Sexual Assault Awareness Needs Real Action, Not Just Promises | Episode 484

Sexual Assault Awareness Needs Real Action, Not Just Promises | Episode 484

We’ve got a lot of “special days” on the calendar, but I keep coming back to one question: why do we wait for a date to care? I walk through a handful of April awareness days and holidays and use them as a mirror for how we live the other 364 days, from health and family to the environment and the way we treat one another when no one is watching.

That includes a frank look at Easter and how easily meaning gets buried under spending, trends, and routine. If faith matters to you, I share why the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the core and why it’s worth saying out loud. If faith isn’t your lane, the bigger point still applies: don’t let important things turn into background noise just because they’re familiar.

Then we get into heavy but necessary ground: Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month. Sexual assault is not okay, ever, and survivors deserve more than vague promises and a phone number. We talk trauma, mental health, the role of courts, and why real support has to be direct, practical, and fast. From there, I shift to child online safety, school-issued laptops, YouTube “challenge” culture, ads and product placement, and how all of it shapes kids whose brains are still developing. I also lay out a simple solution schools can actually implement: lock devices to learning programs only.

If you care about prevention, protection, and a culture that takes responsibility seriously, listen all the way through. Subscribe, share the show with someone you trust, and leave a review so more people can find it.

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Chapter Markers

• 0:00 Welcome And Quick Ways To Help
• 1:37 Every Day Can Be Awareness Day
• 8:01 Easter Meaning Vs Commercial Hype
• 13:06 Sexual Assault Awareness And Real Support
• 19:53 Child Internet Safety And Clean Content
• 29:19 Airport Pranks And Public Safety
• 36:49 Locking Down School Devices
• 38:26 Final Thanks And How To Support

#justiceforjustin #justiceforvoicesforvoicestiktok #VoicesforVoices #AprilHolidays #ChildOnlineSafety #SpringCelebrations #InternetSafetyTips #KidsOnlineProtection #HolidayCraftsForKids #DigitalParenting #SeasonalFestivities #SafeBrowsingForKids #EducationalActivitiesForChildren #ParentalGuidanceOnline #CelebrateSpringWithKids #CyberSafetyAwareness #EngagingKidsInHolidays #help3billion #TikTok #Instagram #truth #Jesusaire #VoiceForChange #HealingTogether #Episode484

