Child Predators Are Hiding In Plain Sight

Child predators are not always strangers hiding in dark alleys.

According to former Illinois Legislative Investigating Commission Chief Investigator Thomas Hampson, many are people parents already know, trust, and invite into their children’s lives.

In this episode of Melissa Unfiltered, Thomas Hampson shares what he learned during an 8-year investigation into child exploitation, grooming networks, online child predators, social media dangers, public school concerns, parental blind spots, and how child predators operate in plain sight.

This conversation covers:
• How grooming actually works
• Why predators target vulnerable children
• How social media and smartphones increase risk
• Why child predators “groom parents” too
• The dangers of unrestricted internet access for kids
• Public school concerns and parental rights
• How trusted adults gain access to children
• What parents should be paying attention to right now

If you are a parent, grandparent, teacher, homeschool family, or simply someone concerned about protecting children, this is a conversation you need to hear.

Truth Alliance Foundation: https://truthalliancefoundation.org/

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

We're raising kids in a culture that encourages them to grow up faster than ever before, from how they dress to how they present themselves online and even how they interact socially. Today's episode isn't about judgment, it's about awareness. My guest today, Thomas Hampson, a man whose career has taken him deep into some of the most dangerous and hidden corners of society. A man who recognizes that these people we thought were hiding are actually now operating in plain sight and most likely in your child's life. Before we dive in, I'd like to give Mr. Hampson an introduction. Thomas Hampson has been married to his wife for an impressive 51 years, and together they have three grown children. Mr. Hampson is an Air Force veteran who served as an intelligent analyst during the Vietnam War. He has also served as chief investigator for the Illinois Legislative Investigation Commission and is a board member on the Chicago Crime Commission. During his tenure with the Illinois Legislative Investigative Commission, Mr. Hampson directed an eight-year probe into the sexual exploitation of children. The most extensive investigation into the issue ever conducted by a law enforcement agency. He also conducted numerous undercover investigations into organized crime, extremist groups, Medicare and Medicaid fraud rings, and drug manufacturing and distribution operations. At one point, Mr. Hampson infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan, working undercover for almost two years and being the Klan's second highest officer in Illinois. Mr. Hampson founded a private investigation agency that conducted investigations in more than 100 countries and was called by the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee as part of his ongoing investigation into allegations of improper 96 campaign fundraising by the Clinton White House. He was also retained by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services to investigate sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. His work as an investigator prompted him to establish the Truth Alliance Foundation, TAF, and dedicate the rest of his life to protecting children by teaching child-serving organizations how to spot predators and keep them away from our children. He also works to identify, investigate, and investigate predator networks and to gain ongoing insight into the evolving nature of child sexual exploitation and currently writes investigative pieces for the Illinois Family Institute. Today, he's here to help us better understand what's really happening with the intentional grooming of our children and what we should all be paying attention to. When someone with this level of experience says we're missing something, we should probably listen. Welcome, Tom. And I want to say, first of all, thank you so much for your service to our country.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

Everybody wiped out because the bomb is linked.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

To get started, in your eight-year investigation that I mentioned in your bio into the child exploitation, what did you find that completely contradicts what parents think they know?

SPEAKER_02 3:21

Well, one of the things that back then, anyway, people people used to think that uh child predators were loners, that they were they were isolated from others and they should be easy to spot because because if they were if there was somebody that just appeared out of nowhere and they were a little bit strange, you would you would uh keep them away from your child. But what we found during the investigation is not only aren't they loners, but they're they actually develop fairly elaborate networks of like-minded predators because they uh back then and still today they tend to exchange pictures with each other, sell pictures to each other, they exchange children, they give them ideas on on how to recruit children, how better to recruit them. So they have uh um elaborate um uh groups of friends. Uh what this does from an investigative standpoint is if you catch one, generally if you look close enough, you'll find a whole group of them.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

Ugh, absolutely disgusting. Um that you know they make each other feel better about themselves because they find other people doing what they're doing. Right. Um, to go back a little bit, are you able to give us a basic definition of what you grooming is? Because I think we use that word a lot. Um, you hear it in the news, you hear it in the media, it's used online, but in the most basic sense, so my audience can understand what what it is grooming.

