Retrospect
Retrospect
The End Of Childhood Social Media Access | Retrospect Ep.248
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In this week’s episode we discussed Europe's growing push to limit children's access to social media and the internet. From age verification laws to proposed platform restrictions, we examine what's driving these policies, whether they can actually protect young people, and what they could mean for privacy, free expression, and the future of growing up online. As governments tighten digital safeguards, we ask a bigger question: where should the line be between protecting kids and preserving an open internet?
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Keywords
Social media access, age verification, childhood protection, cyberbullying, online grooming, privacy advocates, digital identity, consumerism, mental health, parental responsibility, technology impact, European Commission, age restrictions, digital freedom, social media addiction.
Jason
For the first time in history of the internet, governments aren't just asking parents to set limits. They're asking a much bigger question: Should children have unrestricted access to social media at all across Europe? The rules are changing. France has become the first European Union nation to ban social media accounts for children under 15, while the European Commission is exploring broader age verification rules across all 27 member states. And here's what's fascinating: this isn't just another debate about screen time. It's a debate over whether childhood itself has become something that needs legal protection from algorithms. For nearly 20 years, we've treated the internet like a giant public playground. But what happens when that playground is owned by trillion-dollar companies whose business model depends on keeping young eyes glued to a screen? Europeans appear ready for change. A recent European Commission survey found that nearly two-thirds support age-based restrictions on children's social media access. 71% identified cyberbullying as a top concern, and 70% cited online grooming and sexual exploitation concerns. But there's another side to the story. Critics warn that today's child protection laws could become tomorrow's digital identity system. Age verification may protect children, but it could also normalize proving who you are every time you enter the digital world. Privacy advocates say that's a question every adult should be asking, not just every parent. So where do we draw the line? Are we saving childhood or redesigning the internet? And if Europe succeeds, will America be far behind? So today we're stepping beyond the headlines and into the one of the biggest cultural experiments of the digital age. Because this conversation isn't really about children. It's about the future of freedom, responsibility, and what growing up online will mean for the next generation.
Ian
Welcome to the Retrospect Podcast, a show where people come together from different walks of life and discuss a topic from their generation's perspective. My name is Ian, and as always, I'm joined by Stoney.
Stoney
Hello,
Ian
and Jason.
Jason
Hello, everyone.
Ian
How's it going?
Jason
Oh, I'm doing pretty good. Okay, I just got back from vacation. Yeah, it was nice. You
Ian
can't get ain't any better than that. I think
Stoney
technically Australia was the first one.
Ian
Okay,
Stoney
and that was back in July 28. I mean, excuse me, December 10 th of 2025. France adopted something, and they did enacted a 2023 digital majority framework that tied it to under 15 accounts, but they didn't really make anything illegal, and it didn't work. So the new 2026 measure is moved toward under 15 prohibition, and it's kind of passed, but it's waiting for it's it can't be enacted because it's waiting for constitutional review in the government, and that was still pending as of today. Yeah. So yeah, it's kind of there's a lot of him and Holland back and forth, and there's a lot of countries that have that have something. Oh yeah, that they're trying to do, especially in Europe.
Ian
We talked about this, I think, on like a previous episode with like how I think like how times have changed or how technology has changed, or it was an episode something about that, and how I, I think I one of us or myself, I don't remember, had talked about how like it was around like 2008 to 2012 for me is what feels like the world really changed, like and I think it was with the with the invention of social media and smartphones, and so I think in that span of like 2008 to 2012 was when like smartphones became like a ubiquitous thing, and then of course social media very shortly after that. And I just feel like it's crazy now that we are over 10 years, almost almost 15 years removed from that time frame, and like, and we're just now starting to like realize. I think I think like some long term impacts of what
Stoney
severe, long time impacts. I mean, if you look at it in my time, parents were responsible for dictating what we ate as kids, food wise. We were allowed in my house 30 minutes of cartoons. Saturday morning,
Ian
right?
Stoney
Period. That was it. Cartoons only lasted for three hours Saturday morning, if that long. I really don't remember.
Ian
Yeah,
Stoney
but we were allowed 30 minutes because back then, my my mom and dad felt that's too violent. Okay.
Ian
Yeah, yeah.
Stoney
Now, and I've I've talked about this where what does a baby that's born in today's society bond with? Okay, in my time, my mom breastfeeding me, giving me milk, whatever was looking at me.
Ian
Yeah,
Stoney
what does the baby see now? Because moms are looking at their phone. Yeah. So does the baby bond to the phone or to the mother?
Ian
Yeah. Because
Stoney
because because the that would
Jason
be interesting to hear. Okay.
Stoney
You see what I'm saying? So now you have two and three year olds with phones. Oh yeah. What's the first thing you do? You give a kid the remote control from your third TV ago, just to give them something to click, and then as soon as they start asking some questions, you give them the broken iPhone that doesn't work anymore. Yeah, and so now, what's their babysitter? That phone. Oh yeah.
