows, there are commercials. Why is there a car commercial for a seven-year-old or a six-year-old? Why is that even shown? Okay, why? And there's others, that's just the most recent one that I remember. Because it it doesn't it doesn't fit with the demographic. It may fit with the demographic of the parents, but not the child. So why is that on my child's device and a lot of other children's devices that they get at school? So I demand that that gets taken off too. There should be no commercials. It's either a device for school for teaching, or it's not. It's plain and it's it's plain and simple. We're no, we're not, we're not we're not uh creating something new. It's either for teaching or it's not. So we had our different counters when I was growing up, I forget what they're called, but we were counting. We didn't have the car commercial and all kind of other uh commercials that uh on top of the content, it was like, okay, we're in a typing class, so we're gonna type like how many words a minute or whatever, and we would we would talk about these things. That was a digital thing, but we didn't have a like oh where there's games and and we we didn't have that. It was we're here and this is what we're doing, and you know, we only had access to what we were doing in class, and so if now if we're doing these digital shows in class in school, and it's just a my eyes uh watering, so um, if you're seeing it on in person on uh on our video, I apologize, but if you're you're listening, you won't you won't see that because you're listening, you're not gonna have that that visual. Uh so that's what's happening now. And so how are these how are these teachers teaching? How much are they utilizing these these tablets and they're and let's say let's say we got a pizza pie, but instead of you know whether it's you know pepperoni or any other ingredients, let's say we got this, uh huh, we got this pizza pie shape of a you know a circle, and we say out of out of a full day of school, like in just in general, okay. And I know there's different you know, some days are different, and there's testing and there's all kinds of things. But I just want to say in general, how much of that pie? So if there are, let's say, let's say school starts at nine and it ends at three, that's six hours, 20 minutes for for lunch. So you just subtract that out. So we got eight hours and 40 minutes. How much of that eight hour and 40 minute pie is devoted to using the digital devices, but not only using the digital devices, but using these programs that have these shows on there that aren't teaching. I don't care what a family's challenge is doing in the middle of summer. Uh I don't care about that, and I don't want my child to have that. I mean, if they want to, you know, that's a decision for a parent to make if they want their child to see in that content. I don't want the device that my child and their friends and everybody across the whole school district, and everybody across the world, frankly, I don't want to have that content. So they're seeing that and watching that while they're at school, so then they automatically just when they come home go, oh, okay, let me just go over here, click this button, and then that takes me there. Okay. So we have we have big problems in our school systems. And this isn't this isn't a conspiracy theorist. This is this is the truth. I've seen it with my own eyes, with my own little person. So it's not just my little person, it's all the little people in our school district and these big organizations, and it's not okay with me as a parent. And if other parents knew, actually gave it gave a damn about it. Sorry, I used the word damn. Oh we we gotta get all up around about the word damn, but yet we can do all these, you know, these other things. Um and so I want children all over the United States, all over that has the ability to make change, to do it, to go out there publicly on a show like this, that a lot of people are gonna see and listen to. If this ruffles feathers, so be it. Ruffle away. Because it's long past due. I didn't think this, I didn't think these things occurred. I knew that you know, they'd you know, the children be introduced to technology, and but I thought it was very specific, and there were like, okay, if we're doing ad, you know, if we're doing arithmetic, we got one app, and all that app is is arithmetic. It's not a family, it's it's arithmetic. If we have vocabulary and reading and writing, those apps, it's reading and writing, read a passage and then write. Or if it's just writing, okay, here's what we're writing, you know, follow what's the program, like we're writing jelly, so we're writing J E L L Y, and that's what should be on these devices. So when they come home, that's what they want to do. They're like, and if they don't want to do it, then they're looking for something to be a kid, you know. If you I play a little guitar, so if if you know my little person that wants to play a little guitar or just drum or play the piano and just uh the drums, and it doesn't even have to be a song, just do something that is uh is not force-fed to our children because we in the world we have enough, we have enough issues that are going on in the world, and so we're literally just every single day we're adding to the problems, and I'm not saying every single child that is is gonna grow up and and uh you know have a have certain uh you know judgmental thoughts, and I'm not saying every single person, but when you give an option, there's gonna be more people than not. There's gonna be more people. If you put that option on that screen of that of that device, a kid might say, Oh, well, we we want to we were using this one over here, but let me see what this is, and then they click it, and then they're like, Oh, okay. Well, it says it's for kids, and you know, the school district says that's okay, and you know, they didn't care about you know big tech, and uh they just you know, big tech just vetted everything for them, and so the school district, you know, didn't want to do anything different, they just wanted to just be like the sheep and just follow one direction. So be the change. Be the change, be different, be the school district that says, no more am I gonna put this content in front of my