Transcript

Welcome And Quick Ways To Help

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes 0:02

Hi everyone, it's Justin here, Voices for Voices. Thank you so much for joining us, whether you're here in the United States or in a foreign country outside of the United States, we welcome one and all to the show. We are over 480 episodes going strong. It's an amazing journey we're on. Thanks to you. So thank you for tuning in. However, you're doing that, watching, listening. If you can do us uh some favors that uh help us reach more people and they're free, if you can give us thumbs up, like, follow, subscribe, share, repost, uh, we would greatly appreciate that. Following our social media accounts, uh, we're everywhere. Uh, we would greatly appreciate that. And we would uh also recommend if if you're able to uh reach out to maybe 25 or 50 of your uh contacts in in your phone uh let them know about the voices for voices TV show and podcast. And thank you so much for all you do for Voices for Voices. Uh we uh had a uh as every day and every month is is turned out for us in a good good way. Busy days, and uh what I wanted to do for at least part of part of the show is so I just came to the realization that there are a lot of holidays or days of remembrance or awareness days each and every month. And uh we we don't and haven't covered those as much as I guess we we could. Uh one of the big reasons is because we feel that every day should be one of those days that we it's great to have a day set aside for a particular uh topic, uh a particular thing, uh people. Uh that's that's all it's all well and good, but we feel that every day should be like that, that we shouldn't just uh you know one day out of the year remember and and bring up uh a particular holiday or a day of remembrance. So uh while we usually don't do this, uh I I in the month of April, uh I wanted to cover three. Uh, and two of them have already uh well at least yeah, at least at least two of them have already uh have passed by since we're you know turning uh towards the second half of the month of April. Uh April 1st is April Fool's Day. Uh I I I'm not big in into that. Um people are. Uh you know, we have to live in an uh an era in the world where there's a tends to be almost like a fine line or a gray area between some kind of pranks that are just that. They're they're pranks, they're not intended to harm, hurt at all anybody. And then we get into some things that could be could be doing that. Uh, and and I guess that's probably one of the reasons I never got real real big in into that. But if you you have, uh maybe you can comment below, let us know uh what one uh of your uh your your most favorite pranks that you have uh done over the the years, or if somebody has pranked you. So that was April 1st. April 7th, World Health Day. And so what this is, or what this was because it was on April 7th, and we've already passed that, is a global health awareness day. Again, we think that each and every day we should feel that way. The health and awareness, it shouldn't be just one day that we recognize like, oh wow, like we should we should work on being more healthy. Uh we we we could probably do that, or we should do that all year long. Uh, I'm not the best of keeping up with that, however, I don't think that having one day of saying, okay, this is World Health Day. I think every day should be World Health Day. We want everyone, friends, foes, uh we want everybody to be happy, healthy, prosperous, in the best way that they uh they can be and that they want to be. And obviously we're we're talking about things that are that are legal, not illegal. So if somebody is prosperous for doing something that is illegal, so not legal, we we do not we do not condone that activity. Uh April 10th was National Siblings Day. Again, we we shouldn't have to just focus on this one uh one day out of the year. Uh I do have one one sibling. I have a sister, she's older, uh, four years, I think four years school-wise, and then like three years age-wise. So uh again, we I I I would think that we should not just wait for one one specific one specific day. There's Earth Day, so a day dedicated to environmental protection. And all these are being brought to you by DuckDuckGo. That's the resource I'm using. And we should try to be as cognizant of our environment as we as we can be. Uh we we celebrated, which was actually uh earlier uh Easter Sunday, and so that Easter Sunday, where it's been turned into another commercial holiday of Easter egg hunts and the bunny, and and I'm not trying to burst anybody's bubble. I have a uh my wife and I, we have a child, and we we don't want to burst her bubble on on any of that, but the real reason why it is Easter, uh Easter Day, it is marking the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So that's again, we should celebrate the fact that at least for me, I'm a believer that Jesus Christ He died for all of our sins to be forgiven. And like Hallmark and uh lot of a lot of companies, right? I mean, you know candy and eggs and I mean I I I think families getting together. I think that's the big takeaway from Easter, that if we're able to get together with family, that's that's that's the big takeaway, I think. Uh I also think that it's a it's a holiday that has been commercialized. How much m I don't I don't know how much money I'm sure there's I'm sure there's a figure somewhere that tells us annually how much money is spent on Easter. And I would bet a high percentage of it, like ninety plus percent, is on eggs and gifts and uh Easter egg hunts and all those types of things, as opposed to again, if we're gonna celebrate Easter and we're gonna do the Easter egg hunts and all those, we have to really stop and say, What does this day really actually even mean? Like, why are we doing an Easter egg hunt on this particular day? Or for this particular for this particular holiday, when the true reason why we celebrate is marking the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So I think that's a key key one for us believers uh to make sure we keep that top of mind all the time, but especially around the Easter holiday. And I I guess, you know, you can do the Easter egg hunts and and that. Uh I I I just think there's uh I just think there's just uh too heavy of a you know, go spend money on this. I mean, we could come up for it with a holiday, and then people will be like, oh, we need to spend money on this holiday. And I just have a hard time with with words for this because a lot of these holidays, again, we should be celebrating all year round. And of those that are holidays or days of remembrance, we should really get back to the core of why we celebrate Easter. Don't you think? I think so. And then the one that we're we'll we'll close out with is National Sex Assault Awareness and Prevention Month. And that is to aim at raising awareness about sexual assault. Uh we've had, oh boy, we've had quite a few guests on. Uh we've had Ryan Schmelz on, we've had Kathy Picard on uh David Solomon. I know there's there's many more that we've had on