The speaker discusses the topic of social media and its effects on children. They emphasize the importance of protecting children from harmful content and influences online. The speaker also highlights the prevalence of social media platforms and the potential dangers they pose. They mention the debate surrounding the banning of TikTok and the issue of data privacy on these platforms. The speaker encourages parents and grandparents to teach children about God and guide them in using social media responsibly. They emphasize the power of the Word of God in resisting negative influences and protecting children. Overall, the speaker urges listeners to prioritize the well-being and spiritual development of children in the digital age.
Welcome to the testimony of the goodness of God. It's wonderful to have everyone with us today, and we hope you enjoyed today's content. Today we're going to be talking about social media, good, bad, or ungodly. Pulled a bunch of statistics, and it's going to be more leaned and geared how to protect our children from this nastiness that's going on out there on social media platforms, and not just social media, but the Internet in general. But first, we'd like to thank everyone for your comments and your posts and resharing and subscribing to our channel on YouTube.
We really appreciate it. Continue to do that, friends. Share with anyone you think would like to hear this or would enjoy the content, and we would appreciate that. Of course, if you've got a testimony you would like to share with us, give us an email, tgoodnessofgodatgmail.com. tgoodnessofgodatgmail.com. We'll get a hold of you and try to set up a time we can do an interview or just read your testimony over the air, however you would like to do it.
But we really look forward to that, because I know there are so many great testimonies out there waiting to be heard about the goodness of our wonderful God. Today's verse of the day comes from Matthew 18 and verse 6, Matthew 18 and 6. Jesus says, but whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me? It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea.
That's going to be the point of today's podcast, is to protect our children, grandma and grandpas, great grandma and grandpas, moms and dads. You need to take that extra time, that extra step. I know your lives are busy. I know you've got things to do, you've got places to go, but you can't forget our children, friends. Because before you know it, that 12 or 13 year old that's on their social media sites, on their tablet and phone, that you think you have safeguarded, they're going to turn to drugs, they're going to turn to alcohol, they're going to turn to something else other than what God wants them to turn to, some kind of nastiness, pornography, or God forbid, some kind of cult, satanic cult, or some kind of religion that is just not godly.
You'll wonder, how did this happen? Where did this start? Where did I miss this? From my research and studies here, I'm finding that most of us miss it from the get go. We give them the phone, or we give them the tablet, and they start looking or playing on their little apps that you've downloaded for them. In reality, that's not a bad thing. In fact, I think the internet and social media were created for good, and there's a whole lot of good out there.
A lot of people run their businesses off of that. A lot of people are able to advertise on these social media platforms that gives them that financial security that they need, but there's a whole lot of other stuff that affects not only the adults, but the children. We don't want it to be that way for them if we can control it. Really, when I started digging into this a little bit, the statistics I saw were amazing, startling.
There's some of them downright disgusting in my mind. The most popular social networks of 2024, Facebook, 3.05 billion. As I read these numbers, remember, here in the United States, our population is approximately 336 million people. Not only are you interacting with the people of the United States, this is worldwide. YouTube, 2.7 billion. WhatsApp, 2.78 billion. WhatsApp is, from what I was told by a few people in the know, I suppose, that I happen to have access to, that's an app that's used for a lot of narcotics dealing, a lot of human trafficking, and those kind of things.
Now, it's used for good, too. Instagram, 2.4 billion. WeChat, 1.3 billion. TikTok, 1.7 billion users. And Facebook Messenger, 931 million users. To me, I found that just quite startling that it was that large, and then I got to think of how it relates to our population and what we do here in the United States, and that was another eye-opener for me. And for content purposes, I want you to know I am on social media, obviously. I'm on Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok, and Facebook Messenger.
I use all those apps. I use them. TikTok, don't want to lie to nobody, I watch those funny videos. It will make you laugh. There's a lot of funny videos on there. There's a lot of other stuff that's no good on there. Christian TikTok, in my opinion, is wonderful. A lot of people trying to share the word of God. A lot of people trying to get the message of the gospel to others. But again, there's a lot of nastiness and things on those apps.
So what got me really thinking about all this, other than the fact that our children are involved in this, is the debate that they had in Congress on the TikTok about banning TikTok. You know, our wonderful free country that they enjoy banning things that they think that we shouldn't use. Do I think the government has our best interests in mind? No. I understand where they're coming from. This content that's on TikTok all gets delivered to China.