children that I oversee as a teacher, as a superintendent, as an assistant or associate superintendent. No longer am I gonna not have a district-wide text message go out when a child could have been human trafficked, they could have disappeared. We're gonna be different, we're gonna be that change. We want to get that type of press. They don't want the type of press that I'm giving them. So this has been a pretty straightforward show. We thank everybody that watches and listens because we know you're as passionate as I am and as our organization is about our children, about our futures, about future generations, our future leaders. Just our future human beings. Let them be a kid, not a kid that's force-fed content that they should have no business having on a school device, and then on top of that, have commercials for cars and trucks. They're the same commercials that are on regular streaming. Same type of commercial. It doesn't say kids, tell your parent. No. And so there yeah, you can hit skip after a certain amount of time, but repetition and then repetition, then it gets in the heads and the minds. And so I hope more people are like us, like voices for voices, that we're willing to step up to the plate and actually say something. Step up to the microphone. If nobody's giving you a microphone, create your own microphone. Create your own show. You only have to have one episode, you don't have to have 401 or two or 5,000 shows. All you need is one show. Show up to school board meetings. Some people have. Going on. And so that's why we're demanding changes need to be made by school districts, starting here at home. And it shouldn't be a question of, well, we don't have enough money. We don't have enough. Well, instead of building that stadium, instead of building that uh edition or that new school, why don't you spend a fraction of that money and hire somebody and have some standards and have some balls to actually stand up for the children that you say that you are here to help, to teach, to help support. Don't give me this crap about we don't have the money and that, and then you're asking for more money in a levy to go do again, go build an hour stadium, let's add some light, let's add a pickleball court, let's add this, but we can't add somebody to actually fix the damn technology that's going in front of our children, and have a seven-year-old have content that is inappropriate to have advertisements. Why is there a truck commercial when there's a six, seven-year-old? Why like that's the target market, right? You go inside the boardroom of that car commercial, that car company, and they're saying, no, no, no, no. That's not that's not the demographic, it's the family, it's the mom, it's the dad, it's the grandma, it's the grandpa. See what I mean? So let's fix some of this stuff. Let's do something. Let's stop sitting on our hands. Let's stop just like going, oh, this isn't happening. This is happening somewhere else. It's not happening where I live. And, you know, my children, and uh, you know, they're not being, you know, they they're smart, so you know, they they won't let that get to them. You know, they won't get on that bus, you know, and that uh substitute bus driver claims to be the substitute bus driver. Uh, what about that child that's on the device, and then they just, you know, they did the door opens and they just go and they get on the bus. Don't tell me it's never happened before. Try asking a child to get ready for bed and they got a device, and they got to go up a set of stairs, even if it's two or three. Sometimes they trip up the stairs because they're so fixated on what's happening on that screen. So thank you for joining Voices for Voices. Thank you for being part of our movement of helping others. This is one, two major ways, probably more than that, but probably cover probably about ten or fifteen different ways that we can help change the world. And so be that change with us. Be that person, be that administrator, be that adult, be that person that oversees a thousand students, two thousand, three thousand, be the change. Can we do that? Can we do that for our little people? Can we do that for our children? And even if we have children that are grown, you know, they're out of if they want the pri if they went to college, university, or you know, they're you know, they're they're older. See, I think that's part of the problem too, is some some of these individuals that are are working at at these schools and and and are in these positions, you know, they have kids that are grown and they're not, and then so that's in their mind, and that's clouding their judgment. Like, well, this is what's out there today. So um, or oh, my boss won't let me do that. I can't bring anything up because I don't want to worry about losing my job. And guess what? Do you wanna do you want to have change and do you want to help people for generations? Or do you just want to be like, okay, I'm just gonna do exactly what I'm told? And um, I've made it I've made a decision uh where I'm not doing the traditional thing. Trust me, and I I've heard a lot of people just say, well, why don't you just do something different? You know, that's just a hobby, and you know, it's helping generation is that a hobby? Helping get content that should not be in front of a seven-year-old, eight-year-old, six-year-old, ten-year-old, nine-year-old? Again, give me the percentage of children that are between the ages of six and thirteen that are driving themselves to school every day. You could I hope you're laughing. Actually, no, I some are gonna laugh, and some are like, yeah, right, Justin. Nobody does, very little, uh such a small percentage. Why would you bring that up? Because I have seen and I have heard car commercials in the middle of what is on and programmed by either the school district or my or my child, or by big tech that just hands them to the school districts and just say, I we got it all covered. See, here's all the different things that we have. Well, you know, we we're looking out for um, we're looking out for our little people. Oh, are we? Okay. So let me let me let me just close out by saying this. So these are the same companies that um these are the same companies that had until the take it down act that