Ian
Well, the whole reason why I kind of had brought up what I did a second ago was because it's it's crazy to think about this, but 2008 babies that were born in 2008 are now going to be or not bringing this up. Either they are 18 or they're going to be 18 years old. Yeah. So like we're it's crazy to see that like we are now dealing with like young adults heading into adulthood who were like raised off of like having an iPad, having a cell phone that are in their teenage years, and because again, I for me, you know, as someone who was born in like the you know middle 90s, even my brothers who were you know kind of like you know late 90s and and their friends who were kind of early 2000s, like even they still kind of feel like like in like for me how it's like I feel like I I grew up around it and it feels like it's been a part of my life for so long, but not anywhere near like the people that are significantly younger than us that were born like the 2000 you know teens or you know or whatever. It's just crazy to think about that. That like again between oh eight and 12, like those are now like teenagers and like almost adults, and it's like or or technically as of this year, technically adults as of 18 years old. But instead of getting
Stoney
our information from our parents and our grandparents, our kids are getting it from social media. They're growing up in bad ways too fast, you know. But it's only my stepson. That's exactly it. My stepson and I would have a situation in the house. I would always call him a TikTok or Instagram attorney because he thought, "Oh, I have these rights. I have this. I can do that. Oh, my friends on this say this. Oh, if I put a if I put a a poll on Instagram, I bet everybody would be on my side. Well, of course, that's what you know. That doesn't mean it's right. That just means that's what it is. Yes, of course they're going to be on your side because it's bullshit social media. It doesn't have any truth to it. Nope. There's no truth to social media, and if you look at it, all of these just is it neurosis? Is that the word I'm looking for? Where all these, especially women, but a lot of men too. Oh, I need the like shaking their ass, doing the little dance, and and then you see my stepson doing that same dance that the women are doing, and I'm going, wait, what? No, no, don't do that. Men don't do those things, but it's part as I feel it's part of the attack on the Christian American family because they are taking away the masculinity from men and turning them into women,
Ian
right? Okay, and that's
Stoney
what social media does. And the second thing that I have about social media is that it it's creating such a mental chaos in kids today, because it's not teaching kids to appreciate anything; it's teaching them to compare their life to some fake ass bullshit profile where these people are doing this fake stuff or are taking selfies next to somebody's car that you know damn well ain't their car, and just but they're all this they they're comparing their lives to that and they're never satisfied, right? It's it's like that that that 16 year old girl who got a brand new Tesla long range Tesla for her 16th birthday, crazy, and threw a fit and tore the house up because it wasn't a Mercedes. I don't want no effing Tesla. I wanted a Mercedes, and I'm like, what?
Jason
I blame, I blame mom and dad for that. Absolutely,
Jason
you know, absolutely. We've
Stoney
we've created the new babysitter. TV was the babysitter when I was coming up. This
Jason
is this is the result of consumerism. I mean, hate to say it, it's. Consumerism on steroids, and it's you know people that have tons of of available cash are are going to spend it on things, and unfortunately, I think in the goodness of of you know what they're thinking that they're helping their kid. In our reality, they really are harming the child, and the kid's probably never been told no. And unfortunately, this is what you get-you get a monster. So good luck with-and the
Stoney
proof of that is, is looking at the videos when these libtard Democrats are screaming and hollering because they're not getting their way, and somebody tells them no and holds them accountable. You know, really, really, how is this not a mental?
Jason
Oh well, you know, bring bring back the
Stoney
hospitals because we're at the point now. We need the mental institutions back. It's
Jason
it's no, I would agree that what where what I have seen on the just on the news of of watching people react to news they don't like to hear, it is something beyond that I never thought I would ever see in this country. It's you know I mean back in the old days of you know you if your guy didn't win well you know oh well he will try again in four years or whatever the case may be, now people have an absolute,
Ian
oh yeah,
Jason
just mental, emotional, and spiritual breakdowns because a a particular person didn't get elected, and it's just, and this is what's happened because social media has kind of fermented this this ground where you know, you know, I get I get a reaction by doing these things, and part of that is it's. I hate to say, we've all become like actors to a degree.
Ian
Right.
Jason
We all become like little Hollywood. You know, where everybody feels like they're
Stoney
content creator.
Jason
Yeah, we all feel like we're in front of the camera now, and yeah, look out, and we got to do a certain thing, and I've got to show you know everybody out there what what's going on. And
Stoney
well, it's funny to me that we can pass a law. Well, it's not even passing a law. We can make a ruling that all cars in America that are made in 2027 are going to be able to shut your vehicle off because it doesn't feel like you can drive, but we can't protect our children from the Democrats because right now that's the hardest part about being a parent is just protecting your kids from the Democrats. Facebook used to be for students only.
Ian
Oh yeah,
Stoney
and then the pedos in Hollywood and everywhere else decided, oh wow, this is an easy target. We need to force Facebook to accept everybody,
Jason
which
Stoney
okay because remember they killed MySpace because MySpace tried fighting that. They wanted online verification. They in which they're talking. I saw read an article. They're they're trying to bring back MySpace. Really? Yes, to go back to the old ways instead of all this craziness. Yeah, but okay, so here we go once again. Middle disorders-that's what all of this is about. You see these people shaking and dancing, and and I tried to prove to my stepson once that TikTok was just horseshit. The stupidest stuff is what gets likes and clicks on TikTok. So I created two videos of me farting in the air and making this big O sound that took off like crazy because it's stupid.
Ian
And then
Stoney
I created something nice and appropriate, and it went nowhere.
Jason
Of course,
Stoney
and he he still doesn't get it. I asked him, "What do you want to be when you grow up? Oh, I want to be a TikTok star. What what do you want to do with your life? Well, I'm going to be a TikTok star, and I'm going to make so much money I ain't going to have to work.
Jason
And some really do.
Stoney
That's what they blew. Well, somewhat well, if you're a again, if you're a hot blonde female, yes, you have. We even Ian had some things to say about this. There are a few people that can make some crazy money on that, but an old guy like me's not going
Jason
to do it. Well, let me tell you, I had some saying. I knew a friend of mine. She told me her her sister got paid for having a a channel where they people you know watched her play video games. Oh
Ian
yeah, yeah, yeah. And so she's a
Stoney
girl. Ain't nobody gonna pay to watch me play video games, or unless my feet were nicer. If I had nicer feet, maybe somebody would pay to see my feet, or or peeing. You know, there there's that. What's that? Where they got this whole channel of girls peeing? Right. I'm like, what? Really? How stupid are men that we will actually pay for that?
