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Nearly Two-Thirds of American Voters Back Social Media Ban for Kids Under 16, Fox News Poll Shows
Nearly two-thirds of voters and parents support banning social media for children under 16 and removing cellphones from K-12 classrooms, with Republicans showing the strongest backing, according to a new Fox News poll. The survey is based on interviews with 1,001 registered voters randomly drawn from a national voter file. Respondents participated by landline, cellphone or through an online questionnaire sent by text.
When asked about banning social media for children under 16, 64% favored the measure, while 35% opposed it. The results were released a week after Australia’s landmark new social media age requirement took effect, barring anyone under 16 from holding an account. The measure is now among the world’s strictest online safety rules. Platforms banned for youth in Australia include Facebook, Instagram, Kick, Reddit, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, Twitch, X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube.
Australia’s eSafety commissioner, the country’s independent online safety regulator, says the new minimum-age rule requires platforms to take “reasonable steps” to stop anyone under 16 from holding an account. Companies that fail to comply face penalties of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars, or roughly $32 million.
A ‘Timeout Box’ in an Elementary School Draws Outrage: ‘This Is Not OK’
The image from the elementary school was odd: a wooden box tucked in the corner of a classroom, tall and wide enough, it seemed, for a small child or two. But the next image, of the inside, was disturbing: bare walls and a padded floor.
The photos were posted to social media this week by a former member of a school board in upstate New York. She accused officials of building a “timeout box” for students who have disabilities — though families and officials remain in dispute about whether children were ever placed inside.
It has ignited an uproar in the school system, the Salmon River Central School District, a small district with 1,300 students on the Canadian border.
Officials also revealed that the box depicted in the social media post was not the only one: Two others had been installed in schools, according to the superintendent. They have been removed.
On Saturday, Gov. Kathy Hochul said the episode “raises serious questions regarding the safety of children,” and called for the Education Department to swiftly “investigate and rectify this situation.”
New York Times Joins War on Homeschooling, Arguing the Government — Not Parents — Should Control What Children Learn
Allowing parents to educate their own children at home puts them at risk of all sorts of problems and abuses without massive state controls and “oversight,” declared an anti-homeschooling activist this week in the establishment mouthpiece of record. Home education is now firmly in the crosshairs of the educational totalitarians amid a push to create a police state.
The Dec. 14 New York Times piece, headlined Home-Schooled Kids Are Not All Right, calls for massive new government controls over homeschool families. It comes just weeks after the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) released a shocking report demanding such regulation worldwide under the guise of “human rights.”
The Times opinion essay was written by Stefan Merrill Block, who was promoting his forthcoming memoir “Homeschooled.” It uses an emotionally charged memoir of an unconventional and harmful home-schooling experience — his mom was extremely weird — to argue for sweeping federal oversight of all home education, nationwide.
New York Parents Say Kids ‘Freeze’ on Mandated Electric School Buses During Brutal Winter Weather
Parents in western New York are raising alarms over cold rides and breakdowns after officials mandated that all school bus purchases must be electric by 2027.
Local outlet WIVB reported that the law has drawn the ire of parents in the Lake Shore Central School District. The station received “several calls” over the electric buses, with parents claiming that their children are freezing when they come home from school.
“The heaters on the bus run off the same electricity as the bus itself,” Scott Ziobro, a local parent, told WIVB. “They were told that it drains the battery capacity of the bus itself.”
Several parents told the outlet that they heard of at least one instance of the buses breaking down, in addition to the heating issues.
Local grandmother Lynn Urbino told WIVB that she was horrified when her grandson told her that his bus didn’t have its heat on.
New Law Should Ease Holiday Travel for Breastfeeding Mothers
OSF Healthcare Newsroom reported:
Traveling through an airport is stressful for many families, but for breastfeeding mothers, it can be especially overwhelming. A new law aims to change that by improving how the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) handles breast milk, pumping supplies and formula at security checkpoints.
The bipartisan-supported BABES (Bottles and Breastfeeding Equipment Screening) Enhancement Act, recently signed into law, was co-sponsored by Illinois U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth.
Becky Miller, RN, CLC, lactation counselor for OSF HealthCare, says legislation has long been needed to help parents move through security more quickly while ensuring breast milk and related supplies are handled safely.
“They’ve had to be pulled aside from other people. They put test strips down in their milk and wonder, ‘Has my milk just been contaminated?’ Is it still safe?’ Even formula-fed babies — they do that to the water to make sure there’s nothing in it.” She adds, “So, these things and getting better policies for safe handling is the best part of this legislation.”