SPEAKER_02 4:50

It's very similar to what you would know as seduction, you know, whether in in a in a in an adult relationship or whatever it might be, you uh uh lovers try to seduce each other and and uh develop a relationship that leads into a into a sexual uh sexual activity. With kids, um predators tend to be able tend tend to I uh have the skill of identifying um vulnerable children. That they only go after the ones that that are uh easy targets. They uh they look for a child maybe that's lonely, that is uh isolated, um uh that maybe doesn't have very close parental supervision, they're kind of out on their own. And then they so that's they target those kids and then they um So is that the first step is to target them.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 5:50

They target the vulnerable and then they and then they uh uh befriend them. Okay. They will uh during the course of the friendship they will isolate themselves from other people so that the child gets more and more drawn away from their uh group of friends if they have any. Most of them do not, and then they uh sexualize the relationship. Uh after the relationship is sexualized, they control, they control these kids and um uh uh maintain the relationship through that kind of control, and they also they also begin to introduce the idea that the it's the child's fault, that they blame the child. Because what's happened, the phenomenon with child sexual abuse is that um uh uh one in four girls, one in six boys have been sexually abused sometime during their childhood.

SPEAKER_00 6:51

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 6:51

Sometime between you know until they reach the age of eighteen.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

One in four girls and one in six boys.

SPEAKER_02 6:57

That is basically it's 20% of the population.

SPEAKER_00 7:00

Ugh.

SPEAKER_02 7:01

What uh what most people aren't aware of is that is that uh the vast number of those victims never say anything to anybody. The reason for that is this blame. They they take on themselves the responsibility for being abused, and so they're they're afraid to tell anybody, and then they're also ashamed to tell anybody because if they feel like it was their own fault, they brought this on themselves. People are gonna blame them and they just don't want it to hassle. So they push it away, and and most people live with uh live their whole life with this as a background that they never talk to anybody about.

SPEAKER_00 7:41

So essentially they're looking for a kid who's already lonely, and then they fill that void, so the kid's like, oh, someone's paying attention to me, this is great, and then that's why they blame themselves because they got close to this person because it felt good to have someone paying attention to them, befriending them, telling them they're special.

SPEAKER_02 7:58

Right. Or it may be a child that has a strong desire for something that their parents won't provide or can't provide or whatever. Like one of the one of the cases uh I looked in was uh actually a DCFS CPS worker, child protective service worker, who had um uh a youth baseball team and he attracted boys to the baseball team. It was a it was a winning team, and so everybody all these kids wanted to be on it, and he picked and choose, chose who who could be on it. So he and he uh uh it was that attraction to him that allowed him to begin the the befriending process for all these boys, and then they normalized a sexual uh sexual activity for the whole team.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

Ugh. So in some so in some cases, it's just like they could have been fantastic parents and involved in their kids' life, but the kid didn't feel as much of a connection and felt the connection through baseball.

SPEAKER_02 8:56

Right.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

And that's how that happens.

SPEAKER_02 8:57

So it's not always the not always the totally, totally lonely loner child, it's some child that has a strong desire, and if a predator sees that and and sees that they might be able to meet that need or that desire in the child, then they'll go after them. And the parents, very often the parents are happy about it.

SPEAKER_00 9:16

So my next question was was it easier for someone trusted to get away with than a stranger? And obviously it is because they it's not like you said, some rando walking up the street grabbing your kid and saying, Come here and get in my car.

SPEAKER_02 9:29

Most of the predators will will uh groom the parents as well because they you know they they befriend the parents uh or at least they look at it in a in a friendly way. You know, one of the things that um I coached a baseball team for both of my boys when they were growing up, and one of the things that I I noticed was that um many of the parents, once the kids got a little bit older, didn't want to bring the kids to to practice. Sometimes they didn't even want to bring them to the game, and uh they would call me and say, if you want them there, you're gonna have to come pick them up. And they may not even know me at all. And so I I wound up picking up three or four boys to take them to practice and to the games.

SPEAKER_00 10:10

Uh but had you been a bad person, they're just setting so they're you know, and I think as parents, like, listen, I get it. You can be tired, it can be overwhelming. It's nice to have help. I always say, like, it takes a village, all hands on deck, but you really have to be careful because if that person, you trust them, you think it's good, you still you're the parent, and you need to be protecting your child.

SPEAKER_02 10:33

Well, the thing the thing is that um these predators get into positions where they come in contact with children on a regular basis. So it's through that contact and interaction that they can identify the vulnerable. Uh, and like this guy that uh had the teen boys that would bring them on the team, he knew right away whether or not the parents were gonna be restrictive. He yeah, he he had the boys over to his house sometimes after games, so they would stay overnight and they would they would uh um go into his hot tub, which he had in his living room, naked. And so that's that's and the parents were fine with it. They thought this was just fine. Because it, you know, the boys were out of their out of their house for the night.