Jason
Well, you know, talking about that by TikTok, they said several families. In France, I'm reading an AP article here that several families in France had sued TikTok over teen suicides. So, well, that's one of the things I was going to go into about
Stoney
social media was the online bullying and etc. You know, China combats that a certain way, and all social media accounts that they allow and online gaming. Guess what you have to do?
Jason
What's that?
Stoney
Real name gaming is what it's called. You actually have to use your real real name.
Jason
Yeah,
Stoney
ain't ain't no more online balls putting this fake name and fake picture and all this you know fake story on there. You have to be the real person.
Jason
Well, this is this is a this is a. I know you mentioned Australia, and and I I did see that actually. Even this vote here, if it even passes, I think France is still going to rely on the EU to try to enforce it because France doesn't really have the tools to combat the the tech giants. You would need a more unified approach. So that's why I think that probably most of the European Union probably is going to start adopting a lot of this stuff, whether it's Successful or not, I don't know. I just, I, anytime you ban things, people, it makes it more desirable.
Ian
Of course,
Jason
it's just human nature. You ban this, and everybody wants to. Well, but see, I
Stoney
don't necessarily think we need to ban it. I think we need to go about it another way because you know how is a kid going to do age verification? But as a parent, you can do age verification. You got to show your driver's license, your credit card, or whatever, and you age verify. Right? That happens a lot. Then you, under your account, you create the Child's account, and when they turn 18, they can split off of that account or 16 or whatever, and go their own way. But right now, make the parent responsible for it. If you really want your kid in whatever social media platform you choose or platforms, be responsible for it. That way, you can see what they're doing, because there, there's no. When you look at it, there's no way to stop a child from getting on social media today. There's VPNs. There's so many things. My stepson is a master at it. He he could he could join. What is that on that online college master class? He he could he could be a master class instructor on how to get around the the the protections on the internet because he is a master at it.
Jason
Well, they said a total of 279 members of parliament voted to pass the bill, while 81 voted against it.
Ian
Really?
Jason
Yep. Sure did, and it's supposed to take place, take effect september 1. The bill also bans cell phones for in high schools.
Stoney
Yes,
Ian
that's wonderful.
Jason
Yeah,
Stoney
that needs to happen everywhere. High school, junior high, elementary school. No cell phones for kids. Period.
Ian
Yeah,
Jason
yeah. I don't. I. I mean, it'll be very interesting because I know there was. I know here there was bills. I know at the state level that was pushed to require age verification for for adult sites. I think when you know you had to provide proof or something to that effect, and there were a lot of people that fought that. Well, because
Stoney
the people that are looking at it. Our politicians don't want to put their name on something that could be hacked or doxed. Exactly. Okay. They don't want. Oh, look! Look who you know. This person did this. They signed up for this account here. Okay. They don't want their names out there.
Jason
All it's going to do is just basically create more of incentive for fraudulent IDs and yeah, like it doesn't exist now. Well, that's
Ian
the thing too. Is again, I feel like a lot of there's there's going to be youth today that are going to circumvent this in some way, and it's I guess trying to find a secure way of doing this where that's more difficult to do. But again, I you know,
Jason
yeah, I mean, you know, once again, you know, anytime you try to you you you put these walls up for for these products, that's a product like anything else. It it just for whatever reason, it
Stoney
just you got to you got to think about like this. Life will always find a way. You ever heard that saying? Tell a kid. It can't do something. It will find a way. Somehow, it's going to get around it. Tell tell a child it can't do that, and it's going to find its way around it. But
Ian
I think that's that's the thing too. The difficult part is, and this is why I think it's never going to fully work. Is like it needs to be an everyone thing. It can't be a you can't do this, but I still can because then that's when it becomes hypocritical. Right, is when like the parents are like, you can't have social media, you can't do something, but we'll sit here and scroll all day long for it.
Jason
Yep.
Ian
Or or again, they'll the kids will find a way to get their parents' phone and do it, which again I think also kind of defeats their purpose too. But that's the thing is I feel like if it's a more ubiquitous thing, but that's again like I don't again, it's one of those situations we talked about with AI and all this other stuff. It's kind of here, and it's going to probably stay here, and I don't think it's going to be defunded at all. And people aren't going to want to give up their social media.
Stoney
Well, we made it illegal for kids under 18 to drink, smoke, and do drugs. There's not one kid out there. I guarantee you that smoking, drinking, or doing drugs, right?
Ian
Oh, I'm not saying I'm not saying we still shouldn't try. You know, I just no, I'm not arguing with you. I'm
Stoney
just saying, hey, they tried. You know, these kids. Even whenever
Ian
I was in high school, I mean, you know, social media wasn't a problem. But again, getting fake IDs to get smokes or whatever was like a. It's
Jason
almost like a rite of passage. Of course, I mean it just is. It's it's it's always a way to break the rule. Yeah, I mean it's just the way. Now I'm reading an article here. This is very interesting, where the critics that are complaining that you know doing this causes technology creep and you can create things that are unintended. They're wanting to actually regulate how the platform is even developed,
Ian
right? From the developmental standpoint, from the ground up, yeah, right.
Jason
They say building safe platforms requires a robust response to ensure platforms or spaces where children can access community connection and knowledge in a healthy and safe way. Governments should first focus on banning the features that drive harm, including engagement-based algorithms that Amnesty International's research has shown can draw children into rabbit holes of depressive and suicidal content, any proposed solution must also proactively address the increasing risk posed by AI chatbots to children's rights and safety. So that would be interesting if there is now a push to actually regulate how a system is even built versus the free market basically allowing you to design what you want, and it's up to the parent
Stoney
to regulate that. So we talk a big game, but we know Facebook is a CIA front. They are intentionally trying to destroy the youth. They are intentionally trying to destroy number one the Christian American family. And you notice I don't say the black or white Christian American family. The Christian American family. Period. And social media is a direct attack on the very values of those families, because instead of finding our worth through Christ and our family and our friends, now it's ooh, how many likes did I get? How many clicks did I get? I need to look into. That's exactly what you're talking about. That's the engagement part of it. And then when you don't get it, you're depressed. Well, nobody likes me. Nobody appreciates me. Dopamine ain't. That's right. And that's exactly what it is. They say that an electronic addiction is exactly the same as a heroin. No, not any other one. As a heroin addiction.