And I thought, man, that's not right. But if China wants to know about how I feel about Jesus Christ, they can look that up, I guess. But I know there's a lot of things that they have access to about us. But think about all the people that's on Facebook, and Twitter, or X, Snapchat, and a few of these other apps that I mentioned. That information is drawn from it, too, friends. Don't let the government kid you that it only happens on TikTok.
The only difference is, those platforms, they use the good old American way of capitalism, and they sell your information to the highest bidder. Where do you think you get all those emails from mailing lists? Your name and your email and everything that you give to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and all these other apps, well, they dig all that out of there, and they sell it. And I believe most people that have a smart phone, or a tablet, an iPad, or something similar, have experienced the fact that you're sitting around in your family room watching TV, or you're in the back patio, or you may be out with friends, having a good dinner together, and just starting a general conversation, and maybe it's about, I don't know, washer and dryer.
Yeah, my washer and dryer broke down. Well, the next thing I know, the ad I get is for a washer and dryer at Lowe's, or Home Depot, or someone like that. So don't think that it's only TikTok, and I'm not here to support TikTok being banned or not banned. That's not my point. Don't think it's just, oh, that TikTok goes away, everything will be roses, peaches, and cream. I don't think so. I'm here to show you how this affects the children.
And hopefully, we can get thinking about keeping our children near and dear to Christ, by teaching them and showing the way that they should be in Christ. Paul tells us in Proverbs 22 and 6, train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Oh, praise God. That's a wonderful verse, and it's something that we should all consider and take to heart. The Lord wants our little children to be as innocent as they can be, and learn what they need to learn in and through the power of God, and in and through the teaching of the Word of God and the Bible.
Those are just what, you know, we know that God wants us to come to Him as though we were little children. What's that mean? Innocent, humble, meek, to learn the Word of God and to carry it with us. And then when the ways of the world or Satan himself tries to befall and put stumbling blocks and roadblocks and block the way for us as we walk our Christian life, we know, as it says in James, if we resist the devil, he must flee.
And the devil knows that because he knows the Word of God. So he knows he and his legion of demons have to flee and leave us alone, praise God. So we have that protection. It's as simple as that. Where it's not so simple is how we approach it with our children. And today our testimony is not really a testimony per se about God, but it's about the information that actually comes from Good Morning America, which I found wonderful that they're actually producing something that is of good and not propaganda for political pull or an advertisement for something or somebody or to glorify another idol out there in the sports world or the music industry or the movie industry.
This information, I thought, was really good for parents and grandparents and great-grandparents to have. And I'm trying to tie it in to the testimony of the goodness of God because God can help us through this process. God can help us if we'll just help ourselves in His name and pray and follow Him and live for Him. And He will help us remember these things that will help our children in turn. And as they grow older and become young adults and start their family, that they can do it in and through Christ and always remember and keep tucked away in their hearts these things that will help them raise their children.
Because, friends, I honestly believe, or I know, it's not that I believe, I believe through my faith in Jesus Christ that the only way we're going to defeat the enemy, which is Satan and his legion of demons, is through the Word of God and trying to stay steadfast in it and trying to be on the lookout for all the roadblocks and the stumbling blocks and everything that he puts out there that is an absolute lie. When he opens his mouth, it's a lie.
Anything he shows us or presents to us, it's a lie. Hopefully this helps us today, friends, and I hope you enjoy it. And let's protect those children. In the video, the testimony, I call it the testimony, the video that I'm going to share, it talks about the things that we can do as parents and grandparents and great-grandparents for our children. It's not when to give them a phone. Some parents do it. I've seen it as early as five years old.
My grandchildren, I know mom and dad, are probably waiting until they're 10 to 12 years old, depending on their own maturity and what they're understanding. And praise God, they're in church with me, so Mamaw and Papaw can help with that decision too. But when you do it, you've got to have control. You've got to have limits. It's that screen time, supper time, everybody's phone, including mom and dad's, going to basket. You know, if you're expecting an emergency call, turn your phone on so you can hear the ringer.
But other than that, put the phone down. Be with your family. Sit with your family. Talk with your family. Communicate with your family. Have fun with your family, all while not holding a phone. I can hear somebody now, and they're telling you, yeah, but what kind of great pictures would I get? I could have my phone with me just to take the photographs of how good that looks. You don't need that photograph. If you're doing it, it'll show in your life.