SPEAKER_00 11:21

See, we don't allow sleepovers in our house. I don't even care. I just have a no sleepover rule because I don't want someone to think, oh, why why are they allowed to sleep over here and not there? Which like we just don't allow sleepovers, you know, it's just a safe bet. So basically what you're saying is this is not impulsive behavior on these people. This is calculated. Totally. They're planning this out, especially maybe with their networks getting ideas from other people on how to do this and what to do. Um, all right, well, let's talk about our social media culture then. And um I'm sure that leads into it. So, you know, we have kids on social media per presenting themselves as adults, um, many doing so with the approval of their parents. They're encouraging it. Um, trends are pushing them to grow up faster from how they dress, how they act, what they post. And I think a lot of parents, many that I know, believe that it's completely harmless. Um, but not at not everyone's looking at your child the way that you do, and not everyone sees them the way that you do. So when a parent thinks, oh, it's cute and harmless, it's being viewed in a disturbing way, from what I understand by these predators. From your experience, um, the children who present themselves online more adult, are they easier targets? Are they being targeted because they're seeing the parents and the kids presenting this way, or does it?

SPEAKER_02 12:41

Well, I don't know. I don't know, it's the adult uh presenting themselves as as older than they are, maybe that makes them vulnerable.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

They're really or like the little, you know, you see some of the like dance and cheer outfits for like five and six-year-old girls who are, in my opinion, half naked and should not be wearing that.

SPEAKER_02 12:59

They are actually half naked. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:01

And do you think that makes them an easier target because the child already is in that mode of dressing and acting a certain way?

SPEAKER_02 13:10

Well, they've already been sexualized, it's been normalized. That kind of uh um sexual presentation, it does make them more vulnerable, not because that it attracts the the uh predators more, but because the predator sees that the child is already part halfway there.

SPEAKER_01 13:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 13:32

That they can that makes it easier for and the whole the whole sexuation of our culture has made children far more vulnerable because it's normalized sexual activity. Um in in even in teen shows where they show teenagers, uh they meet, and and basically the same day they meet, they're in bed together. You know, it's uh and so or in the backseat of a car, and it's all great. This is it's presented as something that's a wonderful experience, and this is this is what love is, and love is a serial set of relationships. So it's that sexualizing that is has uh permeated through our whole culture that's caused this, um in part that's caused this. But the other thing about the social media though, um that's a that is a um just a nightmare for children. Uh um the uh increase in social media use by kids has caused a significant increase in suicides. Yeah. It causes a massive increase in in sexual exploitation. One of the biggest uh ways that children are being sexually exploited now is with sexting, with uh taking pictures and receiving pictures of uh, you know, their naked body or parts of their naked body and texting them back to each other. These these pictures wind up getting uh picked up by the predators and exchanged all over the world.

SPEAKER_00 15:04

So, you know, it's uh well I even see now they're telling parents that we shouldn't even be posting. I removed my kids from my social media because I was hearing that they can take photos where maybe your child's like laughing, so they have their mouth open or something, and they're wearing a bathing suit because you were at the beach or whatever, and then they're taking it, they're making it using AI, making a nude image, and using it for you know, child pornography content, which is just made me so sick to my stomach. And I was immediately like, I need to protect my kids, and I'm just blown away by the amount of parents who know these facts and are still sharing so much content of their children online. I mean, I know our kids are cute, we want to share what they're doing, but uh to me that's so unimportant compared to protecting them.

SPEAKER_02 15:54

All they need is a picture, yeah, and they can and they can animate that picture and turn it into turn that child into a sexual object uh virtually. All they need is a few seconds of their um of their voice, and they can reconstruct any any uh conversation that even the parents would be fooled by. Um the the whole the whole field is so more dang much more dangerous than it was when we did this investigation uh 40 uh 50 years ago. Yeah. It uh we didn't have it the internet back then. When we uh did uh undercover work, tried to uh smoke out these predators, we did it by putting ads in in um uh classified ads in in porno magazines so that we attract, you know, and then had an exchange that way by mail and also uh you know an uh series of ads, and that's how we wound up identifying them and developing relationships with them undercover and then and then breaking them up.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

Jeez.

SPEAKER_02 17:07

Now it's much more, it's much worse because the internet it it just accelerates.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

I have watched videos where they can get a predator on the hook within seconds. They create a fake profile and within seconds and they're masking themselves as a oh you cheer here, I I cheer over there, you're here. Like they try to act like a friend. Right. And I think um kind of something else I was thinking about this is do you think that there's a disconnect between the way that children are presenting themselves online and what they're actually prepared socially and emotionally to handle?