Jason
Wow.
Stoney
Exactly the same.
Jason
It's unbelievable. And when
Stoney
you think about that, what we're doing to our kids at 789, 10-really, this is when they are developing all the patterns. We we have ADHD problems. We wonder why, because a kid is flicking through and going click, click, click, click, click, click, click. They're looking at three or four second, 10 second, 22nd videos instead of reading a book, instead of doing this, instead of doing this. So we wonder where what are we training our kids' attention to do just alone from the doom scrolling, and it's addictive.
Jason
I just I think that we are the the problem is is these media companies now have a model that works and it it hooks you
Stoney
yeah
Jason
and I hate to say it but I don't think willingly they're going to design a system that doesn't hook you because. Now, what's if if there's nothing forcing you to come back to the screen, then they can't now go to advertisers and and everything else. Like I've said this,
Ian
I feel like I've said this a million times on this show. Is that the most valuable currency right now? Is your attention? Yep, anyone's attention. That's the thing. Is like that if they can get if they can squeeze a few more minutes out of you to watch some more advertising stuff. Just on the on the possibility you might buy something, or that you may look favorably upon their item or whatever you know. Yeah, that's crazy.
Jason
Well, I mean, this is very interesting to see how this plays out with EU because I know there's people here in the United States that want the same thing. Because there are a lot of there's there's all you got to do is you know read the news about some child that that that something terrible happened because of social media. So I would be very interesting How this plays out now? I'll be very curious if if France's constitutional committee actually lets this stand as
Ian
is, right?
Jason
Because you know they're going to be people that are going to be saying that's the you're you're you know you're infringing on everybody else, you're making all these other people now put put in sensitive information to verify who you know how old they are, and you know we all know how that can go. Oh yeah, you know the more information you dump into the system, it's um I'd be very very curious because I know Macron wants it. This was one of his signature pieces of legislation that he wanted in his now almost 10 year term. Because his term comes to an end next year, so he's out. So this was a signature piece that he has pushed for some time now. To
Ian
so he has some incentive to really. Oh yes, he did
Jason
very much so. So it'll be very interesting to see how their constitutional committee rules on this, and if there's any changes or
Ian
yeah,
Jason
I I personally think that I think any ban is going to be be tough. I think they have to basically force social media companies to build a different type of platform, and I just
Ian
this one's too profitable. It's just too
Jason
exactly. I mean, what's if you're a business person? Oh
Stoney
yeah,
Jason
I want to do something that's going to turn me profit. I'm not just building this for the good of humanity. No,
Ian
yeah, it may start off that way. It may start off that way, but it's not that way. But I mean,
Jason
you know, the reality is, is you want investors invest, and the only way investors are going to invest if they can see a return on their money, and the only way you're going to get a return on money is getting people glued to the screen, which means advertisers and everything else. So I don't.
Ian
And now that everyone like, I just to use Facebook as an example, now I feel like at least over here in the states, maybe not so much for the younger people, but I mean I know for a fact the older generations, Facebook is so ubiquitous. They everyone has Facebook. Everyone you know either has you've you've made one in the past or you have one or whatever, and so if you talk about if you talk about the thing is, I know they've gone through some evolutions and some changes over the years, but imagine trying to like I don't know the trying to imagine you know fundamentally shaking up Facebook from the ground up, you know. It
Jason
says here I'm reading more about this specific law. It said the law does not mandate a specific tool for this process, which is the age verification. Authorities simply recommend using so-called double anonymity methods, which are considered privacy protective. A third-party organization, such as a specialized company or mobile operator, is responsible for analyzing your ID. Each platform will be able to choose its own tool, but it's highly likely that over time, the application being developed by the European Commission currently under testing will become the standard both in France and across Europe. They say in most cases users will need to verify their age only once. However, if you want to browse a social network without logging in, for example, to watch a YouTube video on a shared computer, you will likely have to prove you were over 15 every time you connect.
Ian
Wow. Okay. So that makes sense.
Jason
Yeah. And I'm reading an article from Lamonde or Lamond. Yeah. If I'm if I'm pronouncing it correctly. So
Ian
that's wild.
Jason
Yeah.
Ian
I do wonder. But this also means how, if any, this is going to translate over to the states, because I do feel like that would be. Well,
Jason
as I said, I I think it's inevitable because if eventually, if the entire European Union adopts this, and I have a feeling it's going that way, yeah, because look how many of those
Stoney
countries have sued Facebook and TikTok and winning. They're they're winning,
Jason
right? Yeah. So I mean, the the I don't know how these social media companies, these tech companies, are going to deal with this. Where you have you know certain continents can operate under a certain set of rules. Another comp continent operates under another another set of rules. It's going to be difficult for them to to kind of manage that. I just to me that's a lot of headache because to me you want uniformity.
Ian
Yeah, that's
Jason
that's the least amount of
Ian
yeah
Jason
expense to you. So yeah, they said they say some software using facial recognition, right? You know that comes with its own,
Ian
of course, its own baggage. Its own baggage, and we've kind of talked about that. So I
Jason
mean, you know, it's they say the application tested by the European Commission asked users to scan an identity document and then film their face to confirm the match. The app does not retain the user's identity; only their age. To use the app outside a smartphone, users must scan a QR code or the relevant website and enter a password. You
Stoney
really don't see where this is going, do you?
Ian
What you mean?
Stoney
Y'all really don't see where this is going?