came out of the Dallas, Texas area by Elliston Barry and Miss Anna and Senator Ted Cruz, where a minor child in high school, she may, I I she might not even been in high school when this happened, showed up at school, and somebody had taken I don't know how many, maybe a couple of of her Instagram photos and turned them into nude photos. That's here in the United States, everybody. This happened. This isn't, you know, this isn't some conspiracy theorist. This actually happened. Miss Anna reached out to every official politician in the area, reached out to big tech. Big tech basically gave a big FU and said, Yeah, sorry, or they didn't even answer. Same thing, nothing happened. It wasn't until again, these are the same big tech companies that are feeding these devices to our children, and we're just supposed to, as family and parents and guardians, just to say, oh yeah, they know what's best. Really? Really? Don't give me that bullshit. And I'm not sorry about the the language, don't give me that bullshit. Because Miss Ann Miss Anna, with all the people she contacted, she finally got through the Senator Ted Cruz's office, a U.S. senator, not just in the state, he's from the state of Texas, and he has a daughter. I think he has two daughters. I think Senator Cruz has two daughters. One is a year older, one is a year younger uh than uh Ellison is. And so there's something in it where he's like, Well, this could happen. If this happened to her, this could happen to my children. So he picked that legislation up. He cut he he uh put that together in the state of Texas. It's called the Take It Down Act. It got passed, however, big tech is a federal entity, so Texas couldn't really enforce the law the way a federal law would be able to. So, what did Senator Ted Cruz do? He took that legislation from around the Dallas, Texas area, he took that to Washington, D.C. He got the Senate, the United States Senate, and the United States House of Representatives to pass the Take It Down Act. And now it's the take it down federal law. The President Donald J. Trump signed sitting right next to his wife, the first lady, Melania Trump. And so now you don't have to be Taylor Swift, you don't have to be somebody that has staff that can, you know, you know, make a call and then say, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, this is you, so yeah, we'll take those down. No. Every American, every American, it's a federal law now, the take it down act is the take-it down federal law where two things happen. If somebody does this, big tech has 48 hours to take those down. And number two, the person or persons that did what they did to Ellison by taking innocent photos, putting them through a free AI program, and putting them up. And so when she showed up to school one day, everybody's whispering, and then they show show her what happened. Now those individuals can be prosecuted. Unfortunately, can't go retroactive with this, so uh the individual uh who did this to Elliston, and then there were there were a few other uh children that this happened to, uh, so they can't go retroactive. But that's another reason where I'm talking about big tech like this. And I realize our show, we re we rely on big tech a lot, uh getting our our show out to the masses. And so there are good, there's great things with big tech, but I'm not gonna trust big tech who was in charge of it wasn't until Ted Cruz, Senator Ted Cruz's office, called Instagram and said, take this, take this shit down, take these pictures down. It wasn't until then, and there was a period of time, it wasn't like it was like overnight, because they fought big tactices, they fought and fought and fought, and they wanted to try to keep it quiet. Senator Ted Cruz said, I'm not keeping this quiet. Miss Anna said, I'm not keeping this quiet. Ms. Elliston said, I'm not keeping this quiet. That her children said, I'm not keeping this quiet. And it got to the president of the United States, and I don't care what side of the aisle, left, right, middle, I don't care where you're at. It just makes human sense that every child should have that right if that were to ever happen. God forbid if that were to ever happen. And so when we did interview Ted Senator Ted Cruz in Washington, DC, when we did present him with a 2025 voice of the year, it's because of the heroic act that he did, he took something that he could have just turned the other way and act like it wasn't there. And he said, No, like we're handling this, and he got it handled. So for all the people to say, oh, you're you know, right-wing conspiracy, conspiracist, I just mentioned at the beginning of the show, BJ for governor of Oregon isn't a conservative. So try another argument. So that's why I don't trust big tech with what they're putting in front of my child and other children. And it's gonna take a movement, and it's gonna take people like me, like voices for voices, people like you, organizations you work with. It's gonna take your family members, text, call 25 of your closest uh family members, and let's make America safe again. Actually, not just make America safe again, that's over the overarching, but make American children safe again. Let's do it. This is how we affect change. It's gotta get started somehow, and by golly, we are the somehow. So thank you for joining this episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. We love you no matter who you are, what side of the aisle you're on, uh, whether you're a believer in God, whether you're not. We we we're praying for each and every individual, each and every day. So we love you. Thank you for watching, thank you for listening. Hit that subscribe button, hit that like button, share, share, share. Text 25 year friends, let them know about voices for voices. We want people to be safe, healthy, prosperous. We don't care what side of the aisle, we don't. We want human beings to be safe, healthy, and prosperous, whatever that means to them. Doing things safely, though, not putting information in front of our children whose frontal part of their brain has not been fully formed until their twenties. So there's a Justin and Alan Hayes, voices for voices. We love you. Celebrate all voices and please be a voice for you or somebody in need. Have a great day. We love you.