SPEAKER_02 17:45

Right. Well, sure, because the you know, the adult predators that are on there may be presenting themselves as somebody younger, but the kids they might present themselves as more mature, but they don't necessarily say that they're younger or older. They'll you know might give them the actual age or vary it by one or two years.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

A child's not saying I've sexual, but the way that our society has said, oh, this is okay for a child to behave this way and look this way, and someone else is viewing it as adult and mature, like you said, they're already halfway there. I'm guessing these kids are not, don't have the emotional maturity to handle any of what could be happening to them from presenting this way.

SPEAKER_02 18:25

Right. Well, that's exactly what kids role play being older. They they not don't necessarily say they're older, but they role play as if they are adults. But they cannot think or reason or make judgments the way an adult can. They physically can't do it. Um I'm of the mind that the age of consent, for example, should be at least 21.

SPEAKER_01 18:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:48

Um a person's brain doesn't fully develop until they're 25 years old. And the last part of the brain is the prefrontal lobe of the brain, and that's where your judgment is, that's where your ability to reason is. So if if that part of the brain is not fully developed, they can't make these judgments that require, you know, when you're when you get involved in a in a in a relationship that is um um so powerful as a sexual one, you have to have judgment, good judgment to enter into it, and and it's just not happening.

SPEAKER_00 19:24

Yeah. Well, I mean, what do you think the biggest mistake the parents are making with social media and phones and internet access right now?

SPEAKER_02 19:33

And letting them have uh these phones in the internet without very close supervision.

SPEAKER_00 19:38

Yeah. So, I mean, the way I look at it is we're not sending our kids out into the world. We're literally handing them the world right here, here you go, in their own bedroom, in their own.

SPEAKER_02 19:47

Well, it's the worst part of the world, too. It's the uh um sixty percent of the of uh the the economic activity on on the internet, I uh according to one study, is uh is related to pornography.

SPEAKER_00 20:06

Well, and I was reading that the U.S. is the largest consumer of pornography.

SPEAKER_02 20:11

Yeah, I wouldn't doubt that.

SPEAKER_00 20:13

I saw a map that lit up about uh showed a map of the US and it was lit up of all the spots where child pornography content was being shared. It was everywhere. Like the whole the whole thing lit up. And I'm like, I just I still can't wrap my head around any parent who says, not my kid, here you go, here's your phone, here's Snapchat, here's like well, and and most of that sexual uh the sexual content is being produced by children themselves. Yeah, yeah, because they think, oh, they're sharing it with a friend or a boy that they like and they're not emotionally responsible and mature enough, like you said, to know that's gonna follow them for the rest of their life. It's probably even if it is a even if it is another kid, it's still we don't want that happening. Right. Um, that child could be having been groomed by someone else and leading an you know, bringing a friend in. We saw that in many cases where they one kid's in and they bring other friends in, right? I mean, right. I in my opinion, I I just I don't understand the need for a child to have a cell phone that doesn't have restrictions on it. And at a bare minimum, like take it at nighttime. Right. I mean, why are we allowing kids in their bedrooms on their phones? When I was a kid, we had the dial up internet, so my mom could hear it. Like if I tried to log on and cover the pillow, she'd be like, go to bed. I hear that, I hear that sound. Like there was no getting on the internet. Right. Yeah. And now it's just right there quietly in their room. You have no idea.

SPEAKER_02 21:49

It it's it's um a big mistake for parents to allow this. I I'm I feel like I'm a uh a stodgy old man uh because I I didn't have to deal with deal with this with my kids. But I would never let a child loose with a smartphone.

SPEAKER_00 22:08

Yeah. I completely agree with you. I literally want to bang my head at a wall when I see parents do it. It doesn't make any sense to me. I I kind of view it as lazy parenting. Like it's easy. Listen, I am, some of my friends know, homeschool my kids stressed out. Like it's a lot of work. It is a lot of work. But you as a parent chose to have these children. You chose to be their parent. Right. And you need to put in the work because you only get so many years to set them off on that right track. And when they're out on their own, you can't do anything anymore.

SPEAKER_02 22:40

Well, you don't want the problem is that you don't want your child to be so different from all the other from their friends, you know, and they all of a sudden they look like the weird kid.

SPEAKER_00 22:49

That's fine. I want my kid to be the weird kid. I'm totally okay with it because you see what's happening in the schools. The kids at the schools now are the weird kids. I mean, we got kids meowing and changing genders, and uh it's it's I'm not I'm not worried about it.