Ian
Oh man, I I see what you're trying to say. No, no, think
Stoney
about this.
Ian
Oh yeah,
Stoney
what are we going to? We're not going to have driver's license soon. You're going to have a chip in your hand when you're born. When you are born, and the EU is working on this right now. There's a number of countries that have already started moving toward this. So, when you want to sign on to your social media account, what you're going to have to do, you have to put your chip out there. When you want to get paid, you're going to have to put your chip out there. When you want to drive your car, you're going to have to put your chip out there. And so, when you're born now, age verification is put your chip out there because it's not going to be convenient because there's too many end arounds for driver's license and credit cards and things like that. But you ain't getting a chip out of somebody else's hand, are you? Who's going to do that?
Jason
Well, I, you know. Now this
Stoney
is where we're going. I can see that. I
Jason
mean, well, I mean, I've always, I've always mentioned that that there probably would be a push to put some sort of microchip inside every newborn person, and as time goes on, you know, that the piece would just kind of grow with the body, so to speak, and kind of just sit there. You wouldn't even think. Doesn't have to
Stoney
grow. Doesn't have to grow. It's just there, like the the chips that we got in the puppies. You we get a scanner off of Amazon right now, which I know you love Amazon. Oh gosh. And we can even tell what temperature the puppies are.
Ian
Interesting.
Stoney
Which for Sharpays is kind of cool because they have a lot of health. Not not to get off of our subject, but sharpies have a lot of health issues, and and there's one with a fever, and and it scans it, tells you what temperature they are.
Ian
Wow,
Stoney
which is kind of fascinating if you think about it. But look how far. But
Ian
this is what this kind of stuff too. Is again, we've talked about this when it comes to the surveillance stuff we've talked about over the past few months and everything else, and security and and features and things like that, it's like there's a lot of even though there's a lot of this stuff that you're talking about, like again having a chip in your hand or a chip in your head or whatever. Again, there's going to be some nice benefits that's going to come with it. That's going to be enticing and get people to go. Yeah, but now I can check and see where my kids' locations are. I can check my kids' temperature. I can. It's going to be all these kind of stuff. All the things it's hard to say no to.
Stoney
Well, I can say no to it because I've never stuck a thermometer up in dog's butt before. But you know,
Ian
and so as I was saying, it's like you know, at a at a certain point, there's going to be things that are going to make it irresistible and make people want to have it, and of course, just like everything else, there's going to be marketing, and everyone's they're going to you're going to want to have it. And the crazy push right now that I think is actually working on people and makes me kind of disgusted is the fact that Meta has really been pushing recently for these Meta glasses, for these special glasses with the cameras on them, and I'm like, I, and again, it just records, and I'm like, I don't like that at all, and the fact that like they not only has it been a really well, I'm just saying a little big significant push for that for those who couldn't see. Stoney took off his glasses and then covered them up, and I was like, okay, they're wireframe, so really, yeah. But but but the fact that I've actually seen them out and about, and the fact that I've seen people just walking around wearing, and I'm like I, because again, the marketing has worked. They made them cool. They made them they made them less bulky than the older ones that used to be. They have made them I think function. Can't really see the camera now. You got to really look at that camera. And that's the thing is is that kind of stuff. What I'm I'm saying all that because I feel like when it comes back around to this whole chip thing, I think that they're gonna make it designer enough. They're gonna make it. They're gonna make you want to want it, and then of course there's gonna be all this baggage on top of it that makes it all all your nobody can steal
Stoney
your chip unless they cut your hand off well
Ian
until they can somehow,
Jason
I kind of see. I could see people digging the chip out of them. Oh yeah, planting a art of a duplicate chip. I mean, you could see where all that with any
Ian
technology. There's going to be a way to spoof it or to steal it or whatever. Exactly. It's going to be one
Stoney
of the things that I was thinking about earlier when I was talking about you know parents creating those accounts. What we're really trying to do, number one, is if we're selling it as safety for kids. If somebody wants to be your kid's friend, they have to go through the main account. And I'm requesting to be your child's friend. Yeah. Okay. Well, you go to the same school, et cetera, et cetera. Yes, you may be my child's friend, but all these hundreds and 1000s of people, you know, which are four or 500 pound men,
Ian
oh yeah,
Stoney
sitting in their room doing unspeakable things to themselves, they can't get to your kid now because that's the real goal of this, isn't it? Is to protect our kids,
Ian
right?
Stoney
You know, but parents are so busy. We did the glorification of busy now. But what if you got to take a couple minutes out of your day to look through the the friend request on your kids' accounts? You have control. You have that access. You see what people are saying to them, but you don't hear any talk about that.
Ian
No,
Stoney
no. You hear about I need to give you my information, and I need to have my information on file that you can then sell to somebody else. But they're not talking about real protections for kids,
Ian
right?
Stoney
Nothing. They want your like you said earlier. Information is the currency today.
Ian
Oh yeah, I said attention. You're right. But your information, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Information and your attention are both both very very popular right now. Very sought after because again I again your algorithm the the profile they have curated for you sells for a lot of money. The more and more they more you give to them, I I knew this was going to happen. I had to for I had to put my phone number in to this website to potentially sign up for something, and I knew the second that I did that, I was like, ugh, I already know that they're going to sell my information. Really, I just I just know it. There, it's a reputable company. I know it's not bad, but I was like, I just know that I have to put my phone number into this because they're not going to let me do it like otherwise. Right. I put my phone number in it, and I and I promise you that was maybe four days ago. I have gotten nothing but spam phone calls for the past four days with a bunch of voicemails that are just empty. They don't go nowhere, and and I'm like, oh, I hate that! I hate that so much that like I feel like I was forced to do something that I don't want to do, and then here I am with my information being sold, with my name attached to it. That of course that profile is sold now for who knows how much. I just hate that. It makes me upset.