that unfortunately have been a victim of sexual assault. And like the other days of remembrance and holidays, we should we should have that top of mind every single day. That sexual assault is not not okay, no matter what day of the month, what day of the year, what country we're in, where we're where we're at in the world, sexual assault just should not should not exist is really the key takeaway. And I'd like to see our courts take a more proactive approach with survivors of any type of assault, really. But when we're talking about sexual assault, talk about mental health, people talk about trauma, people. The rest of their lives. Yes, maybe they're able to work through some parts with therapy and and other and other help. But we need more organizations that actually help. Unfortunately, there's a lot of organizations that talk about helping, give us a call, we'll help. Uh they're getting grant money left and right. Everybody on the board's being paid, and uh and that that's that's all well and good. Except if you if your if your way of helping somebody is to get give them a phone number, is only to give a phone number, not to give, you know, a name, a phone number, an email address, uh connecting, right? A three-way call, helping 24 hours a day, seven days a week, all year long. That's the part that I'd say in the last year and a half or so for sure, um that I've been disappointed in. And it's not just the sexual assault organizations. Yeah, they'll they'll they'll have, you know, maybe a a speaker and that, and they'll pay them a couple thousand dollars, maybe ten, I don't know. And then they'll say, yeah, like be part of our organization. But at the end of the day, are they getting the people help? Are are they are they getting a RAPE kit tested? Are they being uh taken for medical care and not have to pay for it? Cause just think a person's been sexually assaulted or any type of assault, and then they're not given the right tools and resources, and oh yeah, we can fit you in in six months. Well, guess what? That doesn't work. I tried it when I hit my lowest. By the time I figured out that I needed some help, I was told it wasn't a life and death problem. And I was told that since I didn't have a referral, that it was gonna be something like six months, and I'm trying to survive, I'm trying to, you know, have my life for better terms, you know, get my get my ducks in a row, you know, get get get my head right, get get the help I need, and I get a response once I finally get to somebody after I've explained my story like 50 million times, that's a that's an exaggeration 50 million times. Any of you out there know when you go to get help, everybody wants to hear the story. But the help, it's lacking. That's why we have voices for voices. Is a podcast and that. Well, I got news for you, or there's gonna be news for you uh coming up at some point in the future, potentially. And then we'll start talking about clean content. I don't want my child watching or reading books that are not appropriate for them. Yet they're they're still there. I mean, I don't like regulations like the next person. But when we're talking about people, we're talking about little people that are growing and they're being molded each and every day. And when they're exposed to watching or reading books, shows, these YouTube channels that all they do are these challenges, or let me find, let's let's make a secret room. And here I'm gonna throw all these colored balls into my multi-million dollar pool, and you have 30 seconds, and you got to get as many balls out, and then and then the person that has the most balls with their color, or you know, the color they picked, they win a brand new iPhone or something. And I'm like, this is on a six and seven-year-old computer from school that's given to them. I've talked about this, I know I talked about this hard the one time one episode. I'm gonna talk about it again because I'm fired up about it. Because I see I see this first hand, just about it. Every single day, just about every single day. And it just it gets me. So we have people that are in information technology, you know, oh well, we'll fix this and that on computers. And okay. Well, guess what? You want your six-year-old, your seven-year-old exposed to some uh some of these uh and again, some of these challenges, it's not so much that that content is bad, it's that that's how they're supposedly learning. That's that's not how I think we we learn. We learn through the curriculum. We don't learn, and yeah, we do have a YouTube channel. Well, we're a nonprofit with over 480 episodes, we're not four, six, seven, and eight nine-year-old. If they stumble onto one of our shows, that this is not for them. Not only are our kids getting these computers, laptops, and able to just what it seems freely go to YouTube and these other chan these other areas and watch these these shows. And I'm thinking it from a practical standpoint, right? On average, the average person's trying to survive, trying to survive life. And so when these different shows are there, which oh, by the way, um they're the the people in the shows are being paid by the companies. So they'll they'll be doing some kind of challenge, and then somewhere in the middle of there, there'll be a product placement where we would think of if we watch, you know, old school Seinfeld, Friends, others where there would be particular product placement. Heck, Fuller House, Fiji Water, that's one of them that they have people kissing literally every 15, 20, 30 seconds, and now we have seven, six, seven, eight-year-olds that are thinking that's okay. And okay. You might say, well, it's not for you to get involved with other people's lives. No, I just don't think that our seven-year-olds should be kissing each other on the lips. Do you cool with that? I'm not. It's not like Alan and uh Alan and Phil at the Caesars Palace saying, hey, if we're bunking, I'll bunk with Phil. Is that alright with you, Phil? Phil's like, no, that's not alright, Alan. And so, no, you the regular YouTube should not be available to a six-year-old. Not to mention the commercials are for people that are older. My daughter, who is seven, is not gonna purchase a Ram truck. Get the fuck out of here. So now I gotta put that it's explicit, because I use explicit language, okay. That's fine with me. Because that's how fired up I am about this. And I think if more parents gave a shit and were around, instead of going, okay, we got ten minutes left, or twenty minutes left, or five minutes, and people, these minds of these little people, it's like clay. They're being molded. We know that the brain forms from the back to the front, and the frontal and prefrontal cortex. It's about reasoning. Like, is this right? Is this wrong? Is this okay? And so I'm guessing for me, it took a little extra time for my for my brain to develop, or I was setting it back days or months with things I was doing. So I'm coming from a place of been there, done that kind of deal. Yeah, we didn't have YouTube, but we still had the alcohol, the drugs, uh the all all those those