SPEAKER_02 23:03

Really, the insanity, this is the result of all this insanity that's been going on now. It's gotten so bad because one of the reasons is that um we're not locking these people up quickly enough.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:23

Um it's it's gotten completely out of hand. Uh and and if you right now they have the ability to track pornography on the that's being transmitted over the internet. They can they can see um uh pornographic material uh uh being transmitted all over. Now the question is why if they know that what's being transmitted, why aren't there more people being arrested for sending and receiving this? And the simple answer is there's just not enough investigators, there's not enough prosecutors, there's not enough judges to handle all these cases. And so uh in order to do something about this problem, parents have to become more actively engaged in keeping their children away from predators. And you wouldn't in order to make the the wilderness safe, you don't go out and kill all the animals in it. You have to teach your child how to stay away from them. And that's exactly what we have to do with predators, is is protect the kids from being there and also to the extent that we can teach them how not to put themselves into a position.

SPEAKER_00 24:38

Well, it's not a one-time conversation. Yes, it's not same thing with talking to your kids about sex, it's not a one-time conversation. You need to be talking to them all the time. Every time my kids go to play with someone, we have the same mom. I know. I don't care. I'm gonna have the same conversations with them every time because then I want it to be more normal in my head that it's not normal if they recognize it. I don't want it to be, oh, I think my mom said this to me that one time, you know. I I need them to really recognize when something's going on and they're alert before they head off to like a day camp or to play at a friend's house.

SPEAKER_02 25:13

When my kids were growing up, uh it it was certainly a lot different, but they was they were always trying to push the time that they could stay out later and later. Yep. And and it got to the point where they're in high school and they wanted to stay out after midnight because all their friends could stay out after midnight. And I told them, they knew better than to ask me because I told them, I said there's only two kinds of people out after midnight criminals and victims. I said, Which one are you?

SPEAKER_00 25:38

My mom said essentially the same thing. She'd always say, Nothing good happens after midnight. She goes, if you can tell me anything good happening after midnight, then maybe I'll think about it. And she was right. So yeah, that's a good thing.

SPEAKER_02 25:50

And so the same thing applies to to these uh to the internet. Yeah, it it seem it is a great technology, it it really has uh tremendous potential for good, but it also is a very dangerous place, even for adults it's dangerous.

SPEAKER_00 26:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:11

Um so you have to people have to learn how to navigate that new new uh area and stay safe, just like the pioneers had to learn how to navigate the wilderness.

SPEAKER_00 26:23

Yep, makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 26:25

It is it's literally an electronic wilderness.

SPEAKER_00 26:27

Yeah, don't just hand your kid the phone, teach like have lots of talks.

SPEAKER_02 26:31

Right.

unknown 26:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:32

All right. Well, let's turn over the conversation to our public school system. I know this is gonna be some people get very defensive, very quick. And listen, I know plenty of good teachers. Even though I homeschool, I'm not trying to say that there isn't a need for our school system. There totally is, but um, there's a lot of debate right now about what kids are being exposed to in schools, and like you're saying, a lot has changed even from when I was in school. Um, and something you told me in our earlier conversation um when we were preparing for this interview, I had no idea I'd never heard of, and maybe some people have, um, but you were telling me about this conference, so I went and looked it up. It's called the National Education Association Convention, formally called NEA Representative Assembly. And according to their information, it's the largest annual gathering of educators and union delegates in the United States, essentially a legislative session for the teachers' union, and it's attended by um thousands of elected delegates, teachers, education staff, representatives from every state, union leadership. And at the convention, they're voting on policies, resolutions, they set the union's priorities and positions. Though they don't decide the curriculum, they do debate education-related issues around curriculum funding, social topics, um, and then they talk about teachers' working conditions, student equity issues, and social and cultural topics. And so what really stood out about this to me is when you told me. Now, were you at this?

SPEAKER_02 28:12

Did you go to this kind of I've been to the National Sex Ed Counter for Two?

SPEAKER_00 28:16

Okay. Well, you were telling me about a brochure, and I'm sure this is one of many.

SPEAKER_02 28:21

I brought a copy of it for you to see.

SPEAKER_00 28:23

Okay, well, I would love to see that. Um, but you were saying how it was geared towards middle school children to talk to them about sex acts and how to perform them. Right. And I was just like, What? Why are they at this convention trying to promote talking to middle school kids about sex acts? Now, I know some people disagree on this. I don't I understand the stance of yeah, it should be the parents talking to the kids about sex, but I do also understand there are areas where kids don't have good parents at home and kids don't have anyone to go to. So I do, I do believe that some form of sexual ed should be taught at some point. Just that's my own belief and perspective. And teaching just abstinence sometimes among those areas where these kids don't have parental guidance is not a like they need to know that they can get pregnant, they need to know what can happen, they need to know what grooming is like. I think we need to focus on that, even from like their own peers, how a boy could coerce a girl into having sex too early. I think those things are important to talk about. But to talk about the acts and how to do them and to make it so that they should be like, this is normal and you should do this. That is not the same thing. And I think there's a very fine line. So, I mean, tell me what were your thoughts.