Jason
Well, in the United States, in the Pew Research Center in 2026, they sampled 10,000 U.S. adults and 56% support banning social media for children under 16. So it's rising. 21% opposed, and 23% were unsure. And then Americans expressed even stronger support for less restrictive measures. 85% support requiring parental consent. 78% support mandatory age verification, and 78% support time limits for minors. So that, so there is a here in in America for something to be done. I don't know if anything would it would pass constitutional scrutiny. I really don't.
Ian
Yeah.
Stoney
Well, actually, 1818. Okay. You, the parent, is responsible for that child until 18. So yeah, you know, if if the voting hood, the the people of America get together and say we want to ban this, they can do that. But when you got these white libtard women in California who keep voting for people like Gavin Newsom and all those pedophiles in Hollywood and Congress and everything else who. Easy access. Yep, we're going to have a problem. It's going to take men to turn around and become men again, and put their faith in God and Christ that we can stop these people from getting to our kids first. That's going to have to happen, and I don't mean to be preaching, but that's what's going to have to happen. We are going to have to become accountable and become strong again, and become men and stop being weak, stop feminizing ourselves, and find out what's really important. The man is the protector. That's it. Well, but they've
Ian
made being masculine a problem.
Stoney
That's right. Toxic masculinity. I hate hearing that. Toxic toxic masculinity is not a man being a man. Toxic masculinity is removing masculinity from men and having men, women running around out there not taking care of things they're supposed to.
Jason
Well, we've we've talked about, I mean, the social science on really what's been happening since the '50s regarding kind of the disintegration of the nuclear family. Oh yeah, and there's been, you know, the the it's so plainly evident why the family gets attacked because once I can pry kids away from the influence of mom and dad,
Ian
yeah,
Jason
they are easily manipulated and controlled, and then those kids grow up thinking that's normal,
Ian
yeah,
Jason
and then of course when they themselves have children, now they're even less. So now you got parents not even really wanting to do anything with their kids.
Ian
Yeah,
Jason
basically saying, "Well, they need to figure it out themselves on that. And I'm going, "Where do we get off the rails? But all that makes sense because of what has been happening for the last 60 years, that just has and and look, I mean, everybody can look at the divorce rate of of families. Families are in trouble, and and there's all kind of issues regarding why marriages are not staying together anymore,
Ian
right?
Jason
I realize that's a very convoluted subject. You start really touching some very sensitive areas when you talk about why people get married or get divorced. I mean, outside of the normal obvious things, my spouse started running around with someone else. That's a whole different ball game. More like
Ian
abuse stuff. Exactly,
Jason
that's a whole different ball game. But you're having a lot of divorces where it's just simply irreconcilable differences. In essence, we just don't get along anymore. We don't see the world the same way anymore. Right. So the the I don't know how you fix that? Because the problems we're now, you know, social media. But social media just exposed a deeper deficit there that's occurring in the individuals. Because I'm looking for for validation. I'm I'm looking for acceptance. Because the problem is, they're not getting in at home, if they even have a home to begin with.
Ian
Right.
Jason
So, I mean, I don't see
Stoney
that that you're you're on the key point right there. You're on the key point. Social media has completely warped our brains. What Ian? What's one of your biggest complaints right now. I can't afford to buy a house. I would really love to buy a house. I found something here today when I was doing this. May I read something to y'all? Absolutely. It's called "This is how your grandparents bought a home. Number one, they stacked bodies, not debt. Three bedrooms, one bathroom, 10 people. Nobody complained about needing a home office. Privacy was a luxury. Equity was the goal. Number two, one car period. No car note stacking up. No insurance on three vehicles. One car meant one bill and extra money for the mortgage. Number three, the TV didn't run the budget. One TV shared. No streaming subscriptions. No $200 a month in entertainment bleeding the budget. Number four, the kitchen was the restaurant. They didn't DoorDash. They didn't eat out four days a week. They cooked every meal. That's discipline. Number five, fun was free. Parks, porches, family, neighbors. Nobody needed a vacation to Mexico to feel alive. The joy didn't require a credit card. Six, nothing got thrown away. Leftovers became tomorrow's lunch. Clothes got handed down. Things got fixed, not replaced. Waste was not an option. It was a. Moral issue, and seven discomfort was the down payment. They weren't comfortable. They were intentional, and that discomfort bought them a house when the time was right.
Ian
But I do agree with a lot of that. But also the like rising rates of property value. I agree with also. No, no, no. I'm I'm not knocking your situation,
Stoney
but I'm saying look at the mentality of social media. Oh yeah, they're saying how many kids today have the the the 3000 square foot home? Both of them have brand new cars. They're 2223, years old, complaining about money, eating out,
Ian
even. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Stoney
And they want to know why they can't make it, and then you wonder why divorce happens because you need to be making more money. I need to go find somebody making more money. How about you work for it? That's what our parents did in my time. They worked for it. My mom and dad didn't get the dream house right until we were. I was. I think 20 years old. I think moved on.
Ian
Some of it gets to a point where because becomes hard because a lot of friends of mine, it's like there once was there once was a time where you could really work hard and you could achieve those things. Right now, you could work hard with two, maybe three part time jobs, and you're still not going to quite make it. But in that gets to the 70s, you
Stoney
could do that. The 80s with Ding Dong over there's generation coming out. Okay, the X Gen, yeah, yeah, and then in the 90s, look at that. When social media, you know, it was the phones, then social media, and now it's impossible to do it. But even up until maybe the 80s, you could still be a firefighter. I mean, you could still do this and and have one one income and put your kids through college and have a house. I was I
Ian
was in the same boat. My parents were in the '90s. They they got married in '93. They had me a year later, and they had with my dad's income was able to have a house, two cars, and three children, and and we lived comfortably middle class. And now, if I was to make the same amount of money that my dad was making back then today.