And if you're doing it godly and walking with God, it'll be a bright light on a hill for all to see, right? Isn't that what God tells us is what our beacon of light is in and through Him? Do time limits on the screen. When a child goes to bed, that phone should absolutely not be with them anywhere near where they're trying to sleep. There's some good suggestions in the video of putting it in a box.
One dad told them that he puts it in a lock box and locks the box and goes to bed and tells the children, you'll have it in the morning. And when they wake up the next morning and after they start their meal or in their morning prayer service or their morning prayer that they practice, they get their phones back. And look at the child's phone. Take time to look at it. I'm not calling it snooping, but look at all these apps they have on their phone.
Limit those apps. Personally, if I had a child, there's no way I'd let them have Snapchat or WhatsApp because there's too many ways they can deceive you and hide things from you on that. Now, you can do it on Facebook and YouTube and the other ones, TikTok and Facebook Messenger and Twitter and all those. You can do the same thing. But the point is if the child knows you have their phone and you are checking it regularly, the chances of them being on an app or somewhere within an app that they shouldn't be at are greatly limited.
So I really implore if you have children or grandchildren with those type of devices, look at it. Check it. Get to know how to use those. If you're not on Facebook and YouTube and all those other ones, and they are, learn. Ask the kids. They will show you this is how this works, mamaw and papaw. And first, don't be deceived. There's a lot of teenagers that are not on Facebook anymore. In fact, they say that's grandma's app.
I got a good chuckle out of that. Look at the child's phone and their tablets or whatever internet they may be provided because I know a lot of them need it for school. Check it, friends. Check it. And also, don't ever forget to pray about it. Pray for that help. Pray for that hedge of protection. It'll be there, friends. It'll be there. But if you don't put up those hedges with the Lord, if you don't check that phone on occasion, if you don't watch their screen time, if you don't become actively involved in the child's life, helping them with homework, having a Bible time, a study time for the family, having a sit down where you read the Bible to them, and a question time.
Hey, next half hour, whatever question you want to ask, ask, and we'll try to answer it for you. Involve your children. The more we involve the children and the more that we're with them, the more we can have those pitfalls and roadblocks and potholes along the way that they may fall into. Because if you don't, friends, trust me, as former law enforcement and studying all this stuff for my podcast, you wouldn't believe the amount of kids between the ages of 14 and 18, mom and dad never checked their phone.
Mom and dad never checked their internet connection to see where they were at. Check their Google or whatever they use for a search engine and see what they've looked for. See what they've looked up. There's a way to check the history. Even if they've deleted it, you can go in there and find it. And I'm not telling you to spy on your children and treat them like it's a Nazi society, but at the end of the day, it's not Nazism, it's love, it's protection.
And when they're 30, 35, some even 25, they will appreciate in their lives as they grow older to know that you cared enough to do that, to keep them away from the nastiness and the evil that's in this world. I know I'm rambling a little bit, but when it comes to this topic, it's like the podcast I did about the human trafficking. Friends, that's just something you have to know about and have to look out for, unfortunately, in our world today.
And if you don't, the chances of something happening to your children or grandchildren are greatly increased. And that's just a fact. That's not my opinion. That's a fact. And before I play the video, here's a couple more statistics that just blew my mind. In the human trafficking today, there are 49.6 million people in modern slavery worldwide. And more than 35% of that are children. And that's sex slaves, work slaves, people that have to, or servants, they have servitude.
They're paid for, and some of them are trafficked across the world for sex trafficking. There were 88 million child sexual abuse material files reported to the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children, TIP Line, and that was in 2022. Child sex trafficking has been reported in all 50 states. Human trafficking is a $150 billion industry. Human trafficking is the second most profitable illegal industry in the United States. First is drugs, so those go hand in hand.
And then the nastiest is, we don't hear much about, and I wonder why sometimes. But every day, let's go to every second, 1,001. Every second, over 28,000 users are watching pornography on the internet. Every second, 3,000 plus dollars are being spent on one of their websites. 372 people are typing the word adult in the search engine, every second. Every day, there's 37 pornographic videos created in the United States, 2.5 billion emails containing porn are sent or received every day.
68 million search inquiries related to pornography. 116,000 are related to child pornography. Every day, friends, that hurts my heart. That hurts my soul. Pray for these children. Pray for these people. And the last little bit of the statistics, 200,000 Americans are classified as porn addicts. 40 million American people regularly visit porn sites. Remember, our United States is 336 million, and 40 million people of that number are visiting those sites. 35% of all downloads from the internet are from a porno site.