SPEAKER_02 29:48

Well, we have we have live in a culture where we're far away from the farms. When when we used to be more of a rural um culture, everybody knew what sex was because they saw it on the farm.

SPEAKER_01 30:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:00

Um so kids knew about it. So I understand that they need to know what what it is. Yeah, but this is um the National Sex Ed Standards was created by a group that of uh several organizations that are at the far left side, that they are they're very progressive and they believe that um that children have a right to engage in sexual activity at any age, with and whenever and with whomever they want. At any age.

SPEAKER_01 30:33

That's ridiculous.

SPEAKER_02 30:34

Uh and if they if a if a five-year-old wants to have uh sex with a a 50-year-old, it's that's fine.

SPEAKER_00 30:41

Um this group, those are their beliefs.

SPEAKER_02 30:43

Oh, that's what that's basically the belief. They some of them they have different restraints that they want to put on it, but basically it's the child has a right to decide who they're gonna have sex with. This group created this uh this um uh sex ed standards, and one of the things that relates to the the brochure I told you about is that children in uh starting in sixth grade, sixth, seventh, and eighth grade should be taught about sexual activity, anal sex and oral sex, things like that.

SPEAKER_00 31:17

I know you were telling me this.

SPEAKER_02 31:18

I was like and so that's the standard that has been created. So this material that I told you about was created uh by Planned Parenthood of Toronto to uh as potential curriculum to be used in the sixth to eighth grade levels about these activities that the national sex ed standards say should be taught. And the the uh brochures titled Queer in the Sex Ed, and it lists um several different activities that and I didn't even hear about some of them until I was in my 60s. You know, I didn't know what they were. I read this, reading this stuff says, What the heck is that? Yeah. And um so and and so they go in and it's uh oral, anal, um um what I think there's six of them. Oral anal, uh fisting, rimming, um uh several different things. And for children. For children. For sixth grade to eighth grade.

SPEAKER_00 32:23

I don't even want to know about these things.

SPEAKER_02 32:25

Sixth grade to eighth grade. And so it's um and this it has not only explaining what it is, it explains in detail how children can engage in this safely.

SPEAKER_00 32:39

This is just evil.

SPEAKER_02 32:40

Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_00 32:41

There's nothing else for me to say other than evil.

SPEAKER_02 32:43

But there the na uh at this NEA convention two or three years ago, uh the LGBTQ caucus of uh the NEA was promoting this material as material that could be used in the classroom. Not I'm not saying it's used everywhere.

SPEAKER_00 33:01

Well, this is when you mentioned that I did some digging and I found an article actually from the New York Times about a middle school in Massachusetts, and this is just the first one that popped up. I could have kept digging where there was a survey sent out to students asking them there was a whole list of questions, anyone can go look this up, if they had ever had sexual intercourse, and then went on to describe what it is, and they described in detail what oral sex was, anal sex was, and same thing, um, transgender, not transgender, I'm sorry, um LGBT. I don't even know all of the things, but it had very graphics expanding. I don't even want to say and by federal law, they're supposed to, in schools, when they have any material come out like that, they're supposed to give parents the option to opt out. Now, the school claims they don't know what happened or how it how the parents didn't know. But what really struck me was this dad, he was saying how his 11-year-old daughter was so distraught because they'd never heard of any of this, and she still writes letters to Santa Claus. Like, oh, and they talked about sex toys. They were talking about sex toys, and she like came home like, why I play with my Barbie dolls and and write my letters to Santa. I mean, that's what 11-year-olds should be doing, not any of this. And so, you know, this is already in the schools. It's already in the schools. That was just one I was able to quickly pull just to talk to you about this just happened last year. And for me, even if, even if you have the option as a parent to opt out, when your kids in school and a bunch of kids just sat in the classroom and they're giggling and laughing, they're gonna be talking about this and your kids going to hear about it regardless. I mean, this shouldn't even exist in the school. No, it shouldn't. This should not be an opt-out. This should just be, this is not sex ed. This is like ridiculous. Right.

SPEAKER_02 34:56

None of us, none of us should even know about it, much less uh uh the the children. We uh I I put on a um a seminar with a friend of mine, uh Jack Riggard, called Stolen Innocence, where we go over a lot of these things and the solution, the the uh public school system has become so corrupt, I'm not sure that there's an easy way to Is that the information that you brought, the stolen innocence?