things. And so we're starting seven-year-olds out with people making out every 15 seconds, showing them the yeah, you're you know, when we go to the store, we can buy all 20 of these princess dresses and then try them on at home, and then do all the, you know, what whatever, have have some some type of event, or it's not it's not realistic, people. The average person is not able to buy 20. So you know damn well that the company that is selling those 20 dresses is paying for product placement, and that's that's okay. But when I have a child that every time we go to the store expects to get something because of what they see and what they're exposed to, it's like, oh well, this person, Salish, she got this, and I'll just close on one of the episodes that I find is uh uh that that hit hits home. So her daughter was on her on her computer, watching YouTube, watching the Sailor show with her dad, which I don't know if it's really her dad, which is the other thing, is they bring people from other families, they put them together, and then they record the show based off of like that's my mom, that's my dad, my brothers and sisters. So I don't know, I don't know if this Jordan Matter character is um say the Salish's real dad or not. I don't I don't know. Um so my uh my daughter's watching her you know YouTube watching this show, and the gist of the show was they were gonna be going on a flight. They were gonna be flying in an airplane from an airport, like a lot of us, I don't say a lot of us, but you know, if we've been able to fly, uh you know, you're at an airport, and you also know that there's heightened security at an airport, and you get always hear over the loudspeaker that you know if you don't leave a bag unattended. If you if you see one that's unattended, tell somebody. Uh and then you gotta go through all the you know the TSA checkpoints and uh anyways, Salus, which is this girl on the high school, I guess, and the dad, which is also why it's kind of the creep, kind of creepy that they're doing the show together. I I don't know. And actually, I do know. I I I think it's pretty creepy. So you got that, you got that, okay. They're at the airport, and Jordan Matters has prosthetics, like a fake face and nose, and and sailors are trying to, I don't know, I guess find like recognize them. So like they're dropped off maybe at two different spots, and then they have to find find each other. So Salish is going around looking and blah blah blah, and Salish leaves a bag and asked somebody to watch it. Right at a fuck we're at a fucking airport, people. We're at an airport. They weren't through security, but they're still at an airport. What did I just say? If you don't leave your bag unattended and and and uh in that and so she asks a random stranger, wash my bag. I'm just doing this prank with my dad. And then I don't know what ended up happening, except for the dad, goes into the bathroom and starts ripping off the face. It's fake. And there's security, and they don't arrest them, they don't pull them aside. He just says, Oh, we're doing this thing on YouTube, and uh, you know, I had I was using prosthetics, and and so that's what I'm that's what I'm doing here. I'm taking those off. And so now we're gonna have probably a bunch of people that think it's okay to do these pranks and do these shows at airports, which we wanna have we want every place to be safe. But they're doing these shows. So what are they teaching our six, seven, eight, nine-year-olds? That it's okay to do that. What happens when your child or somebody else's child and parent when they do get arrested, and they try to say, Well, I saw this show on YouTube and they did this, and you see what we're talking about, people? So mental health is definitely in play. Because say, let's she's still grown, her her brain isn't totally developed either, and so all the things and all these uh challenges and whatever you call them, they're it I I just don't understand them. And I don't think that I don't think they should be on computers, laptops, whatever you want to call them, for six-year-olds. So I I think those should not be available, okay? There, I said it. It's for public safety. That's why. Not just for my child, but for your child and all the children out there whose brains are being molded day by day by what they see and what they hear. And we need to take the commercials off. I mean, of course, Google or whoever makes these deals with the schools for these computers. Of course, they're like, well, yeah, as long as we can have commercials on here. And the schools are like, yeah, yeah, that's fine, that's fine. Because if it wasn't fine, it wouldn't be on there. So people are like probably laughing at me and be like, oh, Justin's full of it. Okay. You don't think that comes up came up in a negotiation at some point? Are there any advertisements? And then they go, oh yeah, well, my children watch, and and so it's okay for you know the 2,000 students in my school district that we're gonna all they're all gonna have their own. Yeah, there's there's programs learned to learn on there. I think that's all that should be on there. I think that's all that should be on there. Just like I teach college students, and there's certain quizzes and exams where when they start, they have to go through a certain, they have to double-click on a certain program, through that program is where the the quiz or exam is, and then what happens is everything else freezes in the background, so they can go try to click, you know, Google or uh DuckDuckGo, Chrome, Firefox, as when they're going through their quiz and exam, and it won't work. It freezes everything. So you can't tell me you can't do that for six-year-olds. Where, okay, we got these programs on here, why don't we just freeze them? If we can't get them, take them all the way off, just freeze them so they can't be used. And the only things that can be used are the actual learning programs. So we got a little bit got me a little fired up here today on this show. Uh thank you for joining us. Please give us a thumbs up, like, follow, subscribe, share, repost. Thank you for joining us wherever you're uh watching or listening from. If you can reach out to 25 or 50 or 100 of your contacts and your phone, let them know about the voices for voices TV show and podcast. We greatly appreciate that. And if you would like to, you can follow all our social media profiles and we are heading towards our goal to reach and help at least three billi billion with a B to reach and help at least three billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond. And if you so choose, we are a 501c3 nonprofit charity. You're able to donate through lovevoices.org, lovevoices.org, lovevoices.org, or you can head on over to the Cash App or Venmo, search for Voices for Voices, and you can donate that way. Here in the United States, all donations are federally 100% tax deductible. So thank you for joining us. Been a pleasure. I'm Justin Alan Hayes. Have a great day, and we'll see you on the next episode of the show. Bye for now, everybody. See you next time.