34% of users have experienced unwanted exposure, so you go to the site, and instead of getting what you want, something, an ad or something for pornographic websites comes up. It's just, it's terrible. And it's not all men. One-third of porn viewers are women. I told you, some of these statistics will just blow your mind, or at least it did me. And you know how this stuff lingers, friends. You know how this stuff starts. You know where it begins.
When you don't have God in your life, or if you've minimized the importance of God in your life and your children's life, that's where it begins. And that's just a cold, hard truth. I just want to put this information out there. I hope it helps people. I think you need to hear this, and I think you need to be more aware of what the children are doing, how the children are doing it, and be involved with them.
You can make it fun looking through their phone. You can have a good time with it. Now, at first, some of the older teenagers aren't going to like it. But you've got to do your due diligence to help those children come out of their adolescence into adulthood with the best possible starting point. And, of course, that's through God and Jesus Christ and Him crucified and resurrected. And that's through keeping these children safe in and through the Word of God.
Okay. And here's the video from Good Morning America, the Today Show, and I hope you enjoy it. We are back with more of our special event, Kids in Crisis screen time. And it is time to hear from the kids themselves. Yeah. How do they feel about their devices and the time they spend on them? NBC's Kate Snow is here with that part of the story. Hi, Kate. Hi. Good morning, guys. 86% of kids have a smartphone, according to Common Sense Media.
And the U.S. Surgeon General says 95% of teens, 13 to 17, are using social media. There are a lot of positives, right, connecting with friends, for example. But there are also some very real risks. 21-year-old Sophie Shev clearly remembers the moment she joined social media. It was the day of her 10th birthday party. I was someone that grew up pretty heavily bullied and someone that struggled to fit in socially. And when my peers told me that there was this app that they were downloading to stay connected to each other, to expand their social life, I thought that if I downloaded it, it would help me fit in, too.
She downloaded Instagram and followed a few other students. But Sophie says when she turned to the Explore page, she saw content from accounts she didn't follow. And when she started clicking on posts about models and weight loss, she says it took a turn. It went from swap out a candy bar for a carrot to this is how to hide your food, how to avoid eating completely. Sophie says the content helped lead to her eating disorder. She was hospitalized 13 times, starting at the age of 15, when her doctor delivered this dire warning.
He looked me in the eyes and said, the insurance called and asked for your prognosis. And I had to tell them that you are going to die in the next couple of weeks. Your heart, liver, kidneys, they're all failing. Sophie made major changes in her life, and she's in a healthier place now, going to therapy and taking a two-year break from social media. And her story is not unique. When asked about the impact of social media on their body image, 46% of teens 13 to 17 said that social media makes them feel worse.
Back in May, the U.S. Surgeon General issued a warning, calling the youth mental health crisis the defining public health issue of our time. We see rates of depression and anxiety and suicide and loneliness going up among young people. And I'm concerned that social media is an important driver of that. The Surgeon General points to 2019 research finding teens who spend more than three hours a day on social media face double the risk for mental health issues like depression and anxiety.
And a lot of American teens are spending more time than that. A poll this month found just over half of teens say they're spending at least four hours a day on social media apps. Favorite app? I'd probably say like TikTok. TikTok. Instagram. Yeah, Instagram. Ah, we have a divide. I sat down with 15-year-old Elizabeth Kreitzberg, 13-year-old Josiah McClain-Long, 16-year-old Megan Fenichel, and 17-year-old Eric Woodbury at their school outside New York City to learn about their own social media use.
Josiah, what does it look like when you start looking at TikTok? When I'm looking at TikTok, like, there's just so many funny videos and I just keep scrolling. I think, like, when I'm scrolling, I'm just forgetting and just avoiding everything else in my life. I watch TikTok, like, to fall asleep. These teens say they don't use filters to change their appearance when they post on social media, but they certainly see a lot of that. What about your friends? Do your friends use filters? I have one friend.
She uses a filter on every single photo, every single video. I don't know what she looks like for real anymore. I haven't seen her a long time. How much of your mental health do you think is tied to using the phone or screen? Do you see a connection there or not? Not so much now, but definitely, like, when I was younger, like, two years ago, I was more impressionable to, like, what I'd see, and I was definitely more down on myself then.