SPEAKER_00 35:23

Yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 35:24

Right, yeah. And it's become so corrupt. I'm not sure that there's much way for the public schools to be corrected, but it's something, certainly something that we should do as a society.

SPEAKER_00 35:34

But is it the federal level who makes these decisions, or is it state and local who makes these decisions? Because I get mixed answers when I try to look it up.

SPEAKER_02 35:43

Well, it's it the the school system is controlled by the state.

SPEAKER_00 35:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 35:48

The federal government controls it to the extent that they can blackmail states to do things that they want or not do things that they don't want using federal money.

SPEAKER_01 35:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 35:58

And so but they don't have real control over it, they just have control over the money. The the thing with this, the the sex education though, is um uh Mahmoud versus Taylor recently has given parents much more control or should give them much more control over what their children are being instructed in the public schools. Uh but they have to exercise that their right in doing that. A lot of they're they're not gonna the schools are not gonna voluntarily start giving them uh pre-notice of all these things that are going on. Parents at this Mahmoud versus Taylor now gives parents the right to go and say, I want to see what you're gonna be teaching my kid next time.

SPEAKER_00 36:41

Or if you miss the email that comes out, it goes to your junk, or you miss the letter that comes home.

SPEAKER_02 36:46

I mean, I how are you not not every state is like this, but Illinois has a you can a parent can go in and look at the material that their children are being taught or have been taught. Under current current Illinois law, they can't go in and say, well, I want to see what uh I want to I want to see the syllabus that the teacher is planning for the next two or three months. Um you can't do that. You can't even get it by FOIA. Mahmoud versus Taylor says now you can't. You can't.

SPEAKER_00 37:17

But are they gonna give it to you?

SPEAKER_02 37:18

Well, right. That you have you might have to sue them, and that's the problem, is that there's not enough uh ability for parents to file an action. Certainly, our attorney general here is not gonna do anything on your behalf to further Mahmoud versus Taylor because I'm sure he's fighting against it. Um but we definitely need more lawyers that are willing to go in and and uh represent parents and in doing this. It just trying to fight this battle through the courts is a losing prospect. Yeah. Parents really need to start getting engaged in in local school boards. They they have to start running for the local school board. Right now, it's the radicals that are running the school boards, and it's the the radicals that have taken over government at every level.

SPEAKER_00 38:09

Well, and they did it quietly because it all just seemed like it happened overnight. Like and then they were the loudest voice, and then there may be less of them, but somehow they're the loudest. And I I think in some of the areas, you know, we used to live in Illinois. Um we're here in Illinois right now, you know, filming this episode. But I found that the area that we lived in was listed as a top area, it's still a top area to be, but the parents it happened overnight and they didn't realize, and now they're getting involved, but they would always just kind of have this attitude, oh, that won't happen in my town because it's such a wonderful place to live. And those are the ones who especially need to be paying attention because they come out of nowhere, and and that's when Well, it's not out of nowhere, it's already going on.

SPEAKER_02 38:54

They just don't know about it. They and you know, look, we have a we have come to the point where we have a Supreme Court justice who can't tell you why she's a woman or what makes her one.

SPEAKER_00 39:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:07

I I this is ridiculous.

SPEAKER_00 39:08

Those are the funny uh well, who was it, Matt Walsh who did that? Did you watch that diagram? What is a woman? I love him.

SPEAKER_02 39:15

I just craziness. I I uh and people get so angry when he's interviewed. People are voting for the people the those that are making up these laws, and I just don't understand it at all.

SPEAKER_00 39:26

I think there's just some things you and I will not understand. It's just evil, right? Yeah, it is. I always look at my husband and I go, they don't have God in their life.

SPEAKER_02 39:34

Yeah, well. A lot of them have God in their life, they think God is on their side.

SPEAKER_00 39:38

Oh, well, we don't talk to the same God.

SPEAKER_02 39:41

I guess not.

SPEAKER_00 39:42

Um, so what are the biggest blind spots that parents have right now, and how are they unintentionally increasing the risk of their child being groomed?

SPEAKER_02 39:52

Well, by by trusting people they shouldn't trust, for one thing. That uh um people have some of the worst discernment possible in in uh in um what makes a good person. Some of the some of the most likable people I've met in my life have been some of the most evil people I've ever encountered.

SPEAKER_00 40:19

Really?

SPEAKER_02 40:20

And so likability doesn't make you good.

SPEAKER_00 40:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:24

Um popularity doesn't make you good. Doing good things doesn't make you good. It's the person's character that makes a person good or bad.

SPEAKER_00 40:34

Well, who are they when no one's watching?