Stoney
You'd starve.
Ian
I wouldn't be able to afford a new car and a house like he was able to. Right. Well used. It was a used car, but it was a same sort of thing where it's like, you know, that's the part that kind of gets a bit sad. Is like I can work twice as hard, I feel like, and I'm still not going to live the life that my dad did whenever he was my age.
Jason
Well, I, think there's the world changed. Okay, we got we have to we have to kind of compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges here.
Stoney
Yeah.
Jason
Yes, a man could go to work and support his family
Ian
right
Jason
based on a job that he probably worked at for most of his life.
Ian
Yep, 20 to 30 years. Exactly. Unfortunately,
Jason
the world changed.
Ian
Yep,
Jason
and companies started getting sent offshore.
Ian
Yep.
Jason
I think there's a couple things going on. We got off the gold. We got off the gold standard. We started printing money, and while that's been good in some ways, it's bad in other ways.
Ian
Right.
Jason
I think when it comes to housing, I think right now, if you look at the numbers, who owns most of the the house wealth right now are the boomers?
Ian
Right.
Jason
They want their property.
Stoney
Black Rock State Street. Well, even before really
Jason
Black Rock and State Street. No, no, they've
Stoney
been doing this since the 50s. Don't you think they have it?
Jason
I think people want their property to value up.
Ian
Of course, yeah. I'm
Jason
buying a house right now. I mean, I sold. You know, I'm agreed to selling my house for a lot more money than what I paid for it. Sure,
Ian
right. That's the goal. That's an investment. So should be an investment. But
Jason
but there are some people who thinks is really the house worth that it's only worth that because we've printed money and we flooded the market with cash, so everything gets inflated upward. But the actual true value of my home in a perfect world should basically be what I paid for.
Ian
Right, right,
Jason
right, right. But it doesn't work though. Just like the house we're buying, we know how much the previous owners paid for that home, and what we're having to pay for that.
Ian
Exactly, the house that I mean, the house that I'm currently renting. If when I looked into potentially purchasing it, the the property that it's on is valuable because of the location and because of how much land is on
Stoney
it. Right.
Ian
The house itself, when appraised, is not. It needs a lot of work. It needs a lot of TLC. It's a bit of an older house, and so the asking price from the person who owns the property was pretty substantial.
Jason
I'm sure it was
Ian
because mostly because of the property. But it's hard to it's hard to look at the house and go, oh yeah, I'm going to spend new house money. Right, a house is going to need a lot of money put into it. Right, but obviously she again she owns the property, and so that's the thing. Is that and I guarantee that's the value that that person who
Jason
owns the property didn't pay that when they bought it. You're right. You know, I mean that's a chance you take. It's like anybody that goes
Ian
yeah
Jason
buys a bunch of land somewhere and all of a sudden something happens where all of a sudden now that land becomes in demand.
Ian
Oh yeah,
Jason
I mean, I the place I left in in North Carolina, that property is crazy expensive right now.
Ian
Really, it
Jason
is crazy because so many people want to live there. I can understand why. The weather is nice. It's beautiful. You know, it's low crime.
Ian
Okay,
Jason
it's just a great area to live. But I had a friend of mine had a place up in the mountains. He routinely we get constantly people calling and going, "Will you sell your land? Yeah, yeah, sell your house because it was. I'll pay you whatever. I will pay you whatever you want for. I mean, but it's like you know, if if you can do it, hey,
Ian
yeah, it
Jason
benefits you. It'd be the same way with you. If all of a sudden you came into some land,
Ian
oh yeah, fairly cheap. I know, yeah.
Jason
And all of a sudden it becomes valuable. Guess what you're going to be doing? I'm going to want top dollar for that land. I mean, that's just only unfortunately it hurts people like you
Ian
exactly trying to get
Jason
into a home because you're not making the money to afford that kind of house. So it's it's like what do you to
Ian
circle back around to the kind of the beginning of what we had talked about? I have heard, and I don't know if this is actually like a hard numbers or not, but I think that the divorce rate has gone down a little bit, it has yeah because people aren't
Stoney
getting married more. Well, maybe,
Ian
but well, so they're
Jason
not not only they're not getting married, they're not having children.
Stoney
Oh yeah, and
Jason
our birth rate is it's you know very clear. I'm I've never had children, but I've always said people like me should be rare. The vast majority of people should be getting married and having children. That's the norm. That's how civilization carries on.
Ian
Yeah, you know every every relationship that I've been in for like the past, which has only been a couple for the past handful of years. Every single one of my partners had has said pretty, pretty like foot foot firm on the ground. I'm not having kids.
Jason
That's that's that's that's a telling sign because what that saying is they do not believe The future, they can't see a future where they can have raise a family, and unfortunately, you're gonna have a lot of people. They're gonna get old, and they're gonna be alone. And I'm gonna tell you, that's fine when you're young.
Ian
Oh yeah,
Jason
but as you age, takes on a whole different dimension. Yes, it really does. Well,
Stoney
but but but you have to think about it. This is all by design. Yes. Okay. This is by design. The chemicals they're giving us. These stupid social media platforms that are making us mentally ill beyond what we were already. You know. When I when I tell Miranda, I said I'm not going to let somebody drive me crazy. She goes, er, I go, okay, you're being funny now. Okay, we we had some issues back then, and now how far has social media and the need to be accepted and the need to to all these likes and stuff just compounded that mental illness? Now look what we have today. People don't know what a man and a woman is. People don't know what they want to be because there's nothing teaching them what's right and what's wrong.
Jason
Well, that's that's para and social media
Stoney
is not going to teach you what's right and what's wrong. Well, that's and when you remove the fathers and you remove the mothers from the home, and you have so many single parents now who are already on their phone too, we've basically removed the parents from the home, and we're leaving social media to raise our kids. Yeah, and then we blame the police, and then we blame the teachers, and then we blame everybody but ourselves for what we're doing and not doing, and then we want to just hate everybody because of it.
