Most Americans support restricting kids’ access to social media and pornography, this year’s American Family Survey shows. But many parents remain hesitant to monitor their children’s online activity.

Brigham Young University’s annual American Family Survey asks a representative group of 3,000 American adults about economic, cultural and social concerns affecting the family. This year, participants identified “social media, video games [and] other electronic resources” as one of the top five issues families must confront.

Respondents expressed the most concern about porn and social media’s effects on young people. American adults overwhelmingly support government regulations limiting minors’ access to these products.

Per the survey:

• More than 75% of participants support requiring pornography websites to verify the ages of their consumers.
• Nearly 80% support requiring social media companies to obtain parents’ consent before allowing a minor to create a social media account.
• Three in four support holding social media companies legally liable for harm caused by content marketed to minors.
  

Parents with children under 18 years old living at home also support making technology restrictions part of parenting norms. More than 60% of respondents in this demographic wish other families would implement rules about technology, and half said it would make setting and enforcing their own restrictions easier.

Both the House and the Senate voted this week to release the files in the Jeffrey Epstein case — the disgraced late financier and convicted sex offender who operated a massive trafficking ring that included young girls.

Tens of thousands of emails were already released last week highlighting a wide array of exchanges between Epstein and others. It’s all very sordid and despicable. From the beginning, the case has been tabloid and partisan fodder on a very large scale because it has allegedly involved high profile individuals doing very bad things.

Epstein’s 2019 death in prison added another layer of controversy and conspiracy. Dr. Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, succinctly summed up the entire spectacle when he wrote, “Epstein’s case represents the intersection of power and crime, sin and celebrity, wealth and politics.”

To be clear, the tragic saga doesn’t only just involve sexual immorality but also sexual abuse and criminal behavior.

The case also stands as a timeless illustration and example of why God’s laws are the best laws and the laws that should be shaping and informing our behavior.

A lot of individuals are nervous about what’s in those files because a good many of them have ignored or disregarded God’s guidance and commandments regarding the sanctity of marriage and the importance of sexual purity.

We read in Exodus, “You shall not commit adultery” (20:14) — a clear and concise prohibition of sexual relations outside of the marital covenant.

According to Judge Jennifer Nofsinger of Maine’s District Court, Emily Bickford isn’t allowed to take her 11-year-old to church on Sunday or any other day of the week.

Emily shares custody of her daughter with Matthew Bradeen. Emily and Matthew have never married. Up until last year, Jennifer had been taking the young girl to Calvary Chapel in Portland, Maine.

According to court filings, Bradeen reviewed the church’s website and sermons and objected to the fact that pastors there are teaching “verse by verse, chapter by chapter.” Only the girl’s father didn’t stop there. To try and bolster his case and amplify and legitimize his objections, he hired Dr. Jana Lalich — a California sociology professor and self-proclaimed “expert on cults” to try and convince the judge that his daughter was being psychologically harmed each time she stepped into the church.

It would seem that Dr. Lalich’s testimony contending that Calvary Chapel was a “cultic” organization helped convince Judge Nofsinger to award veto power on any religious service attendance to the father.

After the ruling, Emily Bickford retained the help of our friends at Liberty Counsel, who have now appealed the decision up to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. At a hearing last week, attorneys for Liberty Counsel argued that the decision stripping Emily Bickford of her parental authority violated her constitutional rights under the First and 14th Amendments.

They’ve asked the state’s highest court to overturn the lower court’s ruling and return to Emily what was unconstitutionally taken away.

It has been recently documented that “trans” identity and gender ideology are losing their deceptive grip on young adults in America. But this does not mean all concern over gender ideology is removed. Real Clear Politics features an important commentary on how state medical societies continue to demonstrate ideological capture to wokeness and the gender mind virus, thus crushing the scientific discipline of medicine.

However, good news continues to be uncovered regarding young people. Professor Jean Twenge, who has documented dramatic declines in “trans” identity among young American adults, also documents that identifying as “nonbinary” is also in free fall among teens. Twenge states, “The results were unambiguous.”

Across eighth, 10th and 12th graders, identifying as nonbinary plummeted between 2022 and 2024.” The graph in her article demonstrates the stark decline.

Twenge explains that the decline was largest and earliest among the youngest grades. “The decline was largest among eighth graders; identifying as nonbinary was cut in half between 2022 and 2024, with most of the decline between 2022 and 2023.” It happened a little later with 10th graders, and 12th graders saw their sharpest decline in 2024.

She explains, “This pattern is an almost perfect illustration of a generational shift, starting earliest among the youngest group and then moving up the age scale.”

The data Twenge is citing comes from the highly reputable and nationally representative 2024 Monitoring the Future research on American teenagers.