SPEAKER_02 40:36

Right, who are they? And it's not just that, it's who are they even when you're watching. One of the easiest ways you know, the uh narcissism is the very foundation of all predatory behavior.

SPEAKER_00 40:47

And um That's interesting. It is I think a lot of people don't I mean that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 40:55

It should because it's all self-focused, everything is for me. Yeah. Now, not all narcissists are pedophiles, they're not necessarily going after the kids, but they're going after their own interests, not yours. Yeah, and we keep we keep um uh excusing narcissistic behavior on in other people and inviting them into our lives.

SPEAKER_00 41:16

Well, after everything we've discussed about all this, if there's still, and I know there's going to be, parents listening right now who say, that's not my kid, that's not gonna happen to us, what do you what do you have to say to them?

SPEAKER_02 41:29

Well, it may not if they're very much engaged in their life and they're and they're involved with their child and and the child is if they remove the factors that make them vulnerable in their in their in the life, it may not happen to them. But if they think they can just turn the child over and have the coach uh take care of them, uh have the teacher take care of them, have um uh the school, you know, whatever school activity they're involved in, have the the supervisors take care of them, then they're mistaken.

SPEAKER_00 41:59

Well, because kids these days aren't spending a lot of time with their parents. From the minute they wake up, they get they're rushing out the door, they get to school, they go to school, they have after-school activities, then they have sports, they have homework, they're really not spending a lot of time with their parents, and even on the weekend, they're shuffling around here and there. So I think even a parent who's doing all those things could be easily missed because that child's spending more time with these other people than with you.

SPEAKER_02 42:23

Well, not only that, they have no idea what their child is being taught.

SPEAKER_00 42:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:27

Because you you have teachers that are indoctrinating their children into um an ideology that is totally contrary to what the parents believe.

SPEAKER_01 42:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:39

And I'm not talking about, I'm not talking just about politics. I'm I'm referring to fundamental things. Uh they are indoctrinating children as as young as preschool into accepting the idea that you can be born in a male body but still be a woman. Uh-huh. In three and four years old. In my in my um age group, uh 2.6% of the people identified as uh uh as uh LGBT, okay? In this kids in school today, 26% do. No, and how did that happen?

SPEAKER_00 43:20

Well, it's like the same thing in Hollywood. How how is every famous actor's kid all of a sudden trans? Right. And some of them have two? Right, yeah. That's that come on, let's just use some common sense here. That's probably not legitimate. It's because they want to, it's the popular thing in their world to do right now.

SPEAKER_02 43:38

The entertainment, uh, I think it was the president of entertainment for Disney, bragged in that uh in a um um uh what was it? Uh it was some kind of um Zoom video that that that that was leaked, bragged that she her two kids, one of them was transgender and the other one was was pansexual. Well, you know, let's wait a minute. What's wrong with you?

SPEAKER_00 44:04

Yeah, maybe stop letting your kids watch the current television. I go back, my kids the other day, we put on Leave It to Beaver. I was like, this is a good old-fashioned show. Come on. And they actually like it.

SPEAKER_02 44:13

Yeah, well, if they remade it, it wouldn't be that way at all.

SPEAKER_00 44:16

Oh no, it would be terrible. Um, well, Tom, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate talking to someone who shares a similar mission as mine, which is protecting kids. I think that's the most important thing we can do right now. I know um talks about it in the Bible as well. So it's important to both of us, and I know you're a man of God and a Christian as well. And I just I appreciate talking to you and I appreciate the work that you're doing. Um where is somewhere that people can go visit to learn more about the work that you're doing? Do you have a website that you want to share?

SPEAKER_02 44:50

Right, truthalliance foundation.org. The articles I I post on Substack, Thomas Hampson Substack, and then they're also post uh the Illinois Family Institute um publishes uh publishes them as well. And you can go there you look at my author page.

SPEAKER_00 45:08

I have and on the Illinois Family Institute are there other good resources for parents on the internet. Yes, a lot of them.

SPEAKER_02 45:14

There's there's quite a few things. Not just not just mine, and there's uh uh they they've actually published a couple of the some of the articles, combined some of them and put them into uh booklets that are available as well.

SPEAKER_00 45:28

Well, thank you. And I want to say thank you to my audience as well. We are a small but mighty team over here and we're growing very fast. I appreciate all the support that um you guys are giving right now. You can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube. You can listen to this podcast and share it anywhere where podcasts are listened to. Um please leave comments, give us some likes, subscribe to the channel. We really appreciate it, and stay tuned for more episodes of Melissa Unfiltered.

SPEAKER_02 45:57

Melissa Unfiltered is a dilemma group production.