Jason
Yeah, I just I don't. As I said, I don't. I I think this these bans. I I understand the point in them, and there are many families in France that are cheering for this vote, and they said this is their only way to to fight big tech is to do this because there's no option. You can't. It is very difficult to prevent your child from accessing. Content that you don't want them to see, because trust me, you may be the the responsible parent and not get your you know the kid a phone to, but there are other parents that are giving their kids, and those kids are in school with a phone, yeah, and on and on and on, and and so that that creates problems. You know, we all were kids at one time. If one kid had something that I didn't have, it created. And if enough people have something, oh yeah, and you don't have it, that even makes it even worse. Because now social
Stoney
media is that teaches us to compare and not appreciate. That's
Jason
the that's the that's that's where we're at,
Stoney
yeah,
Jason
that's where we are at right now. So, I mean, I, I, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm hopeful that maybe if this doesn't go anywhere, at least it will provoke a broader discussion on this issue.
Stoney
Sure, and
Jason
how can we fix an obvious problem that every psychiatrist right now and and social media experts are saying about what's going on with our children right now regarding this stuff that kids shouldn't even be dealing with this stuff. It really should not. You need to be a kid.
Ian
Yeah,
Jason
go out and play. Well, let them
Stoney
be kids. This is social media is not letting kids be kids. Yeah,
Jason
right. You're you're exposing them to to the problems that eventually, as adults,
Ian
yeah,
Jason
they're going to have to deal with. Well, no, what we're doing is
Stoney
we're sexualizing our kids at 10 years old.
Jason
Well, we are doing that. Okay, okay, we've been doing that too before social media, but
Stoney
but it's getting younger and younger and younger. Social media. I think
Ian
it's also becoming okay.
Stoney
Back in my time, the the most sexualization we had was trying to find Dad's Playboy magazine that he hid somewhere. Now all you got to do is rock and roll on TikTok, and you're gonna get everything you need that you didn't want. You know. Yeah.
Jason
Oh yeah. So
Stoney
and you know, come on.
Jason
Well, we'll we'll see how this plays out. I said France is a well. Even
Stoney
Louisiana is passing a law for age restriction on social media.
Ian
Really?
Stoney
Yeah. Yeah.
Jason
We'll see how. I'm sure there'll be people fighting that. But well, sure, everybody's going
Stoney
to fight it.
Jason
You know, because we
Stoney
have the right to social media, but we don't have the responsibility to protect our children. Wait, what?
Jason
It's it's that balancing act. It's it's people's like you know, wait a minute, this is a free country. I mean, then that they will always defer back. Well, parents should be, or their guardians should be doing that. But the the reality is, there's so many kids that are in situations that they really don't have. Oh no! I
Ian
think a lot of no guardian looking
Jason
out for them, teaching them what's right.
Ian
There's been a lot of parents recently that I think, in in the recent probably couple decades, that I think have just disconnected from raising their kids and taking a back seat, which is unfortunate.
Stoney
Well, it's easy. You got social media doing because they're both on social media. Yeah, Miranda and I, we we don't really when we go out to eat, we really don't even want the phone on the table.
Ian
Yeah,
Stoney
but how many times can you go to a restaurant and look at a family of five with everybody on their phone? What's the effing point? I remember
Ian
being in Disney World and having like at like a sitting down for like a very it was a very nice restaurant and all the kids had iPads in front of them. What's the point of that? Why even go? Yeah, I was like, I don't know what the the the
Jason
art of conversation has been lost. Oh, it's
Stoney
way gone. Art of
Jason
conversation. We just people really don't. I just think people become uncomfortable sitting in a room and talking. Which is the
Stoney
premise of this show?
Ian
Yeah, it's a
Stoney
conversation, and we've had some amazing guests. We've had some great conversations amongst ourselves. Right, I hear there may be a couple of interesting guests coming forward just to have a conversation.
Ian
Yeah,
Stoney
but that's a dying art. It is. So is using English and punctuation apparently too. But well,
Ian
you're right.
Stoney
You know, wow. You know,
Jason
let's let's keep our fingers crossed and see what happens with the lot of prayer. Yeah,
Stoney
lots of prayer.
Ian
Well, for anybody out there who wants to leave your your thoughts, your feelings about it, we have comment sections on Spotify and on YouTube where you can leave your short form responses. And if you want to leave something a little bit more long form for us, we have an email address: getoffendedtogether@gmail.com. Be sure to like and subscribe on all the platforms that you listen to us on. It would really mean a lot, and and share it with somebody that you think would either like or not like this. And until next week, thank you so much for listening. Bye bye,
Jason
goodbye everyone, and God bless.
Stoney
Children are not products, data points, advertising profiles, or political props. They are lives entrusted to families and communities deserving protection, instruction, patience, and truth. Wisdom. Does not tell us to ignore danger. Predators are real. Manipulation is real. Addiction-like behavior, bullying, sleeplessness, shame, and despair are very real. Parents should not be expected to battle those forces alone, while companies profit from the struggle. But wisdom also teaches restraint. Fear can make people surrender authority they never intended to surrender. A government powerful enough to decide who may speak, what identity might be shown, and which lawful information may be accessed must be watched as carefully as corporations it regulates. A path forward requires parents who are present, platforms held accountable, schools willing to establish order, lawmakers willing to read beyond the headline, and children taught discernment rather than merely surrounded by digital fences. Protect them without possessing them. Guide them without spying on every thought. Hold powerful companies responsible without creating even more powerful government machines, because truth without courage becomes silence. Protection without wisdom becomes control, and freedom without responsibility eventually becomes another form of captivity. You're the best. Thanks for hanging out with us today. Peace.