What were you seeing? People, like, with filters or, like, people with the unimaginable bodies that are all fake, all fake and perfect, and it's like, why can't that be me, you know? Most of their parents follow them on social media. My mom does send me a lot of TikToks. My dad, like, Insta Reels and stuff. Like, it's mostly, like, funny stuff. They also tell me they've taken steps to have a healthier relationship with their phones. Megan says last school year, she would sneak her phone into her room at night.
This year, her parents make her literally hand it over at 930. My work wasn't getting done. I wasn't getting good sleep because I was scrolling, because it seems like scrolling at night is the only free time we have. That's what it feels like anyway. But I guess now that they take my phone, I'm getting much better sleep. As for Sophie, she's now a sophomore at Stanford and a mental health advocate, meeting with President Biden at the White House last year.
And while she's back on social media, she says her relationship with it is different. Social media now is a place of learning, but it is a place where I have to be able to make informed decisions in order to protect myself and to protect that 10-year-old Sophie every single day. In the years since Sophie's experience, Instagram has made changes. Meta, Instagram and Facebook's parent company, tells us they don't allow anyone to encourage or promote eating disorders, and they remove content when they see it, whenever they become aware of it.
NBC News also reached out to a lot of other social media companies about safety measures for teens. Snapchat, for example, has in-app parental tools. It's called the Family Center. It allows you to view your teen's friends and who they've messaged recently. You can restrict sensitive content. You can report any concerns that you have. TikTok told us they set a one-hour daily screen time limit on teen accounts under 18, but the teens can enter a passcode to override that and continue watching.
A lot of teens will tell you they know the passcode. I bet, Kate. Thank you very much. Let's keep the conversation going with a group of parents who definitely understand these struggles and this battle over smartphones. And to answer their questions, Dr. RG Allen Wilson, a relationship therapist who helps families overcome mental health challenges, including the challenges of screen time. She's also the author of Courageous Conversations Connect. And Larissa May is a digital wellness activist and founder of HappaStory.
So, Larissa, what was your wake-up call? You're young. You're part of this generation not too long ago. When did you realize this was a real problem, and what's your message to those out here listening today? My wake-up call is when I almost ended my life, and when I went to the psych center, they asked me about all other forms of wellness, sexual wellness, physical wellness, but not digital wellness. And I was spending between 10 and 12 hours a day.
My message and what I built was an organization to solve this problem, and we know that technology isn't going anywhere. So, I believe we need to live in a world and give kids the tools to have active and healthy relationships to achieve digital flourishing. RG, a lot of parents give their kids phones because they say, I want my kid to be safe, I want in case she needs me or he needs me, when really what we've seen throughout this hour is the boogeyman is actually inside the phone, not outside the phone, but if you are going to give your kid a phone, what are some things that you should do to make sure you do it properly? Yeah.
Hold on. You've got to remember, the phone is a powerful tool that you're putting in the hands of your children. It's like putting a two-year-old in the driver's seat and saying, drive, you're going to crash. So, the children's brains aren't fully developed. The parents have to guide them just like anything else. So, open conversation, not one or done, having a conversation, what are you going to do with the phone? How are you going to manage the phone? If you're going to feel uncomfortable with the phone, here are the signs to look for, what are the danger signs? Those are important.
And then also, thinking about, all right, now that you have open communication, the protective factors, know the codes, know the accesses, know the social media platforms that those kids are on, and then make sure that you have access. Your parents are not your friends. Really, at the end of the day, you're the parent, your job is to protect them. And so, have that access. Let's get some of the parents' questions. We've got Wanda Rodriguez, she's got a 12-year-old daughter.
Hi, Wanda, what's your question? So, I seem to find that every time I ask my daughter to put her phone down, it turns into a fight. How can I get her to put her phone away without causing an argument? This is such a big issue. And these parents say this is like the only thing they're fighting about anymore. Yeah, so Wanda, Wanda and all your other parents, thank you for asking that question. You're not alone. This is a community conversation.
This is not an individual conversation. You guys got to talk to each other. What are you doing with each other? And for your daughter or for your sons, then find common ground. There's always going to be some common ground. Keep that lines of communication open. The common ground might be, okay, we're going to stay on the phone less. We're going to use the phone at certain times. We're going to have tech-free zone. Would that have worked for you, Larissa, when you were in those shoes? I definitely needed boundaries.
I didn't know how to have them because my brain was still developing. And the boundaries are going to lead to a fight. I always think about this as a parent. It's like, boy, parenting is hard. Letting it slide is so much easier. You're just not in the mood to fight, so we give in, but you can't give in if you can't give in. Let's get to our next question. We have Diana Napier. She's got a teenager at home.
She's got a question. Hi. Hi. Good morning. How do you foster open communication with your children so they feel they can come and talk to you if they see something online that makes them feel jealous or scared? Well, the reality is that tech is very emotional. There's so much fear. We're often pointing and yelling at our kids for being on their devices. But more often than not, like I did, I escaped through my screen to numb out.
The best thing you can do as a parent is to be vulnerable yourself and to sit down and to hold your teenager because they need that more than they need finger pointing and ask them, hey, social media has been making me feel really bad about my body. How does it feel about you? Lead with curiosity. Ask them not just the bad things, but also what really excites you about being in the digital world? Show me, because I have no idea what 4U page is.
Yeah, yeah. And so we want to play a clip. This is from Project Healthy Minds at an event. It's a nonprofit. And just last week, there were two parents at an event. Carson was there. Tony and Brandi Roberts. Their 14-year-old daughter in England died by suicide. They learned she was depressed after opening up her phone and finding a locked note. Tony had a message he wanted to share. We thought we should share it with you. Take a listen.
One of the things I really want the world to know, please know your children's unlock code. We knew her unlock code. We knew her passwords. We knew everything. But I just didn't know how to navigate through these platforms. I think that's it. You can set all these rules. And if you don't understand how to use it, Larissa, I mean, it's like we keep saying it's not a fair fight. What do you do? Well, for parents, you have to make space.
And I think we talk a lot about boundaries. But we also have to make this fun and bring the play and creativity into this. So a lot of times we say, have a screen-free scavenger hunt. Or do deepfake bingo. Or you're bringing your family together to try to identify what's true and what's not. We also have to remember that parents are the models, just like any other substance. We look at our kids. How do we save them? But you have to save yourself first.
And you said, Argie, at nighttime, lock the phone up. I mean, Al Roker did that with his son. He took his kid's phone. He put it in a locked box in a safe and said, see you in the morning. And it may cause a huge to-do. But afterwards, they've slept that night. They've woken up in the morning. And they can start again. It's like tech-free zones. Create tech-free zones. Create opportunity for talking. I like to say green time over screen time.
Go out and talk. In the car. Don't miss the opportunity to get off the screen and be the model for your children, because you're creating a different culture. It's a wake-up call for all of us. A grown-up. My kids are the first ones to say, hey, mom, you're on the screen. So guess what? We can all do better. Argie and Larissa, thank you so much to all of our parents. Thank you. And you can find more answers on today.com, including the resources that Larissa talked about her nonprofit has to offer.
And I know we went a little bit over from what I usually put out there. But I think this is a very, very important topic. The one thing missing on that little video clip, they had a lot of great, great information. But what were they missing? They were missing time out for God. As a family, you've got to come together and you've got to read the Bible. You've got to talk about it. Your own family Bible study.
Take your family, your entire family, to a Bible study, including your children, especially if they're in their teens or tweens. I think it would be very beneficial. And one thing they mentioned that I can't emphasize the most is knowing the platforms. If you're going to let them be on Snapchat and Facebook and Instagram, know how to use them or know how to navigate them. But if you don't, the chances of you checking them, you just become frustrated.
And again, if you make it a game or something for a fun for a child to show you how to do something, hey, show me how you get through that. Show me how you sign up and do all this. I think that would be beneficial, too. The most benefit that our families are going to receive is when we include and put first the power of God, the word of God, God and our family's life. I think once we do that and incorporate a study and a reading time and a quiet time away from technology and away from the world, I think we'll come closer to God, not only as an individual, but as a family.
So that's my prayer and hope for you today, friends, and for my family also is that we come closer to God and come closer together as a family in and through Jesus Christ. I hope you've enjoyed the podcast today. I know I've enjoyed putting it together and researching it while there's a lot of information that makes you just shake your head and weep and pray for those that are involved in that kind of stuff. It's encouraging to hear this many people come together and start talking about it.
Maybe we can carry that forward and do a better job in protecting some of our children that are out there and do a better job of knowing what's going on in the younger children's lives and never know. We may be able to save one from some kind of that stuff or even one of their friends to see what that family's doing. Maybe they'll decide to join in also. Once again, thank you. Thank you so much for listening and look for our next podcast coming out.
And as always, stay blessed.
